Historical question from old Ulralight days, and the news report that killer it.

[DennisFetters]

Howdy from China.

Back in the early 1980's, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, there was a TV program by ether 20/20 or 60 Minutes that aired and showed the evils of the Ultralight movement and that they were falling out of the sky like bird s**t. (that was mostly true)

This basically killed the momentum of the early Ultralight movement overnight, putting many companies out of business with everyone asking for their deposits back on aircraft ordered in advance.

Could one of you old codgers please tell me the name of this broadcast, or provide me a link on YouTube????

I need to show these Chinese people what lays ahead for their future if they don't learn from the past.

Thank you for your help. Dennis Fetters

 

[Doug Riley]

Dennis, it was ABC's 20-20, one of the more tabloid-ish of the "60 Minutes" clones.

The show fetaured 20-20's reporter flying a Pterodactyl* ultralight and crashing to his death.

Jack McCornack, designer of the Pterodactyl ('Dac for short), claimed later that the reporter had refused to hitch up his safety belt because it clashed with his clothing on camera. According to Jack, the reporter simply fell out of the aircraft in flight.

This event put a terrible dent in the Part 103 scene. My personal sense (I have no statistics), though, is that the BFI-AFI programs eventually built it back up again. Until Sport Pilot dealt Part 103 a true "kill shot."
________________
* Yes, dinosaurs really did roam the earth back then. Or at least the sky.

 

[Rehan K.Janjua]

Thank You Mr Doug

Yes I remember, but I think it was Ultralight magazine reporter who took on spot training of 2 hours and then was ready for solo flight.

He took off fine but the throttle cable got stuck at full power, he wanted to get back and land so went into a slight dive with full throttle which resulted in excessive speed over VNE collapsing half of the wing, went into a spiral spin and was thrown of the aircraft.

All this was on camera and many others UL crashes too.

My apologies if my memory does not serves me right. 30 so years, defiantly we are historical now.

Regards.
Rehan.

 

[quoj]

It is sad that ultralight aviation has such a stigma attached to it, with autogyros (sadly) at the top of the heap. Even today, I will speak to my fixed-wing pilot friends about my interest in gyrocopters and so many will say, "Ooooh! No! You don't want to mess around with those things! They're dangerous!!"

I will then proceed to earbash them with attempts to set the record straight and explain the reason why there have been so many (apparent) crashes with ultralights.

1) In the 1980s, it was a young industry and was largely experimental. (If NASA had strapped a man onto everything they shot skyward instead of a computer-guided vehicle, there would be a *lot* more people who have died in the name of space travel!)

2) Even until the last decade, many countries disallowed two-seat trainers, meaning that you had to learn the basics in a glider, towed along the ground, and then get into your own amateur-build machine to learn the rest by yourself (plus a word from the instructor when/if you got back down safely!) instead of a guy beside you grabbing the stick out of your hand and averting the disaster that would have ensued had you been alone.

3) Lack of regulation of build quality and education on things such as stability and thrust lines. Add to that the good ol' element of the budding inventor with an idea that "...this might work pretty well! I might just make a modification and try it out!" Many of those guys found out that it would have been better to just stick to the plans... but only when it was too late!

4) Regimentation on training - as the above example of "2 hour crash (no pun intended!) course before solo" illustrated and a lot of Fixed-wing General Aviation pilots who thought that a decent amount of hours in a Cessna 172 meant that a few pieces of aluminium, some doped fabric and a lawnmower engine should be a piece of cake!
In fact, just like FW hours don't translate to Autogyro hours, neither does heavy, high wing-loading light aircraft aircraft that are vastly different to handle than a simple, microlight aircraft.

5) Goverment regulations (in Australia, anyway!) that allowed only a maximum altitude of 500 feet which, given the above points, didn't give the untrained pilot in an experimental, dangerously modified aircraft time to think should something go wrong.

Given that most of these points have been addressed or are being addressed, I see no reason why the stigma should not be lifted, given time and public awareness.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Quoj.

 

[PW_Plack]

ULs will always appeal to folks who prefer to distance themselves from rules and procedures. Many of the rules they seek to avoid exist to improve safety. Expecting ULs to achieve a safety record equivalent to registered aircraft flown by certificated pilots is probably an unreasonable expectation.