LeSving wrote:
The X-Cub is just silly in Europe when you can have the Carbon Cub UL. The press release doesn’t tell what the empty weight is, but MTOW is 600 kg. 160 turbo HP from the Rotax 916 iS. With one person and some usable amount of fuel, it weighs in at about 500 kg I would guess. The X-Cub will be at least 650 kg in the same configuration.
I think you are right with your assessment when performance and price are the only criteria. However, operational restrictions are a separate matter.
Imagine you are living in Italy, like the OP, or in southern Germany. What would be the natural habitat for an STOL plane in that area? Mountain strips, right? Where would you find them? Italy, France and Switzerland are the only countries in the Alps that have some. Too bad that Switzerland and France have entry restrictions for foreign Ultralights. So the usability of your perfect UL STOL is severely limited in that area despite being the superior plane. That’s why I think it might be worthwhile to reconsider the choice between EASA certified and nationally regulated Ultralights. Which is a shame, by the way…
LeSving wrote:
A light weight Cub with the newest and meanest from Rotax, the 916 iS. The aircraft is purpose made for the European UL market. But it will also be the best STOL performance aircraft they have ever made by far, so it will be very popular also in the US.
I have not checked out the Carbon Cub UL, but it sounds quite similar the the Zlin Norden concepts. How do they compare?
Supersonic wrote:
but it sounds quite similar the the Zlin Norden concepts. How do they compare?
I don’t know, I’m not that interested in Cub clones to be honest. Edgeperfomance is selling Zlin Norden and posts pictures on social media from time to time. It looks a bit sharper in the STOL category than the CC UL, but with that wing, is it even a Cub? Does it handle like a Cub, at all? A Carbon Cub is like a Cub on steroids, but still a Cub. The CC UL is a whole bunch more steroids. The Norden looks like a Cub, but is it?
Supersonic wrote:
Too bad that Switzerland and France have entry restrictions for foreign Ultralights. So the usability of your perfect UL STOL is severely limited in that area despite being the superior plane
In that case, none of these will fit since all the Carbon Cubs (except the UL) require 100LL as far as I know.
@Supersonic I think.you may be over emphasising the difficulties in flying ULMs between Italy and France and vice versa.
Also between France and Germany. The vice versa there is a little more difficult because of the MTOW limit difference.
If you go onto French You Tube and look for Super Guépard you will see a lot of videos of a French pilot flying all over that area with no problem at all.
But the ULM crowd IMO appears to be very pragmatic.
The OP in this case, however, also profits from a SEP PPL (I don’t know whether or no it is EASA) and presumably either a class 1 or class2 medical. French ULMs carry a registration F-Jxxx. For ATC they don’t mention ULM just type and reg and ATC doesn’t need/want/care about delving deeper especially as you are likely going into a small field which very few people know about.
The main problem in crossing borders in ULMs is the language barriers.
Going further afield in a ULM is not a huge problem either. Whilst some might poo poo the achievements of the young lady who went round the world in a Shark, because she undoubtedly had a support team behind her, on French YT you can follow the adventures of a more mature French pilot traversing the world in his “Nynja”. Admittedly it took longer as he was more along the lines of the Terbangs ideas on travel without the IMC/IFR/Night parts.🙂
gallois wrote:
@Supersonic I think.you may be over emphasising the difficulties in flying ULMs between Italy and France and vice versa.
Also between France and Germany. The vice versa there is a little more difficult because of the MTOW limit difference.
If you go onto French You Tube and look for Super Guépard you will see a lot of videos of a French pilot flying all over that area with no problem at all.
But the ULM crowd IMO appears to be very pragmatic.
Obviously, in 99% of the cases no one will ever care if your UL is heavier than 525kg on a small field in France. However, if something goes wrong, the legal repercussions of that “pragmatism” might be servere.
So: will ATC notice when entering France with a 600kg UL? No, it won’t. Will you possibly be checked on a remote field? Probably not. But is it legal? No, it is not!
I personally do fly for fun and my goal is to mitigate any risk involved in that. But YMMV…
Has Italy increased it’s MTOW limit to 600kg? France being 525 MTOW has no problems crossing into Italy or Germany as a ULM. It’s perfectly legal. The advantage of flying a ULM in Northern Italy is that you don’t need a mountain rating to land on mountain strips. The Cub requires you have a mountain rating. I have no skin in this game but the big difference for me is that I can buy a new Super Guépard for under €50,000 including mode S transponder and 8.33 radio. Can I buy a Cub for that?
The figure above is inclusive of tax.
gallois wrote:
Has Italy increased it’s MTOW limit to 600kg?
Yes!
gallois wrote:
France being 525 MTOW has no problems crossing into Italy or Germany as a ULM. It’s perfectly legal.
Well, that’s the French perspective. Vice versa it is not! ;-)
gallois wrote:
The advantage of flying a ULM in Northern Italy is that you don’t need a mountain rating to land on mountain strips.
True. Some training would help nevertheless ;-)
gallois wrote:
I have no skin in this game but the big difference for me is that I can buy a new Super Guépard for under €50,000 including mode S transponder and 8.33 radio. Can I buy a Cub for that?
You can’t. Like I stated above I really think that some of the Ultralight concepts are truly superior to certified options! My point is though, that performance and price alone are not the only factors to consider when making the decision for an aircraft.
I cannot really judge how the Super Guépard compares to other Ultralights or a Cub as the website is in French. It seems that the owners do not have a lot of interest in business outside of France….
As I have written before, the Super Guépard is very basic. Limited instrumentation ie no AI or DI. ASI is in km/ph. Altimeter is I feet🙂 and has got a range of engine instruments. Beringer brakes, steel frame covered in material. Fibre glass engine cowling. Comes in a choice of 3 engines Rotax912UL, Rotax.912S or Jabiru.
Good fun to fly which is what I like most.
I cannot imagine a plane without an AI. If you ever find yourself in IMC, or above cloud, there is a fair chance you will die, which seems really pointless 
And there are so many times when total avoidance of IMC is really dangerous.
Perhaps a Pipistrel Velis Explorer or Club could fit. EASA certified, VFR N even IFR. Rotax, CS prop etc. Good performance, but it’s a small aircraft, and as with all these “grown up” ULs, they have a uninspiring power loading (and often small payload) due to the increased weight, while still having only 100 hp.
There’s nothing stopping you fitting a AI in a Super Guépard. There is space in the panel. At present it’s not causing us any problems because we fly day only VFR.
We tend to avoid flying into cloud.
