By Bill Darnell, EAA 576650
This piece originally ran in the September 2025 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
I am told by some of the more senior members of the Michigan Ultralight Association (MULA) Flying Club about past fly-ins and ultralight gatherings. I’ve heard tales of fly-ins at Purdy Field where aircraft lined both sides of the runway — nearly its entire length.
I’ve even seen photographs that prove these claims. I have heard about huge national meets in Marshall, Michigan, that drew hundreds of participants for a multiday event that included aerial competitions with our little aircraft. There were events like short takeoff, spot landing, and precision bomb drop. Pilots and their families would gather and socialize over a long weekend. Some would fly great distances to get there; while others would trailer their machines and assemble them on site.
There would be organized informational meetings and forums where a pilot could learn the latest in building techniques, covering systems, airframe and powerplant maintenance, and all other subjects related to the care and feeding of an ultralight aircraft. There would be discussions about flying practices, navigation, trip planning, and understanding weather forecasts and how they might affect your day’s adventures.
There would be potluck dinners, nightly campfires, 50/50 raffles, and games for kids. A regular ultralight carnival if you will.
I have also heard of smaller events such as a handful of pilots flying all the way up to Mio, Michigan, to camp out at the Lost Creek Sky Ranch. Just the name of the place sounds like it would be an awesome adventure.
Many years ago, 30 of them perhaps, I read in a Kitplanes magazine that Phantom ultralights was based near Kalamazoo, Michigan. I live in nearby Otsego, so I called the then-owner Pat Schultheis and made arrangements to meet him and learn a bit more about his aircraft and the sport in general.
I remember seeing a large hangar with at least a dozen airplanes in it, mostly Phantoms. These aircraft were owned by the members of the “Alamo Air Force.” Alamo is a small farming community on the edge of Kalamazoo.
I recall Pat telling me that the members would occasionally get together and fly in loose formation to a nearby airport for a pancake breakfast or a $100 hamburger. Or they would go on longer excursions to exotic faraway lands with names like Ohio and Indiana.
Their wives or other family members would drive along as ground crews. My guess is all of the participants were carrying more than the Part 103 required maximum of 5 gallons of fuel. The logistics of a long trip would be rather difficult if you had to stop every hour to gas up. I assume the statute of limitations has long passed on this rule violation. The participants are anonymous anyway.
So, you may be asking yourself by now, what’s the point of this trip down memory lane? Well, the point is that none of the things I just wrote about are my memories. I missed out on all this fun — and not because it was before my time. I’m coming up on birthday 61 soon. All this stuff happened while I was in my prime. And it’s not because I was unaware of it. I had been to Oshkosh many times through the years and knew a bit about the ultralight movement. As I just said, I even did a bit of research back in the day, going to Pat’s farm and getting a nice tour of his facility. I won’t blame my missing out on starting a plumbing business, raising two great kids, or being the world’s greatest husband (although most of that is accurate).
I’m a firm believer in the idea that people pretty much do what they want to do in life. If something is important to you, you figure out how to afford it and how to overcome the obstacles that are preventing you from doing it. So, basically, it just was not a priority to me back then.
That all changed in the late summer of 2023 with a demo flight in an ultralight-type light-sport aircraft on the last day of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh that year. I returned home with an itch that demanded immediate scratching. I contacted the Michigan Ultralight Association Flying Club, got 10.5 hours of excellent flight instruction from CFI John von Linsowe, EAA 127832, bought and restored an old Quicksilver MX, and I was FLYING!
I returned to Oshkosh in 2024 with my blue and white checkerboard airplane (we call her Bluey). She’s even made it into the pages of EAA Sport Aviation twice now. My journey to being a pilot has been the time of my life! I honestly did not think my “golden years” could be this much fun.
That being said, I desperately want to see and participate in a large gathering of my fellow ultralight pilots and their aircraft. I got a small taste of it this past fall when I attended a fly-in way down in southern Indiana sponsored by Tri-State Kite Sales.
Operating Manager Andy Aldridge put on a great event there. I was treated like an old friend by folks I had never met before. Several of them helped unload my airplane and assemble it. While doing so, we discovered a flying wire had broken. Within minutes Andy built me two new wires, and I was back in business and ready to fly. This was an awesome event, and I loved every minute of it.
I got to fly over the Ohio River alongside another Quicksilver. Pretty much the coolest thing I’d ever done up to that point. Sadly, the flying got cut short by high winds the next day, and we packed up and returned home.
I got to fly a few more times before winter set in and grounded me. I greatly anticipated attending SUN ’n FUN Aerospace Expo in Lakeland, Florida, in April 2025 and hoped to fly Bluey at the event. I was not sure what to expect in the way of ultralight participation there as I saw few actual ultralights there in 2024. Bluey was one of just three privately owned ultralights this year. The manufacturers had several airplanes on display, but high winds kept all but the fearless John Moody grounded throughout the event.
I read in the pages of EAA Sport Aviation recently about an upswing of interest in “ultralighting” here in the United States, and I have spoken to Gene “Bever” (that’s how he spells it, folks) Borne, EAA 155256, the owner of Air-Tech Inc. and manufacturer of Quicksilver ultralights, who tells me sales of new aircraft and kits is strong. According to Bever, Air-Tech has been putting out between 15-30 per year since moving its operation to Reserve, Louisiana, in 2014. He refers to our sport as “lawn chair flying,” by the way. The Bever is a funny guy.
This brings me to the title of this article: “Where Are All The Ultralights?” I am personally not seeing many of these machines in the air. There were, by my count, only a few at AirVenture 2024, with maybe four to five flying at the Fun Fly Zone. As the world’s biggest aviation stage, I would think we would have more participation there. Think about this for a minute: If you fly your Mooney or Piper or Cessna into AirVenture, it sits there tied down until you depart. We, as ultralight pilots, get our own private airstrip that we graciously share with powered parachutes and rotorcraft and get the opportunity to fly every single day that the weather allows us to. We even get our own tower and announcers. How cool is that!? I certainly hope we are on an upswing.
I constantly find myself dreaming and scheming about ways to increase activity within our group. That is a big part of the reason I accepted the position of Michigan Ultralight Association Flying Club secretary. The MULA board of directors has been discussing ways and events to facilitate this. What do you say? Want to come out and play this year? I certainly hope so.
I happen to know that one of our members has recently purchased some vacation property right on Lost Creek Sky Ranch, and another is building a home and hangar on the Lakes of the North airport community near Kalkaska, Michigan. I would love to participate in a camping weekend at one of these beautiful destinations. So, let’s return to the thrilling early days of ultralight aviation and make 2025 the biggest and best year ever for what is still the most fun, most affordable form of aviation here in the good old United States of America.
Thanks for reading. Happy skies, my friends.
Bill Darnell, EAA 576650, is the current secretary of the Michigan Ultralight Association Flying Club. He started flying ultralights two years ago at the age of 59 and is based at Calkins Field Airport (41C) in Wayland, Michigan.