Lands At Nation's Fourth-Highest Airport For High-Altitude Testing

The Belite Chipper was at Angel Fire, NM last Saturday, September 2. Belite owner James Wiebe flew the airplane nonstop one way (960 miles or 830 nm) round trip from Wichita, KS to Angel Fire, performed flight tests, then returned to Marion, KS before the sunset.

Angel Fire, NM is the 4th highest airport in the U.S. at 8,322 feet. Density altitude was 10,400 feet. Chipper's takeoff roll was 600 feet, according to Wiebe. Climbout was greater than 200 fpm.

Wiebe reports that everything in the pattern was normal, but it did take longer to climb. Airplane test weight was 950 pounds. It as powered by a normally aspirated Rotax 80HP, developing 52HP at this altitude.

"I think that the future of experimental aircraft will feature CAD technologies and production technologies which did not exist until recently," Wiebe said. "Production techniques which are labor intensive add cost and time to aircraft projects. Our vision was to provide a complete kit which can easily be built by an individual in their garage, without special tools, and with state of the art strength and build methodologies."

The airplane will be on display at the Midwest LSA Expo, Mt. Vernon Outland Airport, Mt. Vernon IL this weekend, and then November 2-4 at the DeLand Sport Aviation Showcase, DeLand Municipal Airport, Deland, FL.

(Image provided with Belite news release)

FMI: www.beliteaircraft.com