If You Want To Fly A Single Place Airplane Without The Requirement To Have It Certified, You’re A Lot Better Off In The UK

If you want to fly a powered aircraft that does not have to meet FAA certification in the US, the only way you can do it is to operate it as a single place ultralight under FAR 103. As a matter of fact, in FAR 103 they don’t even call it an airplane; they call it a “vehicle.”

Unfortunately, the restrictions applied to the US ultralight make it pretty hard to comply with the regulations. The maximum empty weight is only allowed to be 254 pounds with a few extra pounds available for floats or an airplane mounted parachute. You also have to deal with the required stall speed not to exceed 24 knots, a max speed of 55 knots, and a fuel supply limited to 5 gallons. Wasn’t there a time when it was a good idea to have a wide range between stall speed and maximum speed?

It looks like rules in the United Kingdom are aimed a little more towards, “less hassle and more fun.” Their CAA (about like our FAA except with a polite British accent) has recently changed rules to allow an uncertified single place airplane to actually have some performance capabilities.

Like our ultralight, the microlight regulations do restrict the airplane to being single place but the weight limit is based on maximum gross weight, not empty weight, and it’s a whopping 300 kilograms (that’s about 661 pounds for those of you that are metrically challenged). Their microlight regulations also allow a few extra pounds for a parachute or floats. The microlight rules for maximum stall speed is 35 knots and no fuel restriction or max speed is listed. (Doesn’t it seem odd that the British use kilograms for weight but the purchase price is measured in pounds?)

Next time you’re in the mood for some changes to our aviation regulations, hand a copy of this information to your friendly FAA representative and see how far you get.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.caa.co.uk