Rest in peace, Gene (2016). I wish your survivors continued making the BYF & modified Generac firewall forward package. You died too soon, sir. The BYF is a great feat of engineering. At the very least, I wish the BYF plans were available for sale/download.
Excellent choice of background music! Nice. And the ultralight, goodness! What smart engineering features! The curved tube spring, multi-function pedals, efficient 4-stroke, the separated ailerons, weld considerations, all simply wonderful features. Thoughtfully done. My compliments, sir!
What a pleasant video to watch. The amazing thing is you were able to stay so calm while you explained the design points while meanwhile all around you there was an air war in progress.
Brain thank you for the years of support to the Ultralight community. Also a big thank you to the owners, operators and sometimes builders of these interesting aircraft.
I'm 5 years late to this party but that's pretty cool. I'd buy from the guy not only for his Innovation but also for the way it seems to care for his little dog👍. 😁
This was a very interesting and extremely well done interview! Even with all the racket going on all around, we could still clearly hear what Gene was saying and I for one enjoyed this very much.....thank you Brian!
That's an awesome little aircraft! And one can tell the designer was extremely innovative just looking over the machine. Look at that exhaust system he invented, for example. Wild! I have NEVER seen one done so smart. Lil holes drilled into the tubing. I'd imagine he calculated the number needed for proper back-pressures and flow, etc. And it was wayyy quieter than many WITH mufflers - and there was no muffler. Wow! Awesome plane, Mr. Gene Smith.
Flying low needs more guts as there is less reaction time if anything goes wrong. Salute to your Dad for putting the aviation machine to a genuine use. Regards
Beautiful airplane and a great video. Gene, I learned a lot with your very detailed descriptions and explanations as to why you did things the way you did. Very innovative flying machine. Thanks for teaching me about Junker style ailerons.....thank you Gene and Brian
You are welcome. I'm glad you liked these two movies. You can see a lot more of my movies by going to my website. From there you can better jump to where they are on my RU-vid Channel: www.fitzvideo.com/
What a great plane , everything thought out so well but extremely simple , his flight around the pattern showed off the planes performance and his crop dusting skills were breaking thru , Thanks
YOU CAN'T BEAT THE SOUND OF A FOUR STROKE WITH A TWO STROKE ENGINE WINE. Love the short take off and landing.Plus Gene is a really good pilot, looked a little windy that day. nice plane
I'm quite impressed with the aircraft; the engineering explanations are sound. I had a dead stick with a badly designed king post, free wheeling prop craft, and it really put me off. I'd happily fly this design. Great job
nice job. I like the simplistic engineering aspect of the plane and yet it appears to rugged. ease of maintenance is a big plus a too. well thought out.
This is just the video I needed to see. A lightweight aircraft designed and put together by an engineer. By the way Gene.....lots of respect to you as a graduate of the Missouri School of Mines! I had the pleasure of working with a man at White Sands Missile Range who graduated from the MSOM as a Mechanical engineer. He went to school, got a commission in the Army to serve his country then went to work for Raytheon. What is the cost for your lightweight? Where do you get flight lessons? Nice video, interesting interview. Nice to hear some one speak about things like harmonic motion and how it is addressed.
Really? In what way? I understand that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but some things are just ugly...It's disproportionate, has not a single elegant line and is agricultural in it's finish to say the least....I am a lover of all fixed wing aircraft including utility, agricultural and ultralight machines, hek even an inflated ram air parachute has a symmetry and sexiness as a typical aerodynamic structure but this is a rare bird for being so ugly, the old adage "if it looks right it will fly right" took a break on this one. I don't quite get the aesthetic design philosophy here, it's not a case of form following function either, as an aircraft builder and designer myself I recognize several key design characteristics that could have been achieved in a far more aesthetically conventional ways that ultimately would have lead to a better proportioned design and allowed for some elegant touches but to me this machine is the ugliest wing they could find, strapped untidily to a barely symmetrical framework 'fuselage' with a well undersized empennage structure balancing off the dirty nose end with not a single refinement or curvaceous, elegant structure to enhance the aerodynamics and aesthetics, almost certainly the result othe collective efforts of a bunch of engineers with little to no aeronautical aesthetic expertise, look at how stunning to look at most modern aircraft are in design and finish, there is a lot to be said for the importance of the look of an aircraft as opposed to just the soundness of it's structure.
@@wingnutzster Hey when you design the improvements please send them to me as I am interested in comparing notes.. the question is inevitably will the weight be the same or less? Even the lightest cowling is weight added. So anything we add we must take away that much in weight... The starter sure seems big and heavy... but other than that I don;t see a lot .. well of course an engine I designed would be half or less the weight and have twice or three times the thrust/torque... I like the wing spin for easy moving and that may also be a consideration as to length of the fuselage, else may not fit into trailer... also I think I hear him say there is a speed limit on these things? Well then it has to be ugly to keep it slowed down??
