Byline: Cliff Miller Correspondent for The Capital Times
COTTAGE GROVE -- Over the fields and yards of rural Cottage Grove, a buzzing sound floats from somewhere beyond the trees, like a souped-up lawnmower or a very quiet snowmobile.
Here it comes, several hundred feet up, buzzing slowly into open sky past the tree line. It floats, soars, banks, climbs, its pilot taking in the view below.
It's George Ring in one of his two tough little airplanes, the red and yellow single-seat ultralight or the two-seat green Quicksilver light sport aircraft.
'Do you mind if I take her up? I've got the bug,' the 44-year-old carpenter declares. He and a reporter, along with Ring's friend and instructor, George Bindl of Verona, are talking about the two planes outside Ring's steel hangar on a recent fall morning.
Within minutes, Ring has taxied the Quicksilver to the far end of his mother's farm field, run through the pre-flight test flapping the tail, elevator, wing flaps and ailerons, and turned back into the south wind. In less than 250 feet, the wheels leave the ground. By the time he has flown the length of a soccer field the plane is high above the hangar and nearing the minimum flying altitude of 500 feet.
Ring said he got started flying ultralights after flying remote-controlled model planes and helicopters and getting bored with two-dimensional propulsion on the ground. 'When you get bored with everything else, you wind up with one of these,' he said.
Before the planes there were go-carts, dirt bikes, cars and motorcycles. He admits motorcycles scare him.
'If you can fly remote controls, you can fly one of these,' he said.
Bindl said Ring is a natural pilot. Flying in a two-seat training plane like Ring's Quicksilver, Bindl realized Ring wasn't handling the rear-seat controls while Bindl piloted the craft. He was studying how the controls moved and learning from that. He easily went solo, working the controls as he had memorized the techniques by watching.
Ring and Bindl gush when they compare flying ultralights and sport aircraft with bigger, more complex aircraft. Ring was disdainful in comparing one of the most popular makes of private planes to the lighter machines he loves. 'The Cessna,' he said, 'is like a station wagon compared to a Ferrari.'
'I feel sorry for those big guys because they spend all that money and we're out here having all the fun.'
According to the Experimental Aircraft Association magazine, Sport Pilot, a new, ready-to-fly Light Sport Aircraft like the Quicksilver costs $40,000 and up, while standard private planes start around $170,000.
Getting a Sport Pilot certificate may cost $1,500 to $2,500 for instruction, compared with $5,000 to $7,000 for a standard private pilot's license. Flying the simpler, single-seat ultralights is less expensive to learn, and the plane costs up to $12,500 for a new top-of-the-line kit, Bindl said.
Ring said he bought his planes secondhand for much less than the EAA prices. They said they know of used ultralights for sale for around $2,000, with another $1,000 needed for new wing fabric and other work.
Ring and Bindl say flying the lightweights is safer than conventional recreational flying. Bindl, an FAA certified flight instructor, said conventional craft owners and instructors will disagree, but he believes ultralights and light sport aircraft are safer for several reasons:
Light weight means longer safe glide distances if the engine quits, and softer landings. They can land in spaces of less than 400 feet.
They are more nimble because they have a higher power-to-weight ratio.
And Ring's Quicksilver has a rocket-powered parachute capable of landing plane, pilot and passenger safely in an emergency.
Ring's green Quicksilver has a glide ratio of 9:1, meaning that at 500 feet he can glide without power 4,500 feet while finding a landing spot. At 1,000 feet he can glide 9,000 feet, nearly two miles.
The lighter planes have important limitations, however. Without extra equipment and pilot training, they are allowed to fly only in daylight with clear visibility up, down and horizontally and moderate winds. Ring said he can land with a crosswind up to 25 mph.
Ring's Challenger ultralight has a 2-cylinder, 2-cycle, 52 horsepower engine, and his light sport plane a 4-cylinder, 4-cycle, 80 horsepower engine. Both are push-prop designs, meaning the engine is mounted at the balance point in the middle of the plane, and it pushes air backward against the tail. Both engines are built by Bombardier, known for its snowmobiles.
Ring's two-plane hangar sits behind the barn on his mother's farm just east of the Cottage Grove village limits. The next farm over a wooded ridge to the west has been sold to a residential developer and annexed to the village. But Ring isn't worried about an encroaching neighborhood cramping his flying. So long as he follows the rules, everything he does is safe and legal, he said.
When a new neighbor complained to a state aviation official, he was told Ring's use of his mother's field is just as legal as flights from the Blackhawk airfield a mile or so north of the neighbor.
You are taught to avoid flying over populated areas, and except on takeoff and landing, 'Don't fly within 500 feet of anything. That's rule No. 1,' Ring said. These are easy rules to follow with open pasture and marshlands surrounding his hangar and spreading over most of the land to the north, east and south.
Bindl doesn't see Ring giving up flying anytime soon. 'He does it because he loves it, right out of his heart,' Bindl said.
'I've got the bug,' Ring said. 'They call it the ultralight disease.'
CAPTION(S):
HENRY A. KOSHOLLEK/THE CAPITAL TIMES
George Ring shows off one of his ultralight planes outside a hangar at his landing strip near Cottage Grove. He also has a two-seat Quicksilver light sport aircraft.
George Ring sits at the controls of his Quicksilver light sport aircraft.
