Air Travel Flight

There was a time when flying was limited to transporting people to great distances in the shortest time possible. During the late 1980s however, people were looking at the possibility of being able to fly affordably. This resulted to the invention of the ultralight aircraft.

An ultralight aircraft is a lightweight aircraft, as opposed to commercial airplanes. The speed of these aircrafts are also slower than big planes. The term, however, is relative across different countries as the defined weight and speed limits vary from one country to another.

In Europe and in other countries, they are called microlights. Whatever you call them, these aircrafts are significantly less in many aspect when compared to airplanes. They weigh lighter, cost significantly lower, fly at slower speed, use less fuel, can have only one to two passengers and are governed under much relaxed regulations.

One type of ultralight aircraft is a seaplane which have a fixed wing. Seaplanes per se can only take off and land on water. However there is a subclass of seaplanes called amphibious aircraft, or simply amphibians, that can take off and land on both water and runways.

Another type of ultralight aircraft is the hang glider which is a wing made of aluminum alloy and fabric. The pilot straps himself on a harness attached to an airframe, which in turn is attached to the wings. Earlier models of hang gliders were manually flown. However newer versions now have engines that power the aircraft.

One very interesting type of ultralight aircraft is the powered paraglider. These are motors attached to a paraglider wing that the pilot wears in flight. Although it can only have one seat, it is arguably the cheapest type of ultralights. They are a favorite of many hobbyist as anyone, even if you’re not an engineer, can build this type a motorized paraglider.

You can start building your own powered paraglider from a kit or by buying a plan from aviation websites, which is cheaper as you may choose to buy second-hand materials or at auctions. Whatever you prefer, paragliding is the easiest way to own an ultralight aircraft.

When you open up a flight training book to the chapter about how to land an airplane, you’ll be introduced to various and sundry techniques that can help you in attaining your goal. One part might talk about the airplanes pitch attitude, that is, how high above the horizon the nose of the airplane needs to be before touchdown. Another might discuss the importance of having the yoke or control stick further into your body as a signal that the plane is ready to land. Another might be the importance of not being able to see the runway directly over the airplanes nose as an indication that the time for touchdown is near. Finally, the goal might be hearing the stall warning horn at touchdown.

After having provided flight training for years, flown multiple jets and taught students for thousands of hours, I had always felt that something was still left “wanting” where all of these explanations were concerned. Although my students understood the concepts, none seemed to provide them with a reference that they could apply in the midst of their own landing practice.

Then, it struck me. Assuming that you have approached the runway at the correct speed for your given airplane weight, and flared at the correct distance above it, you’ll always have about 10 seconds of kinetic energy to dissipate as the airplane slowly approaches touchdown. This 10 second rule happens to be universal regardless of airplane size, from the littlest airplane to the biggest 747. Believe it!

You now have a ready-made reference that you can utilize too during your own flight training and landing practice. I utilize it silently every time I land a jet.

You’ll never want to let your airplane touch down with a small number like 1 or 2 because:

The kinetic energy is high:
The pitch attitude is low.
The airplanes airspeed is too fast for touchdown

You’ll always want to make sure that your airplane touches down at or after the number 5 and ideally by the number 7 or 8 because:

The kinetic energy is lower.
The airplanes speed is slower.
The pitch attitude is higher( You’re more likely to touchdown on your main gear which is always your goal)

Something to remember here is that you’ll want to avoid ever finding yourself parked, so to speak, at say 10 to 30 feet above the runway, with no trend toward approaching touchdown when you reach the number 10. You only have a finite amount of time with which to get the airplanes main wheels on the ground. Sure, you can utilize the airplanes engine to “buy” you more time, but you don’t want to make that a habit.

By the way, I have never come across any flight training book or manual that talks about it. It really is too bad. It made my job as a flight instructor, and the learning process for my students much easier, quicker and safer.

If you are a student pilot in flight training, consider counting out loud to ten after every flare commences. This will help not only you, but give your instructor a reference with which to see how you apply the correlation between these numbers and the role kinetic energy plays on every airplane landing.

Happy Flying!