Excellent engineering on your Flyer Gene! Congrats to him on his induction into the EAA Ultralight Hall of Fame as well. (Posthumously) Just found your channel Brian, great stuff!
I bet that is the most fun you can have out of bed! WOW. Power up, tail up almost immediately and the mains just float off the runway. Looks like well under 100 feet on take off. It sure does float in ground effect or it appears so while landing. SWEET litle plane!
I just clicked on this randomly, and was pleasantly surprised. At first when I saw the aircraft, and not knowing anything about its type, thought "wow, this looks like something someone threw together out of miscellaneous spare parts." But, dang, after hearing this guy describe all of the engineering nuances that went into it, AND watching him fly it, I was thoroughly impressed.
I'm not a pilot or even close to being one,but I came across this video and Gene's name popped right out at me.In the early 90's I was a backyard mechanic specializing in VW's.I was in need of some spare parts and cars to restore and a friend and supplier of VW parts told me about Gene(Telle Enterprises in Rolla,MO).So I ended up going to Gene's farm.At this time he was working on powering his plane with Volkswagen engines.Long story short I ended up with vehicles and parts.It's been over 20yrs since I met him and Larry and was just thinking of them the other day.Anyway,I don't know if anyone monitors this or not but sure was nice to see that Gene accomplished what he set to do.
Dear Ken, I appreciate the background on Gene. Unfortunately I heard that Gene died last year. The company is still going and you can see more here: culverprops.com/for-sale.htm Later, The Sky Surfer
Great philosophy regarding the tubing structure: The strength is in the geometry.......the welds are only there to keep the tubes from moving around. Neat little plane!
Low speed. Low mass. Low inertia. They all make for a "relatively safe" flying experience. Just remember that when you get any higher than about 10 feet, the human body does poorly contacting the ground at 1 G and above...
awesome guy love it. used to watch a crop duster up here in south Dakota, he would bend the wheat as he dusted with the tires great rapor with the machine. he was unfortionatly killed in a terrible accident, trying to unstick a jammed hanger door,
Thank you so much! This ultra light is special for those who like to fly to wander. For example, see your field of planting soybeans, maize or your beef cattle cut, for agriculture inspections.
Thank you, Sir! If you want to get a better taste of what you describe, check out "The Harper Run" here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Y6z-Omcq4fo.html A flight over The Great Plains of Kansas. Blue Skies & Tailwinds!™ The Sky Surfer
That looks like a blast to fly. Back in the 1980's my ultralight had a Cuyuna 440 2- stroke. It only failed me once in flight out of hundreds of hours flight time and that was due to a bad ignition coil. Easy fix once it was tracked down. It would only fail after it heated up.
A small point, but I think you are talking about the Cuyuna 430. I had a couple and never had any luck. You were obviously better at it than me. Once I bought a Rotax 377 I started having fun. Now I have a Rotax 503DCI on my MXL and it is bullet proof. You can see it and more of my movies from my website: www.fitzvideo.com/ Blue Skies & Tailwinds!™ Brian FitzGerald - The Sky Surfer
I was so sorry to find out last week that Gene had passed away in 2016....It was like losing a good friend. In my opinion he created the perfect airplane...The only one that I truly wanted. I have watched all the videos countless times. I am an old Vietnam helicopter pilot who thought that after all these years that I would finally fly again....Gene was a remarkable man who wanted the common man to have the joy of flying like a bird. YOu should feel blessed to have his DNA in your blood.
Do you offer training at your local field (or have anyone who does) ? I'm looking at doing Sports Pilots license and wish to get an Ultralight after and your aircraft is pulling at me !! I have some PPL training from years ago but didn't finish due to personal issues. Now I'm free of all that and can spend time wherever I like!!
Absolutely beautiful. Would love to fly one. The large prop would make for quieter flying, I hope. I would be looking for longest cruise distance. How many hours on the current frames?
NIce aircraft - I like that full cantilevered wing with the Junker ailerons and that spin for transport. I thought someone else is also doing the wing spin thing as well ?? Cheers, Patrick
+PATRICK MCKOWEN Dear Patrick, I definitely like the way The Flyer gets off the ground in a hurry, too. Many or all of the Kolb Aircraft swing their wings back for travel/storage but they don't do it as one piece. Each wing pivots at the shoulder and folds back. Happy New Year! Blue Skies & Tailwinds!™ The Sky Surfer
Gene was brilliant. So is his son. His son Larry built a hp version of this model that is even more impressive. Wish they still built planes. This ul is probably one of best ever built.
i love you for that UL and I'm working out a deal that will allow me time to work this out. i must get an ultralight and aside from being close to home your plane looks incredible! I'm in. call you soon
I am glad to hear that. Please be aware that this movie is just part of a larger movie called "UFM2". From my website you can go directly to "Ultralight Flying Millennium 2" if you use this link: www.fitzvideo.com/Pages/Launch_Ultralights.htm Blue Skies & Tailwinds!™ Brian FitzGerald
