Head in the clouds
Well-Known Member
I'm trying to work out the chicken or the egg as far as the development of ultralight regulations in the USA happened i.e. why did the Pt103 Regulation get written in the way that it did.
As far as I know the first Ratified legislation permitting unlicenced flying of ultralight aircraft was in Australia, first becoming Law in 1976 (according to Berger-Burr's Ultralight and Microlight Aircraft of the World 2nd Edition 1985/86) and was an exemption to the Air Navigation Regulations in the form of an Air Navigation Order (ANO 95.10). As I understand it this Exemption was written by three people, two of whom were involved in the early development of three axis ultralights and the third was a Dept of Transport man who helped with understanding the complexities of introducing new Bills for consideration and all that.
The ANO was developed around an Empty Weight, MTOW and a maximum wing loading which was designed to keep the flying speeds, and hence potential crash damage, down to levels which were expected to be relatively non-lethal for those involved. Issue 1 of ANO 95.10 protected the non-involved by limiting operations only to flight over private land, not above 300ft above ground level and it was not permitted to cross a public road. Those restrictions were drawn from, and identical to, those imposed on model aircraft operations. The Empty Weight was 115kg (which just happens to be the same as the current and former FAA Pt 103 i.e. 254lbs), the MTOW was 400lbs/182kg and the max wing loading was 4lb/sqft. On average people were a lot lighter in those days ...
An Australian former sailing dinghy manufacturer, Ron Wheeler, was one of those involved in pushing for our ANO 95.10 and immediately it was ratified he is credited with having the world's first production ultralight, the Wheeler Scout, later called the Skycraft Scout. He'd actually been producing them 'on the quiet' for a couple of years before that apparently.
In 1978 I was living in the UK and was flying hanggliders, and then trikes (microlights) a couple of years later. Hanggliders were first fitted with small engines attached to the keel tube in pusher configuration before trikes became a big thing particularly in southern France where I first came across them while on holiday. The UK relatively quickly recognised the need for some form of Regulation to cover these types of powered aircraft and that was put in place in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
What has me a bit perplexed though, is how the Pt103 came to be virtually identical to our ANO 95.10, particularly the Empty Weight bit - I just cannot believe the USA chose to adopt our weight limit so does that mean there was some form of Pt 103 before 1976?
Something we do know is that the earliest 'ultralights' as such came about in the USA. Hovey's Whing Ding would appear to be the first in 1970, just eclipsing the Kolb Flyer but the Ding never went into production, always being plans-built and the Flyer remained a one-of-type for the next ten years or thereabouts. In the late 1970s there were a bunch of single seaters, some foot launched only, (were they operating under then-present hanggliding regulations?) I believe Mauro's Easy Riser was first (is this correct, does anyone know for sure?) and then Mitchell's B10, McCormack's Pteradactyls, Lovejoy's Quicksilvers, Adaska's Rotecs, Hill's Hummer, Newman's Eagles, Chotia's Weedhoppers and so on.
So what regulations were they all flown under in USA, prior to around 1982 which is the earliest I can find mention of Pt103. See above Subpart A-General Source: Docket No. ...... Sept.2, 1982
And - can anyone tell me more about what happened with the two seaters in USA? I've heard a little about some debacle where some manufacturers made them too heavy (fat ultralights?) and the FAA cracked down but I don't understand the details. Why weren't these problems fixed to allow for safe training into single seat ultralights for Pt 103?
Just for general info - noobs who are interested in some of the early ultralights can find info about a lot of them on the virtual ultralight museum site
As far as I know the first Ratified legislation permitting unlicenced flying of ultralight aircraft was in Australia, first becoming Law in 1976 (according to Berger-Burr's Ultralight and Microlight Aircraft of the World 2nd Edition 1985/86) and was an exemption to the Air Navigation Regulations in the form of an Air Navigation Order (ANO 95.10). As I understand it this Exemption was written by three people, two of whom were involved in the early development of three axis ultralights and the third was a Dept of Transport man who helped with understanding the complexities of introducing new Bills for consideration and all that.
The ANO was developed around an Empty Weight, MTOW and a maximum wing loading which was designed to keep the flying speeds, and hence potential crash damage, down to levels which were expected to be relatively non-lethal for those involved. Issue 1 of ANO 95.10 protected the non-involved by limiting operations only to flight over private land, not above 300ft above ground level and it was not permitted to cross a public road. Those restrictions were drawn from, and identical to, those imposed on model aircraft operations. The Empty Weight was 115kg (which just happens to be the same as the current and former FAA Pt 103 i.e. 254lbs), the MTOW was 400lbs/182kg and the max wing loading was 4lb/sqft. On average people were a lot lighter in those days ...
An Australian former sailing dinghy manufacturer, Ron Wheeler, was one of those involved in pushing for our ANO 95.10 and immediately it was ratified he is credited with having the world's first production ultralight, the Wheeler Scout, later called the Skycraft Scout. He'd actually been producing them 'on the quiet' for a couple of years before that apparently.
In 1978 I was living in the UK and was flying hanggliders, and then trikes (microlights) a couple of years later. Hanggliders were first fitted with small engines attached to the keel tube in pusher configuration before trikes became a big thing particularly in southern France where I first came across them while on holiday. The UK relatively quickly recognised the need for some form of Regulation to cover these types of powered aircraft and that was put in place in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
What has me a bit perplexed though, is how the Pt103 came to be virtually identical to our ANO 95.10, particularly the Empty Weight bit - I just cannot believe the USA chose to adopt our weight limit so does that mean there was some form of Pt 103 before 1976?
Something we do know is that the earliest 'ultralights' as such came about in the USA. Hovey's Whing Ding would appear to be the first in 1970, just eclipsing the Kolb Flyer but the Ding never went into production, always being plans-built and the Flyer remained a one-of-type for the next ten years or thereabouts. In the late 1970s there were a bunch of single seaters, some foot launched only, (were they operating under then-present hanggliding regulations?) I believe Mauro's Easy Riser was first (is this correct, does anyone know for sure?) and then Mitchell's B10, McCormack's Pteradactyls, Lovejoy's Quicksilvers, Adaska's Rotecs, Hill's Hummer, Newman's Eagles, Chotia's Weedhoppers and so on.
So what regulations were they all flown under in USA, prior to around 1982 which is the earliest I can find mention of Pt103. See above Subpart A-General Source: Docket No. ...... Sept.2, 1982
And - can anyone tell me more about what happened with the two seaters in USA? I've heard a little about some debacle where some manufacturers made them too heavy (fat ultralights?) and the FAA cracked down but I don't understand the details. Why weren't these problems fixed to allow for safe training into single seat ultralights for Pt 103?
Just for general info - noobs who are interested in some of the early ultralights can find info about a lot of them on the virtual ultralight museum site
