Model Airplane Glider Kits
What you Need to Know When Buying an Ultralight Airplane
Buying an ultralight airplane is like buying a new car. It can be expensive or cheap, it can be great experience or great failure, it can bring you a lot of joy and happiness or unpleasant and dangerous accidents. It’s not like buying a hamburger, so don’t do it when you are hungry.
There are many important decisions that you must take before buying an ultralight aircraft. Of course the price is important, but there are more – what model to be, used or new, fixed or flex wing, where to buy it from and so on. This article will try to give you some basic directions for taking this important step.
Choosing the right type
If you have decided to buy an ultralight airplane you probably have your preferences. The main choice you’ll need to make is either to buy a fixed wing or a flex wing aircraft. The flex wings have a lot of advantages like lower cost, taking less space, being able to take off from an automobile road etc. On the other hand, if you want to have a real airplane with pilot’s cabine, professional devices and all that, and to use it for more than just fun, you’ll have to choose a fixed wing. You can search the Web for my article Flex Wing Vs. Fixed Wing Ultralight Airplanes if you want to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of these two types.
In addition to this, you may want to take a look at the ultralight seaplanes, the gliders or the powered paragliders. You could miss something pretty cool just because you don’t know about it. So, study more about the types of ultralight airplanes before making your choice. You can find a lot of information about them at http://ultralight-airplanes.info.
Used or New?
Isn’t that a dilemma which comes to you each time when you are going to buy something big? Buying a second hand airplane has some advantages, but of course the main is the lower price. An used aircraft can cost 50% or less the price of a similar new one.
On the other hand, you should not buy second hand if you don’t know how to check its quality. You need to ensure that the engine, fuselage and wings are good enough and are not damaged. If you don’t know how to do that, you need either to go with a friend who knows, or just buy a brand new airplane.
The Prices
Talking about prices, what can you expect? Of course, the prices vary a lot and it’s up to you to choose within a lot of models and types depending on your budget. Here are some very basic guidelines, but please note there can be big exceptions:
- A brand new ultralight airplane with fixed wings costs from $20,000 and can go to more than $50,000
- Used fixed wings can be found for $10,000 or even less, but better don’t buy cheaper than $10,000
- The new ultralight trikes (fixed wing airplanes) start from $10,000 and usually go up to $30,000
- You can find used ultralight trike for $5,000 or even less
- A powered paraglider can be built or bought for $2,500 (if you find someone selling such – it’s a rare chance).
As you see, there are opportunities for everyone. Just make sure that what you buy is safe. Your life costs more than any amount of money.
Additional factors to consider
Your safety is the most important and it’s not enough to ensure that your ultralight airplane is not broken. You do need a parachute system. This can add $2,000 to the costs, but can save your life. Sometimes (especially with the trikes or powered paragliders) you need a helmet too.
When buying an ultralight aircraft, you also need to know in what license category it falls for your country. The regulations are different and you need to ensure that you will be able to fly in your area.
Hangaring your airplane also can cost you a lot of money and nerves. If you don’t have a good place on your own or there is no airport hangar close to you, maybe you should think about buying a trike which can stay in your car garage.
Where to search?
Of course the best option is to browse the classified sites on the net. Cost-wise however it would be much better to find a good airplane in your area, because transportation on big distances can be an issue. Check if there are any companies around you which build or resell ultralight aircrafts. Often they will also offer used ones.
If you prefer to search the Web, write “ultralight airplane for sale” in your favourite search engine and you’ll get a lot of classifieds and company sites. If you have decided on the type, make or model, you can narrow your search.
Another good idea is to search for “ultralight airplane kits” – then you will get a whole lot of results, options and prices. But building plane yourself from a kit is an entire different topic which I won’t cover in this article.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure that you spend enough time planning and researching. Your airplane can be your partner for the next 10, 20 or even 50 years. It’s like a marriage except that you could have more than one partners.
About the Author
Bobby Handzhiev manages a website about Used and New Ultralight Airplanes – http://ultralight-airplanes.info
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