Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Back into ultralight flying.... in a Skylane!

Just for the fun of it, yesterday, I renewed my (German) ultralight license. For that, I needed to fly one hour, in an ultralight, with an instructor. This was combined with getting to know an ultralight that I always wanted to try out, the Airlony Skylane.

As you can see, it looks very much like a Cessna 150, with some elements of the 182 (Skylane) mixed in, like the vertical stabilizer and the more or less square-shaped rear window. It is thus quite attractive for previous “spam-can” pilots. I would agree that, at least among the high wing models, it is the nicest looking ultralight out there. As is unusual for ultralights, it also has a yoke, not a stick, thus making it even more attractive for many pilots. While I am not strictly averse to sticks (at least not in very light, “sports-style” aircraft), I quite liked the yoke.

It’s also reasonably fast. 200km/h at a very modest power setting (maybe about 17 litres per hour) in this 100hp version.
And: it is one of the lightest ultralights around. This one is about 280kgs, so one can fly with two average men (albeit with little fuel) and still be not above 472.5 kgs.

Still, the Airlony Skylane is not a huge sales success either. In fact, it does have a few quirks, as I noticed immediately. However, after just one flight, I am not in a position to judge any further yet.

Anyway, looking forward to (a little) more ultralight flying in the future.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

During my (very long) training I took some lessons in one. I remember finding it much more difficult than the Rans S6 Coyote I had been flying up till then – in fact so difficult that I left that place for another where the Coyote was still in use, and finally got my license there.

The hardest was bleeding off the airspeed just in time before landing, approach speed had to be spot on.

PS much later I tried a VL3 which showed the exact same difficulty to an even worse degree. Only to be expected, of course.

Last Edited by at 08 Oct 09:25
EBZH Kiewit, Belgium
2 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top