Here’s the story of a dream— a dream that has come true for Ted Mayfield. It’s a dream that could come true for you, too.

Ted is one of those veteran pilots with decades of aviation experience. Having lost his medical certification and sceptical of open ultralights, he thought his flying days were over... until the Hiperlight high hit him and he began to dream again.

It all started when Ted rode along with a friend searching for parts to rebuild a damaged Hiperlight. They visited the Sorrell brothers, who had originally designed and marketed the aircraft as one of a long line of outstanding stagger-wing biplanes. What he found opened his veteran aviator’s eyes to some heart-thumping possibilities.

Enclosed cockpit, a surprisingly wide range of performance, strong structure, long distance flying capability as well as portability and many other features had him doing double-takes at this ultralight. Unfortunately, the planes were no longer being actively produced, and there was a long waiting list for parts. As they drove home, Ted exclaimed to his friend, "The way to get those parts is to buy the whole company!"

Two months later Ted and his partner, Dave Christian, concluded a deal through the Sorrell’s representative, an attorney named Buzzard, to purchase the NS-8 single place and NS-9 two place designs. Almost before the new company could be set up, they were busy supplying parts to a clamoring crowd of existing Hiperlight owners. With the most pressing demands finally being satisfied, they were ready to take orders for new planes and kits.

The Hiperlight Dream

Now, dare to detach yourself from the mundane world of ground crawlers for a few minutes and step into the Hiperlight dream with me, a dream sitting there on the field beneath a blue sky, waiting for anyone to wake up to... waiting... waiting for you.

You are walking toward a little biplane that has a curious backward stagger to the wings. Its bright colors glow in the sun. Just below the large windows of the cockpit— yes, windows on an ultralight!— there are wide-set balloon tires, with a pancake-sized tailwheel at the other end of the dolphin shaped fuselage. A 60 inch long propeller sits in front of the tiny engine cowling. Inside the nose is a trusty 277 Rotax.

The Rotax? Ah! You remember, the Rotax 277 is the original reason this airplane exists. Ron Shettler, who was the North American distributor for Rotax in the mid 1980’s, sent a 277 to the Sorrells with instructions to build an ultralight around it. Only six months later the Hiperlight flew off the brothers’ drawing boards, exactly meeting the FAR 103 requirements of the time and exceeding all other expectations, much to the amazement of competitors. You smile pityingly at the thought of competitors.

Reaching out, your right hand slides along the smooth fabric covering the hard leading edge of the upper wing. The large, hinged lexan canopy lifts and you look into the spacious 21’ by 41’ cabin. A comfortable, hammock-style fabric seat is there for you. You step up onto a little step in front of the lower wing and over the side onto the varnished wooden floor. You stand there, towering above the straight upper wings, feasting your eyes on the downward curve of the wide body to the elongated elevators and rudder. It looks like there will be plenty of control authority back there!

You thump the wings lightly. The fabric is drum-tight with very little scallop between ribs. Bending over, you eye the significant underchamber of the relatively thin airfoils. Aluminum ‘flaperons’ run the full length of the lower trailing edges— more promise of very positive control. Single struts and wires brace the 132 square feet of wings. That seems to be a lot of surface for such a small plane but it’s obviously strong. Finally, you turn to ease into the comfortable seat and... Whoops! Watch out for that joystick as you sit down backwards! With a little pink-faced shifting, you settle back and fit your feet into the custom-cast aluminum rudder pedals.

An inviting pull-starter handle extends through the fire-wall below the instrument panel. As you twist around for the shoulder straps you see a semi-transparent five gallon fuel tank behind the seat. A quick glance shows exactly how full it is. The safety belt clicks and controls move freely. You do a quick cockpit check, reach for that black handle and yell, "Clear prop!"

An easy pull has the engine humming. You wonder how such a tiny piece of machinery can provide sufficient power, but already the airplane is bumping forward, obviously well enough ‘motorvated’ to fly. Through the sewn-in plastic windows by your feet, you glance down at the passing turf and you realize how mellow the ground handling is on that five-foot wide, solid spring steel landing gear. Those fat donut tires give it soft-field capability as well as an incredible amount of shock absorption. You press a rudder pedal, and the plane swings quickly around on its steerable tailwheel.

Now you are looking down the airfield— well, it’s a hayfield actually, but the cows won’t mind you playing in their lunch. A (gulp)rather high row of trees faces you, like the front line of an opposing football team. They say the Hiperlight will lift a 230 pound pilot and you don’t weigh that much, but still...? You temporarily take mental refuge from those toothy trees by looking around the cabin. There surely is enough room in here for big pilots, you notice while doing a silent countdown. Then your hand snaps the throttle open and the plane is in motion.

Acceleration is moderate but the tail is instantly alive. You ease the stick forward to raise the tail and hold the plane on the ground while it picks up speed. One hundred fifty feet from the starting point you twitch the stick back and are airborne at just over 30 MPH. The trees are rushing toward you for the tackle, but you stay in ground effect a moment longer to boost the speed to 40 MPH. Now! Let it fly! As you zoom over the snatching trees, your apprehension is replaced by a silly grin. A friend who weighs 218 pounds says his Hiperlight climbs at 600 fpm, but this is more like 700 fpm. Sure enough the altimeter reads two thousand feet in a little less than three minutes from takeoff. That little engine is deceptive, or is it the design of the airplane? With 28 HP sipping just 1.8 gallons or less per hour, it is easy to believe the over 100 mile potential range on five gallons of auto fuel, plus room for lunch or maybe some camping gear. Hmmm?!

