A Small Airplane Anyone Can Fly - Ultralight Badland Aircraft

Badland Ultralight Aircraft, a very popular choice right now for getting into aviation. But is it truly Part 103 legal? And stick around to the very end as I have a very personal invitation you don't wanna miss. All right, over at the Badland Aircraft booth, we have two aircraft to talk about today. We're gonna start off with the award-winning one. Chris, tell me, what award was won just this week here at Oshkosh on this aircraft? The owner of this plane, Barry Broughton, won the Ultralight Reserve Grand Champion with this plane right here. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. We've come here for a lot of years, and this is our eighth year, actually, and to see one of our clients hold a Lindy in his hand, and it's so gratifying. Well, congratulations to both of you all. Yes, thank you. It's a good-looking aircraft. So we're gonna step into the configuration here. We can see there's an option. It looks like your builder decided to make up his own skis. Yep. Yep, he found these. You're on grass. Yes, yeah, yeah. We got the half-buff tires on these ones. We saved like two pounds of tire shaving the rubber off of these things, so super lightweight, super lightweight. You've had some different tires over the years, but you kind of decided on these because you found a method to the madness to stay within weight. That's it, too. This plane is every ounce of ultralight that we can get into these planes, so we have 0.8 pounds to spare on this plane right here. That's pushing it, and that's exactly what our goal was to keep it legit, stay within the regulation, and have every bit of airplane that we can. He likes to say it's an aircraft that just happens to meet ultralight regulation. There you go. So this is the Badland aircraft. You can build it as a kit yourself, or you can build it at the factory being that it is an ultralight. You can do the whole thing. That's right, yeah. We offer any level of completion that the customer wants, so they can come to the shop, help us finish it up. They can work on it. We can teach them the ins and outs, and it's a great way to order exactly what you want and walk away with what you need. Okay, and you configure yours with the Pellini. What size engine horsepower is it? Yeah, I like this. This is the Pellini 303. These are 39 horsepower, dual ignition, integrated wet clutch reduction. It's just a fantastic option. I've been flying behind Pellinis for 10 years, and they just work. From on the box to in the air, it's three or four hours. Everything's there. I trust them. They're good stuff, really good stuff. Now, your design here makes it very easy to own because it's trailerable, correct? Yes, yeah, so with the folding wings, every one of our planes has folding wings. We'll fit in an eight and a half by 20 trailer. We have this Veno's 24 foot here with full living quarters. We're a family of seven, and we sleep in there, not with the plane, but pull the plane out, and we fit right in there. Let's walk over to the tricycle gears. I see you've already had the wings swung over there. Yeah, yeah, we got one wing. How long does that process take? Oh man, two minutes. Two minutes, bolt in. Yep, takes you longer to undo all the ratchet straps. Show the mechanics of how that is. Yeah, so it's pretty easy. You finger tight this out right here. Everything pivots on the rear spar, so when this rolls forward, this leading edge spar comes up to this front carry through, and then you connect your flapper on controls, and you're flying. It takes longer for the engine to warm up than it does for the wings to go into place. Nice, now this addition here is something you came up with later, but you've got your own tricycle gear now. Yes, yes, this is our first trike, and I tell you what, I'm a tail dragger guy to the core. I fly a Luscombe, and all my planes were tail draggers, and, but this thing is so easy. It just, it maneuvers easy with the little dolly that we built for it. I load it in the trailer, load it out of the trailer all by myself. Like, not even a struggle at all. Once all three of your mains are on the ground when you're flying, you're done. It's like, you know, with this, what do they say when you, in a tail dragger, you fly it all the way to the hanger, right? That's because you're on it, where this thing, it's just, because your weight is in front of the center of gravity versus a tail dragger where your weight's behind the center of gravity. It's a different story. So do you think this is going to be your new bestseller, having a tricycle gear, because some people just don't know tail wheels? Yeah, it could be. Yep, that could be. A lot of people are intimidated with tail wheels, and I try to talk them out of it, but, you know, people want what they want, and I'm not the person to make them think anything. So if this is what they're going to fly, then I'm all for it. Okay. Let's talk about some of the options, Chris, that you offer with this, because there's a basic kit, and then you've got some lightweight options, and that kind of stuff. Yeah, wing ribs are the biggest way to save money. So our stock configuration has wood wing ribs, birch ply, and spruce cap strips, and then we offer a carbon fiber wing set. So we make our own carbon fiber sheets in-house, foam core, four ply, and then we just route out the ribs, just like we do on the wood. And carbon fiber cap strips, that saves like four and a half pounds. So that's huge. That's huge. In a world of 254 or 278 with the parachute, that's a massive, massive savings. And believe it or not, with the nose wheel transformation, it's only a couple pounds difference. So yeah, two and a quarter pound difference. So on these, then you just scrape all the tread off the tires, and you're good to go for the weight. These are our full buffs, and we save close to six pounds, three pounds a tire, like 2.8 pounds a tire with these things. You'd never imagine that much rubber on these things. So this is our upgraded tire. Normally, these are our new main wheels. That's a standard main wheel there. And you just mentioned before about a chute. You do have an option I see here. Yeah. Comelli Rescue Chutes. These guys are great. Nitrogen charged, whole plane rescue chute. You have a minimum 300 foot altitude deployment. So that's pretty low. That's pretty low. And that's where we live our life. I feel like ultralights, and a lot of my customers are 500 feet and under AGL. That's where the fun's at. You can see, you can have fun. So we know that you stay legal with this. What is probably the biggest pilot that could comfortably fly one of these? Dynon Avionics at