Steve6443 wrote:
They are now claiming close to 200KTAS at FL140 with the 915iS engine – if it was an EASA LSA, I’d buy one but microlight? Too much hassle.Same thoughts. I’ve seen several VL3 machines now, and they seem really well build, but without LSA approval, it remains a kind of “toy”. I’m also a bit sceptic of their retractable gear, it looks a bit “cheap” when you see how it works in-flight with cameras.
Frans wrote:
Same thoughts. I’ve seen several VL3 machines now, and they seem really well build, but without LSA approval, it remains a kind of “toy”. I’m also a bit sceptic of their retractable gear, it looks a bit “cheap” when you see how it works in-flight with cameras.
I’m not too concerned about the gear, it works and there’s been no reports of failures. The issue for me is solely that as I’m german resident, it would need to be D-Mxxx registered → no autopilot. Having said that, if you look at certain D-Mxxx registered aircraft on tracking websites, there are those whose path through the air resembles George Best after chucking out time whereas others most definitely have an Autopilot fitted because both track and altitude are rock steady.
I’ve asked on other ultralight forums how they cope with the examiners being told to ground any aircraft fitted with an autopilot and fail it, what they do to avoid this consequence but no-one wants to share any info…. I do think it’s absurd though – the LBA banning autopilots on ULs in Germany, even though a significant number of the higher performance machines will have them fitted….
