My longtime friend Anthony and I went up yesterday afternoon in his ultralight experimental Skyboy, out of Camarillo Airport. We were going to fly over Ojai, and got as far as the south foothills below Sulphur Mountain, but the fog and mist were rolling in from the ocean. The biggest concern was other planes seeing us.
We were up about 45 minutes, and despite me getting a little queasy, it was a blast. Back down on the ground, other pilots repeatedly walked by to get a look at the Czech Republic-made aircraft, of which there are less than a handful in California. Good times. Takeoff video and more photos after the jump.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
how high?
how fast?
what kind of fuel?
looks kewl
Around Camarillo Airport we had a ceiling of 300 feet. There’s an ultralight runway just south of the main runway, where you don’t need flight tower clearance if you stay in this one little loop.
When we were going towards Saticoy and Santa Paula, we got clearance from the tower for a NE takeoff. We stayed at 300 feet until we got north/east of the 101, and then we climbed to about 1500 feet.
Airspeed was about 70 MPH, but the gauge was reading closer to 80, so Anthony was going to take his GPS up next time, and compare ground speed to airspeed.
Fuel was regular old gas station fuel. There’s also a very expensive one you can use, but 4.50 a gallon seems cheap for a plane, no?
does anyone know what all of the helicopters are doing hovering over meiners oaks this morning?
okay, I just called the sheriff’s department and they said that the reason for all of the helicopters over M.O. is that there has been a bear siting…run bear run! sorry to interrupt this post…happy flying!
Thanks for looking into this! We were wondering what was going on and the OVN website is useless. Go Ojai Post!
Feel free to use this as an Open Thread: Bear Edition.
Too cool! Can it mow lawns too?
With a crazy enough pilot, I’m sure it could.
Tyler,
How cool is that! Looks like a lot of fun. Too bad you couldn’t get in over Ojai. Maybe another time.
Cheers,
Bert
It looks like a toy!
I can see that your inner boy-child is having a blast!
Glad you landed safely!!
What’s the skyboy’s mpg?
Hmmm… good question. a full tank of gas has roughly a 200 mile range. I would guess it has a 4 or 5 gallon tank.
hey that’s almost as good as a Prius.
What does the Skyboy cost?
Can I fly one with just a driver’s license?
new they are $50-60k. I don’t believe you actually need a pilot’s license, you might just need an ultralight license, but I don’t think you’d really want to go up with someone who doesn’t have a pilot’s license.
Swwweeeet!!!
Just heard the scoop on KEYT. The bear was on Pala which is on the cusp of Miramonte and M.O. The bear was tranq’d and relocated to the LP forest.
THANKS for that update! So good to know they were able to bring the bear back into the forest!
Check out the Breaking News Story and photographs on OjaiValleyNews.com
“At around 7 a.m. Monday, an adult male black bear was spotted making his way through the river bottom in Meiners Oaks. The bear then fled up a tree in the yard of JoAnne Crandall at 547 Pala Drive where Ventura County Sherriff’s deputies and animal control officers stood by until Fish and Game officers arrived. When the bear, frightened by news helicopters flying overhead, moved down the tree from approximately 50 feet up to about 20 feet above the ground Fish and Game Warden Chris Long fired two tranquilizer darts. The first dart failed to stick in the bear’s hide, but when the second hit its mark perfectly, the bear, unfortunately, again climbed high in the tree where the drugs took effect and the animal had a frightening fall to the ground. Luckily, the bear appeared unhurt and after officers allowed local children and onlookers the rare opportunity to get up close to a wild bear — even stroking its course fur. It was taken to the Rose Valley area and released into the wild.”
It does annoy me that the folks in the news helicopters did not have enough sense to stay away from the area. Imagine being trapped in a tree, noisy helicopters flying overhead, humans with unknown intent below.
It says, “the bear appeared unhurt from the fall.” I hope there were no hidden injuries.
Over the years there have been numerous bear sightings in the Riverbottom, including the far end of Oso Road. One came knocking on the house trailer where we lived decades ago. Pala Drive is quite a distance from that end of the Riverbottom. I hope that the bear did not leave family behind and that it survives in Rose Valley.
Tyler- this is a question only a nerd like me is interested in, but I have noticed a few very little things occasionally at this site.
In this thread, in comment #1 the “l” in the word “kewl” is not really visible and in comment #18 the “m” in the word “.com” (in the first line) is missing it’s last downstroke.
I’m on a computer using Vista and Firefox 3.0.1.
Is this something peculiar to me or the site in general?
Thanks
Dear Geekoid – I think you’re peculiar. Sorry I can’t be of more assistance.
I just looked at it with Internet Explorer.
Looks fine.
Must be Firefox
Increasing the font size (by zooming in) also makes the letters fully legible.
OK- enuff tech talk this morning