Ultralight dealers buzz over Big Lake

Big Lake residents have some new neighbors this winter who are most noticeable to pilots who hang around the Big Lake Airport, but who have also been noticed by mushers, ice anglers and snowmobilers from time to time. And despite the stereotype of people moving to the Susitna Valley to lead anonymous lives, these guys want to be noticed.

"Every person on that lake is a potential customer," said Robert Georgeson, who co-founded Airborne Alaska with Sepp Castle. Airborne Alaska is an ultralight aircraft dealership. Georgeson and Castle both learned to fly the aircraft and instruct new ultralight pilots in Fairbanks. Georgeson and Castle met when Castle signed up for lessons at the Fairbanks dealership where Georgeson worked.

Castle was raised by a Bush-pilot father, Lynn Castle, who founded Denali Air. The business still operates from a private strip just outside of Alaska's most popular national park.

"I grew up in the back seat of a Super Cub," Castle said.

Castle was working as a carpenter when he ran into the Fairbanks ultralight crowd. He is one of those born-and-raised Alaskans who can tell you what model Cessna that just flew over, and will cite off the top of his head the half dozen or so different planes his father owned and flew. Before flying ultralights, Castle was using remote-control planes to get his airplane fix. But he didn't want to be a Bush pilot.

"If I owned a plane like that one, I'd have to work it in order to afford to keep it," Castle said as he pointed to a Piper Super Cub that shares hangar space with the Airborne Alaska's ultralights.

Georgeson said there are about 200 ultralight owners in Alaska, about 80 of them living in the Fairbanks area. As general aviation aircraft become more expensive, ultralight flying becomes more popular. Ultralights sell for as little as $4,000, with the high-end aircraft about $40,000. And they are cheap to operate. Georgeson claims the models he sells cost just $5 an hour to fly and $3 an hour for maintenance.

Open cockpit would be an understatement if used to describe one of these planes. The pilot sits in a chair on a three-wheeled frame underneath a hang-glider style wing. Pilots fly wearing snowmobile clothing, and the motor sits directly behind them on the frame. The aircraft is steered using weight adjustment, just like a hang-glider, which according to Georgeson and Castle is more intuitive, more fun and generally lot simpler than flying an aircraft with ailerons and a rudder and flaps.

"I really got into it when I was doing the research," Castle said. "The more I learned about it, the more sense it made to me."

Airborne Alaska's customer base isn't just people who find out they can't afford to fly. Just about anyone who spends time and money exploring Alaska's backcountry using three different machines for four seasons is a candidate. Castle says his ultralight replaced a snowmachine, a four-wheeler and a boat. The planes can be outfitted with a fabric cargo bag (two trips for a moose) or an inflatable boat.

"Almost anywhere I go, I fly," Castle said. "If I want to go ice fishing, I'll fly there and in 20 minutes I'll be at a lake where you can't snowmachine to."

Airborne Alaska is more than just a dealership. The partners also teach flying. Their ground school includes radio and air-space rules, and their flight training includes things such as knowing what approach to use at a specific airport.

Like all aircraft, ultralights have special rules from the FAA. For one thing, they are not allowed in controlled airspace around airport control towers. Airborne Alaska's students learn these rules before they purchase a plane, and they learn how to read those shaded maps that most Alaskans see only when they visit a small airport.

Ultralights have an exemption from carrying radios, but Georgeson and Castle both have general aviation experience and insist their students learn to use the radio.

"We not required to, but it's a safety issue," Georgeson said.

Particularly when it comes to using the same airports that general aviation pilots use.

"They are flying a lot more expensive aircraft, and they are moving a lot faster than we are," Georgeson said. He said it's important for ultralight pilots to realize this, and to fly accordingly so they don't spoil the faster airplane's approach.

Knowing how to use the radio lends credibility to the ultralight pilots whenever they meet a general aviation or commercial pilot, whether it's on the ground or in the air.

"The first question they ask is 'Do you guys fly on the radio?' and when we say 'Yes' we earn some respect from the aviation community," Castle said. "Otherwise, to a lot of general aviation pilots we're just like skateboard punks."