nickel_dime wrote: I bet the landings can get interesting.
Especially considering that if you do a wheel landing there is only a rubber flap between your ass or balls and the pavement...I've said it about shifter karts and I'll say it again, I like to always have at least 2 layers of material - at least one being metal - between my ass and the ground if I am sitting in a vehicle.
It's just a scaled up model glider, find a nice airfoil with a low stall speed, carbon main spar with thin light ply rib's, the lightest covering you can find. This has got to be possible for challenge money.
GRA $2012 challenge (GrassRootsAerosport)
Mea, a plastic bubble to sweat in. I'd much rather use a conventional hang glider.
Interesting. But there are lots of nice used gliders, SportPlanes or even regular Cessnas at that price.
I've flown a Weedhopper (see below)......probably the simplest actual powered "plane" (not including powered chutes....which can be neat but tricky). Think of a Weedhopper as a lawn chair with a chainsaw engine. The one I flew had a stall speed well below 20 mph. In a light breeze, it felt like it was just dropping (gently) in a vertical axis only. Roll out was like 10 feet with no brakes.
There are Plenty of Weedhoppers available at Challenge or close-to-Challenge prices.
You can even buy a new, Weedhopper complete kit for $8500.
Landings?? Trip on takeoff?
Looks like the flying position is an extremely uncomfortable scrunched up in a ball position- meh.
$82K?? 
My boss just bought a twin engine Baron for $79,000. Seats 6.
I can think of much more thrilling ways to kill myself.
I used to hang glide in the 80s. At the time ultralights were starting to be popular and the FAA stepped in. What kept hang gliders from coming under the FAA thumb was that they were foot launchable. OK, strap a Briggs on one and it's still foot launchable.
Then craft like the Weedhopper and I remember another one where you actually sat out in front of the wing on some kind of beam, raised FAA interest. It weighs ~200 lbs., a man can lift 200 lbs., so theoretically it could be foot launched.
The USHGA divorced itself from anything with an engine for a while, then I got out of it. I don't know what the resolution was but they seem to be canoodling again.
My brother is looking at a Light Sport license. You fly a plane but can't fly over XXXX altitude, not at night, not in clouds (IFR) but the training and annual recertification is less strict.
Hang gliders are about 20:1 L/D for how much? I just bought a 40:1 for $9k.
There's an ass for every seat.....
Dan
aeronca65t wrote: Interesting. But there are lots of nice used gliders, SportPlanes or even regular Cessnas at that price. I've flown a Weedhopper (see below)......probably the simplest actual powered "plane" (not including powered chutes....which can be neat but tricky). Think of a Weedhopper as a lawn chair with a chainsaw engine. The one I flew had a stall speed well below 20 mph. In a light breeze, it felt like it was just dropping (gently) in a vertical axis only. Roll out was like 10 feet with no brakes. There are Plenty of Weedhoppers available at Challenge or close-to-Challenge prices. You can even buy a new, Weedhopper complete kit for $8500.
That makes the Archaeopteryx seem like a terrible deal. I especially like how this guy used cardboard to improve his yaw stability.
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