Here in Illinois a pilots license isn't needed to fly a true ultralight.. a true ultralight weighs under 254 lbs, has a top speed around 70 mph, and a stall speed of just under 30 mph.
After looking around at a ton of different designs I settled on Minimax. The plans are free, but after buying all the wood, glue, cloth, engine, etc. I'd be in the hole over to $8,000! It would be way cheaper to buy a used on that is rather beat up and rebuild it..
BarnStormers.com is the place to look for old planes. After weeks of searching I came across a Minimax 1100R up in Michigan, about 7 hours north of me, for a fraction of the cost. The planes fuselage was in pretty decent condition, but the wings and about everything else needed rebuilt.. included in the great deal is all the wood, glue, cloth, hardware, engine, prop, and everything I'll need besides paint and a throttle lever!
Last Friday afternoon my dad, brother and I headed on a long road trip, and came back with a sweet project!
Here are some pictures.. sorry the plane is all apart right now, so its tough to get a complete image.
Fuselage..
Other parts..
Since the plans and building manual start with building the fuselage, that is where is started. The next couple pics are with the old cloth pulled off.
The next step is to lean up the fuselage wood and hardware and then get it ready to re-cloth.
