RVers Up In The Air Over A Toyhauler

Just two RV sites away from where I'm parked is a toyhauler with the door lowered. Inside is a man enjoying the morning sun and reading a book. Nothing unusual about that except that neatly stored next to the toyhauler are two ultralight aircraft . I say, "Do you carry those aircraft with your toyhauler?" He recounts how when he arrives at his destination the toyhauler door is lowered revealing two disassembled ultralight aircraft. First the “tricycles” are rolled down the ramp. These pieces of metal welded together house the motor, the landing gear (wheels) and the operator seat. Though folded into a neat bundle the 19 and a half feet wings extend through the toyhauler garage and into the kitchen. The wings are unrolled and assembled on top of the tricycle. This all takes about 30 minutes. Gas is added and RVer Art Braa is ready for takeoff. All he needs is a short piece of road or a flat field the equivalent of one city block to take off and land. When airborne his maximum speed is just under 60 miles per hour. He uses a GPS to monitor his ground speed. Under Federal Aviation Regulation 103 Art may only fly during daylight hours. With five gallons of gas Art can stay aloft about two hours. When I asked him what would happen if his motor stopped midair he said, “You become a glider.” In fact Art has become a glider twice in the last few years of ultralight flying. He just glided down to a flat spot and landed safely. When I asked about the motor he said it was a Rotex snowmobile engine. He has two aircraft because one is a two seater and the other a single. “So, how do you fly this thing?” I asked. He told me that some ultralights have a stick and rudder like a regular airplane but his uses a trapeze bar like a hang-glider. When you want to climb you push the bar forward and pull back to go down. He moves the bar to the left to make a right turn and the opposite to turn left. Art was a jet pilot in the Air Force and the ultralight required getting used to because the controls are the opposite on a jet. Art spends his winters in Arizona where the weather is just right for flying. He loads up his ultralights into his KZ 41 foot three axle toyhauler and heads to South Dakota in the summer where he uses his ultralights to work the ranch moving cattle, checking water lines and fences. He says it takes him one hour to do what would otherwise take him five hours to do with a pick-up. He hauls his trailer with a 2000 FLD 20 Freightliner. He says he doesn’t use half the gears when pulling this big trailer and he doesn’t even notice it back there when he’s driving. Heck, if his toyhauler didn’t have an AC unit and a TV antenna on top he could take off and land on the roof. Art says these ultralights cost around $20,000 new. The ultralight and the toyhauler are the perfect match. Powered parachutes also fall into the ultralight classification and can also be easily stored and transported in a toyhauler. The sky's the limit for hobbies that blend with the RV lifestyle so get ready to take off with your hobby and your RV. Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing