FAA Rule 103

[mat777]

My curisoty was piqued when i discovered a "loophole" in the FAA regs permitting untrained people to fly ultralights withing certain time, location and performance parameters:

FAR Part 103 (http://www.ultralighthomepage.com/FAR.part103.html)


My question is, living in the middle of the Cheshire countryside (when not at uni), is there any similar law exemption for UK airspace?

[patowalker]

British Microlight Aircraft Association,Unlicenced flying (http://www.bmaa.org/pwpcontrol.php?pwpID=2602)

[mat777]

thanks very much!!!

when it says "the other air laws"... i presume that means things like airspace?

the thing is, despite living in the middle of the countryside, there is a fairly busy private airfield (not a flying club, just a refuelling strip/overnight halt for x-country pilots) 5 minutes down the road from me so i'm wondering how me lanuching a paramotor from the field next to my house would affect that?
also, i presume i wouldnt be able to fly to my friends house over the small town between us, id have to go around it over the countryside?

[Genghis the Engineer]

At risk of stating the blindingly obvious, lack of regulations does not however exempt you from the laws of physics.

If you're doing an aero-eng degree at Bristol, as your profile suggests, you're developing the skills to design and build an aeroplane. Use them, and extant regulations as advice (BCAR Section S is the most appropriate) to confirm using those skills that what you build will be safe and fit for purpose.

And learn to fly - properly, with a qualified instructor. (Unless you're going foot-launched, this is a UK legal requirement anyhow,either way, at best you'll wreck it, at worst, you'll do the same to yourself, if you don't).

Get it right, and you'll have an enormous amount of fun. There is also a lot of information available to you from BMAA and LAA in the UK, and from EAA and USUA in the USA, also RAAus in Australia. You won't be the first person to do this, but you'll be a member of a very exclusive club.

Read up on people like Bill Brooks, Mike Whittaker, John Hunt and John Edgley - British Engineers who have designed their own aeroplanes over the last 30 years or so - Bill in particular started doing so at about your age. I live in hope that I'll do the same myself one day.

G

[mat777]

thankyou for the advice genghis.

on the basis that a secondhand paramotor rated for a 60-110kg pilot can be bought from ebay for £1400, how much would it cost to build a similar one of satisfactory quality, using something like a trials bike engine, a welder and some ingenuity and some trial and error in the uni CAD department?

also, what exactly are the rules on flying close to villages and civil air traffic corridors? (but at a much lower altitude than said corridors?) - i live about 20 miles from Manchester airport so if the wind is in the right direction then the odd civil comes over on the way to holding/finals, but i presume that at 20 miles out they are still at a few thousand feet?

[Genghis the Engineer]

also, what exactly are the rules on flying close to villages and civil air traffic corridors? (but at a much lower altitude than said corridors?) - i live about 20 miles from Manchester airport so if the wind is in the right direction then the odd civil comes over on the way to holding/finals, but i presume that at 20 miles out they are still at a few thousand feet?

Which is one of the reasons why you need to learn to fly!

But to let you out of your misery - not in controlled airspace without approval (normally via radio contact) from the appopriate air traffic service (and there's a lot of controlled airspace around Manchester, so you'll need a chart), no closer than 500ft to any vehicle, person or structure, and no lower than 1000ft above a built up area, or high enough to glide clear - whichever is higher.

Do you really want to trust your life to something you don't (yet) understand that cost £1400 on eBay, or a flying machine design to "trial and error"? Do it properly!

G

[Dave Gittins]

I absolutely echo what Genghis says. Even the most techically brilliant trainee pilot isn't allowed out on their own without having passed "Air Law" which sets out all the rules and restrictions that keep them and others they meet safe ... in the unlikely event things don't go to plan.

All too often I read accident reports from across the pond that refer to "unlicensed pilots".

Even a few tens of feet up in the air is a most unforgiving place to suddenly find all is not well.

Flying is fantastic fun but has to be approached with appropriate planning and knowledge.

[mat777]

thanks for the advice, looks like some lessons might not go amiss then

i have had a chat with a friend of mine who has access to a cnc workshop, and we reckon that we could potentially build our own, using a s/h 100cc 2 stroke rotax kart engine, with an off the shelf prop, belt and reduction drive, for around £500. he has the machining skills and I reckon I have enough knowledge of aircraft structural design, especially once having had a good look at an existing paramotor.

is this a feasible idea or should i quite while im ahead?

[Genghis the Engineer]

This may help (http://www.bmaa.org/files/til029_1_design_your_own_aeroplane.pdf)

G

[Fitter2]

In a UK pilot supplies shop a couple of years ago a walk in bod asked for 'one of those maps with aeroplane things on'. Assuming (correctly) he meant a Southern England half-mill I sold him one, and asked his interest. He explained he had bought a paramotor for a friend who had given him some basic instruction, and flew it out of his field some way South of Oxford. I asked, out of interest, how high he went and he indicated that the highest his barometric watch had said was about 8,000ft. I pointed out the various restirctions and heights for his education. So if you fly an airliner, and meet a paramotor in the Northern TMA, it could be our customer, in spite of advice.

