Ultralight Planes

16-08-23 00 / episode: 212

Script

"Ultra light planes.

This is kind of a flyer's dream because it's affordable.

These are very, very small airplanes, they're light.

Now, when we say airplane that becomes kind of technical, this whole idea of ultra light planes in some countries, they're called micro lights.

But the basic idea is they're one or two seat flying craft and usually they have a fixed wing, they, they have a normal wing like a normal airplane.

People say fixed wing because they want a contrast with a rotating wing which is a helicopter.

And after that, there's even more distinctions, it gets complex, but let's just stay with a normal airplane with wings and these are very small and very light and cheap.

So you can afford one probably, well, many more people can afford one than people who can afford a regular aircraft.

And uh you can take them off of very, very small runways.

Now, I don't know the regulations on them.

Some countries regulate them.

Some countries don't, but they look really cool.

One of the things that I've heard is that they are a little bit more dangerous than regular aircraft.

It seems like the bigger the plane is the safer it is because the small ones, if a downdraft or a strong wind blows you down, you, you might be in big trouble then.

Whereas big airplanes are more resistant to those kinds of strong winds, they tend to keep on going where they're going rather than getting pushed around.

Ultra light aircraft are a little more dangerous.

But, you know, hey, go flying on a good weather day.

Who wants to fly in the rain anyway? It's yucky.

So if it's a nice sunny day, you can go out flying in your ultra light aircraft and get good views and feel fairly safe because the sudden winds and downdrafts don't usually happen on sunny days.

I'd love to fly one of these things.

How about you?"