Good morning everyone. I know 2 ULF-1 pilots. Actually 3 including Dieter Reich. I spoke on the phone to one of them about the ULF-1, it's flight characteristics, and various things.

One thing that did stick out in my mind was his complaint about the pilots position. On long flights let's just put it that the seat gets very hard. I suppose he was suggesting a more reclined position is better.

I personally really like the looks of the Axel and it keeps with the theme of the carbon dragon with the higher tail boom. Once again if you look at the comparison in the files section it is obvious.

I have noticed one thing with the Axel though. I think the pilot position is almost perfect. But.. the aircraft has a more or less straight leading edge with the outboard section sweeping aft. They claim a pilot weight of up to 210 lbs.

Anybody up for some math. You could calculate the cg of the wing and put a 210 lbs pilot in there. The tail weight would be given to balance. We know the tail area more or less and could calculate the weight per sq ft. Given the rough dimension known we could calculate the weight of the airframe.

I would say their tail is probably about 12 lbs heavier than the CD.

To me without a forward swept wing on their ship I think it is not possible for that aircraft to weigh 55 kg and still fly with a 210 lbs pilot. Unless they have very light wings and a heavy tail.

I don't know. Am I missing something?

Anyhow my vote is on an Axel look with probably forward swept wings.

My Alatus AL-12 weighed 165 lbs and had a forward swept wing. That is a beautiful ship.

Since we are talking about the fuselage I would like to toss one more thing out there.

Should we go with a composite fuselage with molds or perhaps a stick and fabric design which the carbon dragon fuse is more or less except for the tail boom.

I have ULF-1 prints. I have also thought about building an ULF-1 but changing the wood to carbon tubes or graphlite rod and covering with fabric.

Could we build what I am going to call a "Hyper light" airframe using graphlite rods and fabric or carbon tubes and fabric? I see this being the only way to possible still achieving a potentially foot launch able weight or just staying under 155 for FAR 103.

I know it was suggested to forget foot launch able and roll launch only. Which is fine but I do think it would be possible to foot launch with a "hyper light" ship.

Sorry for the book here. Again perhaps a composite pilot pod shell and a truss built fabric covered tail?

OK Kenny you asked.. Anybody else?

Karl

--- In This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., "Kenny" wrote:
>
> I'm sure most of you are familiar with the ULF-1.
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> www.ulf-1.com/
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> Any comments about the pilot position and that approach to the fuselage, or would the preferred position be more life a standard Sailplane-type with the pilots head just in front of the leading edge?
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> If it's the latter, plus factoring the increase in pilot weight, I'm thinking that s slight forward sweep of the wing would be necessary to incorporate that.
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> I'm still in the process of acquiring the software to start doing an DE Model of the ribs, so hopefully that won't be too much longer.
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> The other position might be a bit similar to the Swift, but more forward of course, since the wing is not swept aft.
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> Right now I'm leaning toward sweeping the wing...