Enough day-dreaming, or is all of this a dream? You pinch your leg to find out and wince from the very real pain. The airplane responds instantly, slewing sideways across the sky. It definitely does not need that much rudder input! The adverse yaw is very mild though. How about roll rate? Oops! Pretty light control pressures there, too! All right, let’s settle down and get professional about this, find the proper coordination and time the roll from opposite 45-degree reversals, left right, left right. That’s better. Do it some more. Average? 2.2 seconds! In an ultralight? Pretty good!

Now, it’s really time for you to play. Stick forward and back again. Whoa! Pitch is even more positive than roll or yaw. Yet it’s well behaved enough not to get scary, just about the right combination of stability and responsiveness for an ultralight. The structural limits are +6G and -3G with a +9G ultimate loading. These things have been flown aerobatically, but you’d better know what you’re doing before trying any stunts. The Hiperlight can reach maximum speeds surprisingly fast. For now, let’s just figure out the basics about this airplane.

The FAA says the Hiperlight is a legal ultralight. OK, let’s find out. Mmmm, cruise is a solid 50- 55 MPH at 4900 RPM. At 5500 RPM the airspeed is pointing to 57 MPH. Push it to full power in level flight and the speed eases up past 60, 62... ahem! Well, it’s pretty close to the upper limits, anyway. The original Hiperlights had special climb props installed to slow them down.

Nose over into a dive and see what happens – 75... 90 MPH... Control response increases, even a slight hint of hypersensitivity, no shuddering. Nice to be out of the wind in this enclosed cabin. The ground is getting bigger fast. Remember, the never exceed speed is 95 MPH, so ease off the throttle. It doesn’t slow down much. Your heart doesn’t either. Better start gentling the stick back. Feel your seat pressure increasing. The nose creeps past the greenery back toward blue horizon. Those wings are strong! As you finally pull out of the power dive, you know the structure of the Hiperlight can be trusted with your life.

For a moment you wonder about that structure. On the ground, it only takes a few minutes to pull some pins, disconnect the two rudder cables and the elevator pushrod to separate the cabin and wings from the aft end of the fuselage. That makes the plane surprisingly easy to store or transport on a trailer, but just how strong is it?

The cabin is welded 4130 steel tube supporting all of the major loads such as engine, wheels, wings, fuel, pilot and the rest of the fuselage. The 6061T3 aluminum tube aft section is also welded, with the tail surfaces permanently attached. Wings are built up of formed aluminum parts with hard aircraft grade rivets. If you are not convinced by all of that, take another look at those G-load limits for which the Hiperlight has been tested! The experimental model is just as amazing. Back to flying the plane...

Now for slow flight. Surely that will be the Hiperlight’s weak point, you think. How can any ultralight perform well at higher speeds and still meet the 27 MPH stall minimum? First, a smooth deceleration... raising the nose... getting down to around 30 MPH, a bit of wallowing... now full aft stick with the flaperons deployed by that clever mixer linkage... below 30 MPH, gentle buffeting... 27 MPH, definitely settling and mushing... 26 MPH, the nose drops without any tendency to fall off to either side. Wow!

Power up and try something more aggressive. Hold the nose up with plenty of RPM’s all the way to the stall... now cut power. Ha! You’re definitely heading for the deck or beyond this time but still no autorotation. Won’t this thing spin? You bring the plane back up to altitude and do another power stall, stomping in some rudder this time. Grudgingly, it kicks over into a mild spin but is too well mannered to wind around very fast. You break out with a slight push on the stick. A bit of toe pressure on the opposite rudder would also have been enough to stop the world from turning. Leveling off, you peer suspiciously at the negative stagger of those wings and wonder for the umpteenth time what makes this little ship fly so well.

Impressive, but there still is one more test to make, as you remember those toothy tall trees clawing the air along the sides of your landing field. Apprehension returns as you look down at that tiny cow pasture. The trees are waving angrily for you to come back and give them another try. Is this dream about to turn into a nightmare? Cautiously, you descend into the turbulence and make a careful 40 MPH approach, with the ground creeping closer at about 250 fpm. A bullying puff of wind knocks the ultralight upward. Fleetingly you remember that the Hiperlight actually can be used as a glider in the right conditions. More gusts rock the little plane. Looks like it will be a nasty crosswind landing... the wind has really gotten rough while you were playing around up there (gulp again)!

Adrenalin kicks in and suddenly you are fiercely determined not to be pushed around anymore. You know the plane can take these conditions and more. Stick hard to the left corner and right rudder. Airspeed 45 to 50 MPH. Dropping like a helicopter. Tighten the slip even more. Ha! Now there’s no more rocking around. The treetops reach greedily for the wheels, but you just ignore them while you concentrate on that expanding patch of grass... hold it in the slip... hold it... Now! Release controls! Snapping straight! Stick coming back... flaperons automatically deploy in the flare... Oh, how sweetly it handles the crosswind! Touchdown... a smooth three-pointer. Seems to be what the Hiperlight prefers. A bit of forward stick would have raised the flaperons and dropped the airplane to a quicker wheel landing, though.

Hey! That was easy! Check out the landing roll, too, only 175 feet! You laugh, thinking of all the fun you’re going to have with this fantastic little fighter punching you up toward the clouds again.

The clouds? Perhaps that’s just your pillow you’ve been grinning into. The dream is over— or is it? Could you actually live this dream of flying a Hiperlight? Call Ted or David at (503) 843-3616 and find out! There just might be one waiting there on Sheridan field beneath a blue sky... waiting... waiting for... you?