CpnCrunch wrote:But even a pathetically maintained certified plane generally doesn't fall out of the sky due to structural failure. At worst the engine might quit because it's being flown for the first time in a year, and the pilot lands in a field.
They have fallen out of the sky for that reason, but its quite a bit more rare of an occurence. Yes, there are certified airplanes out there with poor maintenance, and cheapskates cutting corners. If anything though, I have a lot more confidence in a mistreated Cessna than a mistreated ultralight. From experience, an ultralight is way more likely to be mistreated though and still flown. Mercifully, most mistreated Cessnas are largely in an abandoned state.
iflyforpie wrote:
+1
Personally..... I'd rather fly in or share airspace with someone who is going above and beyond what is required in terms of maintenance and training and even aircraft type (like a brand-new AULA), than a Commercial Operator who is meeting all of the legal requirements on paper, but cutting every corner and is using a less capable aircraft than is required for the job at hand.
I used to think that the newer types of AULAs should be fairly well kept, until I caught a guys a few times replacing parts on theirs with stuff from Canadian tire. It substantially eroded my confidence that even new out of the package AULAs would be treated well. Bizarre behavior, in one case the AULA in question was a brand new Technam, straight from the factory, cost around $110,000 with the BRS installed. I think the owner's logic was that since he spent all that money on a BRS, he didn't have to worry about maintenance as much (I should also say that he had an unhealthy fascination with pulling the chute) And to think in my more foolish youth I flew that thing...
Another (the model escapes me) revealed that, while nice and shiny on the outside, someone had buggered up the coolant resovoir and replaced it with an old hockey waterbottle. Nicely lashed down to the firewall with some chicken wire.
After all, new machines turn into beat up machines, they all once came shiny new from the factory, and sometimes you really have to wonder what happened in between.
Either way, dollars to donuts, put your average ultralight beside your average certified aircraft and 99% of the time that certified machine is going to be the machine I'd pick to fly. Home builts fill the middle ground and tend to spread across the spectrum.
airframe wrote:Every category has cheapskates who will cut every corner they can, rich people who will spare no expense for perfection, and a range of people in-between.
Oddly enough, how much money the owner has seems to be irrelevant. Some rich people want perfection, some seem content to beat the crap out of things. Some poor people feel entitled to fly and get into the air by whatever means, others are really good at caring for things since they can't replace them. With ultralight guys though, you tend to get all the wierdos, rich and poor with skewed senses of priorities. Like the one guy I knew who purchased a $3000 flying helmet, since he felt it was mandatory for his personal safety, but then flew an ultralight that was prone to catching fire and he flew around in a greasy old set of coveralls. Afraid of flipping over and hitting his head, but not about burning to death. And this is after having burned himself badly in his most recent crash at the time when the fuel tank ruptured and got on the hot engine.
Frig, I could go on forever with all the crappy stuff I see happen with this damn infernal contraption side of flying. Sometimes you'd think it was 1908 with the way some of these guys operate.
No thanks.