[mat777]

thanks again Genghis and Fitter

since researching the matter i now have 2 leads to follow and cant decide what to do. On the one hand, I have manged to obtain

these plans (https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B0iqq2iash79ODJlYWQ5MzItNTNlZS00ZWU5LWEyMTItZjE4OGE2Z TY0ZjQz&hl=en&authkey=CKPQqNAN)

to build a paramotor from scratch, saving a lot of time and effort designing the damn thing. however, I am struggling to find a source of 4130 chromoly and t6061 alloy in this country - it only seems to be available in america

on the other hand, I have since uncovered a

picture album (http://picasaweb.google.com/iariap/LaBamba#)

and

explanation (http://tinworm-wings.********.com/2008/09/build-your-own-sub-115kg-aeroplane.html)

detailing how to build a perfectly feasible sub-115kg deregulated aircraft... out of stepladders!!!! I have a friend who is a trainee thruster pilot and knows a thing or two about engineering, and he reckons it would be a brilliant project to occupy a month of the summer holdays, if only we could get some definitive blueprints for the design

are we insane? :}

[fencehopper]

Are you insane?
Not on your nelly mate. Go for it. Do get some instruction tho, but not enough that it takes all the mystery and excitment out of it all.
If you can get away without having to comply with a whole heap of regs and paperwork all the better. Saves a fair bit of money too.
I taught myself to fly here in Oz way back in the seventies and survived, no big deal if you have the right attitude and be a little humble about it.
I worked with another and built and designed our own three axis minimums as we called them back then. Built on the experience until it ended up with certifying the Thruster two seater. This type is basically the same as the one in England. After that all the rules and BS came into play and the whole show is pretty well useless now as far as simple affordable non license flying goes. 'They' want to toss you in the slammer for two years for flying even a non registered PPG without a rating. So if you can get away with doing your own thing without some mug butting in and telling you how to do it then go for it before someone wakes up to the fact you are having to good a time and not paying for it.
Fencehopper

[wsmempson]

Robert Weaver, is that you?

[BackPacker]

are we insane?

Building the thing will be a great project indeed.

But without some serious and proper training, an LAA mentor to sign off on its airworthiness and a few other steps, flying it would be, well, let's say, not the best of ideas.:E

[Genghis the Engineer]

By UK law that aeroplane will still require a registration and noise certificate, and the pilot will require a licence.

By Darwin's law, the designer/builders will involve some proper aeronautical grown-ups, such as may be found within the BMAA and LAA; at that weight range, I'd go to BMAA first (http://www.bmaa.org/files/024_2_technical_team.pdf).

Ladders are lightweight safety critical structures that must comply with some pretty stringent EU regulations, and so are almost certainly an excellent "building block" for making a simple lightweight aeroplane out of.

Again, Darwin's law - have it test flown by somebody who knows about test flying little aeroplanes. There is a reasonable community of people in the UK with these skills (http://www.bmaa.org/files/til023_1_tp_list.pdf). Subsequently, training in a tailwheel Thruster would be pretty appropriate.


So, I'd absolutely say go for it, just make two points:

- Get help from people with significant prior little aeroplane design/build/test experience
- If you are an aero-eng undergrad, see if you can find a way to make this your dissertation project!

I'd give you a hand, looks tremendous fun - the little ladder-built single anyhow; I can't honestly say I know enough about paramotors to trust 'em. Incidentally your second link doesn't work, but the pictures to me look like this is modelled very closely upon the Mignet HM293, which I have flown and enjoyed enormously.

G

[mat777]

thanks for all the help and hints

so let me get this clarified....
a paramotor needs no airworthiness cert, and no pilot licence, and can be flown from anywhere. correct?

what rules govern sub-115kg ultralights then? the basis behind us building one was that we thought that it too did not need a C of A or a qualified pilot to fly it? i have seen pictures of one being built and some aspects dont look particularly certifiable anyway - like using pop-rivets to attatch bits of ladder together (if i did it, id be using aerospace bolts)

[patowalker]

Bolts instead of rivets, eh? Yes, that will help keep the weight below 115kg :confused:

http://www.bmaa.org/files/til045_1_ssdr_handbook.pdf

http://www.lightaircraftassociation.co.uk/engineering/TechnicalLeaflets/Operating%20An%20Aircraft/TL%202.17%20Operating%20Deregulated%20Microlights.pdf

[1800ed]

6061 aluminium is pretty easy to get hold of as is 4130 chromoly steel. Both are pretty standard alloys and widely used for a number of applications :)

[BackPacker]

Worst case scenario you could always order it from Aircraft Spruce or something and have it delivered via surface mail. Should be in time for the summer vacation...

[Genghis the Engineer]

Something like an Avdel blind monobolt looks like a pop-rivet, but is a vastly stronger fastener than the soft alloy pop-rivets that most laymen are familiar with.

Aerospace bolts, or aerospace blind fasteners are as strong as you choose them to be - they all have specific strengths, and weight to match. The thing that used to drive me up the wall when I worked in design was pillocks who loaded bolts on the thread instead of the shank.

G