dynon.com. Offering everything from state-of-the-art glass cockpit options, to advanced control modules that power and control your entire aircraft. Gradia Aero Group at gradia.aero. Proudly representing these best-in-class brands for experimental general aviation. Sherwings, BD Aviation, and MWFly. Stewart Systems, manufacturer of non-hazardous waterborne products for covering and painting aircraft. Offering in-depth workshops, teaching you how to DIY fabric and paint. Find them online at stewartsystems.aero. Wicks Aircraft Supply, providing all the things for you to build, restore, and maintain your aircraft. Find them online at wicksaircraft.com and on YouTube for all your aviation supplies. And starting right now, use code EAC10 during checkout to get 10% off. Find links in the description below that will direct you to special offers. Visit us online at experimentalaircraftchannel.com for all things DIY aviation. And consider supporting us on our Patreon page to help us bring you more original aviation content. What is probably the biggest pilot that can comfortably fly one of these? So useful load typically is around 296 pounds, just under 300 pounds. So max pilot recommended weight is 270. Okay, so if you can fit into it, you can probably fly it. Basically, and biggest thing I get are the tall guys. You know, these guys that come in, they're like 6'3", 6'4", and they think they're too tall. Well, they're really not. I fly more comfortably with a two inch pad, like a booster seat, if you will, for lack of better term. You know, I like to be a little bit closer, but one of my test pilots is my cousin. He's 6'4", 245. No problem whatsoever. Barry, the owner of that tail dragger we were just looking at, he's 6'3". He's a tall guy. Yeah, he's got a size 15 shoe, like, and he wears a helmet. So it's a lot bigger than guys realize. Yeah, head space. I'm 5'8", so when I'm in there, even with my helmet, I have three fingers, four fingers above my head. You mean your head can actually fit into a helmet? Yeah, thanks, Brian. Thanks. So where do these typically have been sold to? Like, just everywhere? Oh, man, all over the place. Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, couple in California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York. I mean, it's, yeah. About how many are flying that you've built? I've built 11 that are flying. Okay. And customer built, there's six or seven that are flying. So you're growing your fleet? Yes, yes. Yeah, one of these days, we're gonna have an all Badland fly-in. That would be fun. Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the options for the kit versus you building it and the price point. So if I wanted to order a basic kit, what does that start at, include, and if I wanted you to turnkey everything? So base price is about $16,000 or $17,000, and that's firewall back and no fabric. There's so many fabric choices out there between Oratex and Polyfiber and Stewart Systems and Superflight. It's just, I noticed, guys, everybody's got their own preference, and I don't wanna lock somebody in on something in a kit. I'd like them to come up with what they like so they end up with exactly what they want and it's their mission ready. That's the key. So base kit, you're about 400 hours, and that is based off of customers building their planes to flying. So it's a really conservative number. We at the shop, three of us can build in under 200 hours, but it's different. We have a lot of experience and whatever. So if guys have experience with, they've built RVs or Zenith or whatever it be, it's 400 hours is a pretty conservative number. So then we offer a quick build where we build the wings and flapperons, and our jigs are, the tooling is just amazing. It makes our life really easy. So that F2 quick build is our number one best-selling kit. Everybody goes for that. The value is there. The quality, I mean, we got the experience. You get into the air faster. Yep, and then the F3s are almost ready to fly. People are intimidated by fabric, and they've never done it. It's the final look, and I understand their hesitation to wanna do that. So our almost ready to fly is about an 80-hour build for a customer. Everything is covered. You're basically just bolting on your landing gear. You're doing some control surface things, assembly, zero fabrication at all. It's really just simple assembly, and that's where it's at. And then, of course, the ready to fly. And show up, jump in it, and go. Okay, now, you and I have seen each other here for the past many, many years at Oshkosh, and I hear you might be attending a new event coming up soon. Yeah, so I missed it last year, the inaugural, and shame on me, right? But the Hodges Field Fly-In in Georgia, in Americus, Georgia, is that the nearest city to it? Yeah, so this is the ultralight event to go to. I feel bad for missing it. Every time I see or read a story or hear a story about how it was or what happened, I kind of feel that FOMO, that fear of missing out. Like, it kicks back in, and that regret punches me in the face. So, yes, we're gonna be there, and we're gonna be a big part of it. We wanna show up and represent and support and just, ultralights are growing, Brian. This is, like, we're at the, we've been at the dawn. You and I both kind of showed up in this at the same time, and like, just to watch it and be a part of it and be here, like, I got legitimate goosebumps. Maybe you can zoom in on that, but. So, the show is a few months away. It's in October, first week of October. You are in Minnesota, that's in Georgia. Yeah. If you're interested in a kit, maybe you could bring one down and deliver one to somebody in the Southeast. That would be, that would be nice. Yeah. So, we're gonna get in touch with you to order a kit, and maybe you'll even work out a deal for delivery. Bestplacebadlineaircraft.com. You got the customer contact info on there. You can call me, email me, write a letter, send a pigeon, call Brian. Brian will call me. However you wanna get ahold of me, let's, we're here for you. So, this is your call to action, everybody. If you have any interest whatsoever, if you have a passion for ultralight aircraft, you need to be at the Hodges Ultralight Fly-In. It is in Andersonville, Georgia. We're just outside of Americus, Georgia. The first week, first weekend of October. October one, two, three. You don't wanna miss it. Quick shout out to our patrons over on Patreon and our co-pilot status, Zach Newsome, Mike Babcock, Lynn Gardner, Gary Martin, Michael Smith, and Steph Sabo. Thanks for watching this episode of the Experimental Aircraft Challenge. 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