I have been flying weight shift trikes since 1998 including a number of years as a part time BFI (Basic Flight Instructor). But in 2009 Fat Albert Airlines instituted Sport Pilot and rescinded BFI exemptions for ultralight training and required us to all upgrade to CFI (Certified Flight Instructor). No problem but as is typical for what government calls "thinking" FAA also declared that if I want to fly my 2 seat trike at all, I had to bring it up to experimental light sport standards, register it and put an N number on it. Once made "experimental", as of 2010 we would NOT be able to use "experimental" trainers we had been using, in my case with no accidents or injuries of any kind. We must by a new Special Light Sport Aircraft to instruct for hire. That would have been an economic disaster of major proportions but I did get my trike registered. I also quickly concluded that the additional expense was no longer justified and my wife's single seat soaring trike was a lot more fun. We no longer had a need for 2 trikes so two seat training trike sold, no more instruction.
Fast forward to 2011 and, as foretold by nearly all of the formerly part time BFIs, FAA found themselves exceedingly short of CFIs with weight shift trike endorsements. Duh! Now they are issuing exemptions to CFIs with experimental light sport weight shift trikes so that there will be enough instructors to keep the whole program alive. See "Law of Unintended Consequences."
Since 2005 I have been a dealer for Verner and JCV Motor, a Czech company that manufactures engines for ultralight and experimental aircraft. I had contacted Belite with an offer to let them test one of the new JCV-360 4-stoke engines only to discover James Wiebe, owner of Belite, already had one mounted on a prototype nose wheel geared airplane he calls the Supertrike. After talking with James about the performance of his Supertrike/JCV-360 James quoted me a price I couldn't afford to pass up. A new fixed wing ultralight with folding wings could be even more portable than the trike. I could fly both fixed wing and weight shift affordably, hmmmmm. For what it is worth, the Belite, including engine will be about half what an SLSA trike would be and I won't have to hire an A&P to maintain it.
I ordered a Belite Supertrike without the engine and had JCV Motor send me a new JCV-360 engine. Most of this aircraft was to be built by Belite. My excuse is that I am still heavily committed to finishing our bus conversion. It is a very good excuse and fully supported by Vicki who wants very much to retire as soon as the bus is finished.
At the time of the Belite order the specs listed it as welded steel but apparently James had already made the switch to aluminum and was well into construction of the first prototype which won best commercial ultralight at Sun-n-fun. Our original intention was to show it at Arlington and when that came and went at Oshkosh.
Around the first of September I received a profuse apology from Mr. Wiebe. The excuse was that he had spent 5 weeks, on and off, filming the Mythbuster "Duct Tape Airplane" sequence and NOT attending to business. Not only that, but my steel trike was now to be aluminum and the aluminum prototype had some flaws that needed correction. One of those flaws was that they could no longer meet Part 103 weight due to a number of additional gussets required to bring the rigidity of the airframe up to what the steel version had been. Perhaps this proves my long held belief that, pound for pound, steel is always stronger than aluminum? In any event, if I would hang in with them, they would install carbon fiber wing spars to get the weight back down, no charge, BUT the carbon fiber tubing would come from Taiwan in 9 weeks.
I seriously considered bagging the whole project. Unfortunately, the folding wings and Part 103 weight compliance are critical to meet my objectives and I just do not have the time to build something myself. So in for a penny, in for a pound. I stuck with them and as I write, the aircraft is in final assembly. Once fully assembled, James will test fly it, disassemble it and install it in the crate that is already at the Belite factory. Clyde the bus went to a diesel shop yesterday so my bus bay is empty and will be cleaned and a temporary paint booth installed by the weekend. With luck, which history suggests I will need in abundance, the new Belite will be in my shop soon.
The engine, a JCV-360 was ordered in late April and arrived in May, right on schedule. I fabricated the motor mount adapter plates and ran the engine on a test stand long enough to be certain it was running correctly. It now sits in a plastic dust cover waiting to be installed.
So here are the photos of the factory Belite build. I will do the painting plus fabricate a motor mount and install the JCV-360. You can scroll down to see the rest of the log.
Builder's Log
June, 2011
The JCV-360 has arrived. I have chosen Berry Mounts from Green Sky for shock absorption and fabricated the brackets shown left from 11/32" 6061 T6 aluminum plate. The motor mount will be 3/8" 4130 steel tubing with an inner diameter that fits 8mm bolts. JCV-360 has three 8mm mount holes in the vertical plane which makes it very adaptable to a firewall mount.
January 12, 2012
Work bay, paint booth, engine and all the mount parts await an airplane. As soon as I know the aircraft is being crated, I will order the paint from Stewart Systems. It is a 2 part polyurethane, water based paint.
If I and my insanely expensive IWATA spray gun can duplicate the excellent videos on the Stewart website, I will have a very pretty airplane.