Jessica Bannister- Pearce discovers the world of ultralights
Aircraft come in all shapes and sizes, and as such it’s often easy to overlook certain types. While I fly a mix of airliners and GA aircraft, the latter consists mostly of Pipers, Beechcraft and the newer Diamond designs. I have never considered looking into the world of the ultralight. Now there are lots of reasons, such as most ultralights being restricted to two passengers, they are relatively slow, lack range and most shamefully, the image of flying what was basically a hang glider with an engine didn’t appeal at all. In short, I rather snobbishly dismissed them as ‘not real planes’. I wanted a good four-seater, airways-ready tourer. It was the aircraft of my dreams, not some silly hybrid. Then the Jabiru landed on my desk, and I’m forced to face my prejudices head-on and maybe, just maybe, learn something new.
