Ultralajt`s World of Flying

Here I wil present you some of my projects that I manage to design, build and test.

They are presented cronologically from the oldest to the newes....

When long ago (in 1979) in my country arrives new sport - HANG GLIDING, I decided to make the Rogallo wing by myself. One group of hang gliding enthusiasts give me a set of tubes and wires and some hints how to do it. I bolt all together and connect the wires. Because Dacron was to expencive and out of reach for me, I made the sail from PVC plastic foil, as I read in the book of Dan Poynter describing beginings of this sport. (Bible for hang gliders at that days..long time ago...). It was glued with ordinary brown packing tape. For the harnes I use a rope attached to the top of A frame. For "more comfort" the rope was wrapped with a cloth. Me and my friend Ivan, who also help me with this project, flew with this kite for about 1 year. We manage to fly over 200m in length and over 5 m in height. It was fun and without any accident. It was interesting, that performance of the kite was changing with temperature, because the sail strech or shrink in different weather...affecting the biloow of the sail.

  This was the frst homemade flyable thing that I build and fy with it.

This was my first homemade hang glider. It was my own design, but it was slightly comparable to LANCER hang glider of that days. I made own harness. I didn use any parachute, because I havent any. Flights that I made with this glider were up to 300m vertical distances. I didnt soar with him, but couple of times I feel that wind over slope gave me some more duration...

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This was my successful attempt to made a powerplant for hang glider similar as N.S. "Minimum". I use a 90 ccm Go Cart engine with 15 HP. The engine had its origin in a motorbike. I carved a wooden propeller and the first one was the right. There were no modification to any part of powerplant. Power unit was attached to my hang glider Hornet 15m2. Hornet was an Austrian origin design. It climb with this powerplant slightly over 1 m/s. The noise level was high due exhaust system with no silencer. The static thrust was 32 kg (70 lbs) measuring with bathroom scale.

After coulple of flights the glider Hornet was sold, and powerplant was put aside until I decided to change it to power unit for paraglider. I sell unit to paraglider pilot then. As I heard, they have a lot of fun with it, both on air, and also on ground. They tryed also riding a sledge on icy lake with this powerplant on the back.

I publish the plans for this powerplant in an aeronautical magazine Aerosvet.

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DOWNLOADS:

LOW RES. PLANS PREVIEW (0,6 MB)

HI RES. PLANS AS PUBLISHED IN AEROMAGAZINE April 1988 (13,8 MB)

MX PARAGLIDER (made in 1988)

When paragliders came in our country, I was amazed with those flying machines that can be carryed around in backpack. Easier than that Hang Gliders. When first "high performance" paragliders apeared, my attention was on famous F1 design. I had a chance to fly with one. It flew much better than other types of that time, but it was unstable, pitch sensitive, and tips like to lose form in turbulent conditions. Pilot was overloaded with look after nervous canopy.. My friend Marko, manufacturer of the paragliders preserved me materials and know how, because my wish was to made paraglider of my own. I strongly modified the F1 model.

SEE A VIDEO CLIP

The modifications were:
- closed outer 3 cells
- tip stabilizator reduced to 1/2 of original and triangular shape
- changed airfoil (P III)
- enlarged tip choord

Results of this modification was:
- verry stable canopy (as it was nailed to the sky)
- less messy wingtips
- slightly lower glide angle

Well, the end result was not a briliant design, but it fly even today. I learn a lot about paragliders in those days building my own design and learning from dear late friend Marko.

This trike was designed in 1989. I made all drawings for composite shell and with my friend Igor we carved out the plug from styrofoam. The foam was reinforced and sanded to final shape. The automotive proffesional painter done al the finish steps and prepare plug for making the molds. The molds were made in proffesional workshop. Our friend , who own a workshop, put all together by mounting all hardware, engine with propeller and Chronos wing. The trike was fast, stable and atractive, but it was not accepted commercially. Some tall pilots complain the narrow leg room and overall comfort for the pasenger as trike was biplace. Well, trike was designed with strong wish for performance rather than comfort...

This was design of a small recreational speed boat, that could be rented in the Sport centers for a Rent. I decided to build two different aperance, but on the same undervater shell. I look at one well known designs of such boat and redesign and tailored it to fit our special demands. The both litle beasts goes fast as hell. It was pure joy to almost fly over the wawes. We made some 15 samples. When war started in our country (ex Yugoslavia) the market for those recreational vehicles close the doors. We were aiming customers on Croatia coast... To avoid to bankrobt, we sell the molds, documentation and know how to the best buyer. End of storry...but it was fun as long it last...

Both designs were made thankfull for my previous involvment in developement of water scooter design T-20. I made a design of upper part of the craft. I was restricted in design because od already made underwater shell, and the way of manufacturing the mold plug from wooden plates.   

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