Mark Stull
introduces a new version of his Lucky Star, the Lucky Star
RingTail, Light Sport Aircraft Pilot News
newsmagazine.
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Light Sport Aircraft Pilot is a directory of aircraft that generally fit
into what are described as ultralight aircraft, advanced ultralight
aircraft,
light sport aircraft, experimental light sport aircraft, experimental
aircraft, amateur built aircraft, ELSA or homebuilt
aircraft in the United States and Canada. These include
weight shift aircraft, more commonly known as trikes,
powered parachutes, and powered para-gliders.
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Mark Stull
introduces a new version of his Lucky Star, the Lucky Star
Ring Tail
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For the past several years ultralight
aircraft designer and builder Mark Stull has introduced a
new version of his Lucky Star aircraft at Sun N Fun.
His first design featured a little pusher configuration
bi-plane, the next year the plane was a pusher high wing,
and this year he had on display and was flying a high wing
tractor with a ring tail.While the
Ring Tail has no aerodynamic advantages over a conventional
tail, it was a challenge to make work, especially since the
plane was going to be flown as an ultralight and had to be
fit into the 254 lbs. weight category.
The Ring Tail ended up being 5 feet in diameter, with a
universal joint located at 25% of the cord. It then had to
be counterbalanced using two tubes with weights on either
side of the ring. A small hydraulic dampener was added "to
keep the tail's high momentum from swinging beyond intended
yaw deflections." |
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While Mark used the wings from his 2010 Lucky
Star II, the fuselage and tail were scratch built over
several months. Mark reports that it then took another month
or so to work out "some of the problems." His first problem
was that he tried to hinge the control stick from the top,
rather than the bottom, only to find that the operation of
the flight controls this way was "very counter intuitive,"
and after four near crashes he switched back the more
conventional set up.
He then found the "ring tail fluttered".
This nearly ended in Mark scrapping the idea of a ring tail.
But he decided to continue on. To fix the problem he had to
add two tubes to add triangulation to the tail, add two
counter weights, one on each side of the ring, and a
hydraulic dampener. This then added more weight to the tail
of the plane, meaning he now had to move the seat forward to
get the plane back into proper C of G.
Mark reports the plane now flies "great"
can handle "any type of a gusty crosswind" and "climbs out
like crazy." The plane is powered by a 340 Kawasaki free air
engine, using a 3 to 1 belt reduction drive. Mark had to add
an "augmenter tube" to the end of the exhaust to bring the
exhaust fumes out past the rear tire. The Lucky Star III
features a right hand stick, left hand throttle, with a
steerable nose wheel. Cruise comes in at 45 mph, has a climb
rate of well over 400 feet per minute and stalls with flaps
at 27 mph. Fuel consumption is 1.6 gallons per hour. Empty
weight 225 lbs not counting the parachute system.
While Mark has no plans on bringing the plane
out on to the market, or in selling plans, he can be
contacted by email atmstull@wtxs.net |
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Mark Stull
introduces a new version of his Lucky Star, the Lucky Star
Ring Tail |
Lucky Star I |
Lucky Star II |
Lucky Star III |
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