Sky, Wind, Airplane, and Me…

The plane body and wing size of 6-10m, height of 1.5-2m, size of a tricycle wheel for the landing gear, fuel capacity of 38 liter gallon, 3-5 different kinds of meters, such as altimeter, speedometer, etc.

Ultralight airplane, which looks a lot like toy, is a ‘ultra-slim aircraft’ that flies around the 40-50 story apartment buildings. Although there are many strange looking ultralight airplanes in abroad, such as a plane that has tail on the front, or a plane that has three-floor wings, only ‘traditional model’ can be registered in Korea.

It is estimated that there are total 200 ultralight aircrafts of 20 different kinds brought from the U.S. and Australia.

Although anybody can fly the ultralight airplane because the system is easy to handle, it is most important to keep the ‘safety regulation’. Flight trainer Chung Tae-Chung (representative of Songdo Air Club) is the first person who organized the ultralight airplane club in 1989. Since then, he has trained the hundreds of club members. Chung regards the ‘humbleness’ as the most important virtue of pilot. Chung said, ‘If one can control the operating gear and the accelerator, it is easy to fly over the sky. However, one has to always closely observe the natural phenomena, such as the direction of the wind, the speed of the wind, and fog. When one shows off his or her flying skill, that can lead to the unexpected accident’.

Although Chung has the flight record of 4000 hours, he stops flying no matter what if the weather situation is not accommodating; strong wind (10m/min), fog, or sloppy runway due to the snow or rain.

In order to fly the ultralight airplane by oneself, a designated period of training is essential. It is also desirable to do individual or group purchase of the plane (20-70 million won). It is possible to rent the plane with the hour rate.

50 flight membership clubs offer the flight training. It costs around 2 million won until one achieves the flight license. The general public with no training can do the ‘experiential flight’ for 15-60 minutes (30,000 – 100,000 won).

Park Hee-Jae min07@donga.com