Ultralights – There’s a time and a Place

I like ultralights – flew one in Australia. But there is a time and a place regarding safety.

My late husband, General Chuck Yeager’s last active duty assignment was as Director of Safety. He saved millions of lives.

APPEAL DEMOCRAT NEWSPAPER March 24, 2022 EXCERPT and photo:

Victoria Yeager, widow of legendary pilot Chuck Yeager, told supervisors Tuesday of two encounters that she had with powered parachute pilots.

“I was on final … and an ultra-light was going right across.

I didn’t have many options. I couldn’t turn fast enough out of the way, so I had to duck down and hope that he didn’t duck down and hope that he didn’t do anything but just go straight across,” Yeager said. “Now already he’s doing something stupid, so I don’t know if he’s capable of doing anything more stupid and putting me in more danger. I ducked down and I got down low and I had to float, thank goodness the airport is wide and long. I floated for a long time because I was at too much speed and ultimately landed. Still got a little PTSD from that.

“Another incident was where the ultra-light pilot was thumbing his nose at the airport manager and taxiing up and down the taxiway. Now I wanted to go and take off on 3-2 north, because that’s where the winds were favoring. But that ultra-light went past me towards that area, so I went the other direction. And as I’m taxiing, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh my goodness, he’s being belligerent, I wonder how much more belligerent he’s going to be and follow me and think it’s funny.’ So I did a little zig-zag to make sure he was still down there. So I took off downwind with the wind behind me which is not a good way to be. Better if you’re heading into the wind to take off.…

If you allow the ultra-lights to be there, it will be very very dangerous and very expensive.

However, if you continue to disallow them, you’ll be known as one of the safest places to fly and that’s I think where you want to be.”

c. GCYI & Appeal Democrat