Steve Thomas/Part 103 Ultralight PPC flight across America

Update - March 8, 2005

The Pup

The Pup is a model that was produced by Airframes Unlimited as one of their first 103 legal weight models. This powered parachute was designed by Don Stutts to be used with a small rectangular wing and the Hirth F-33 engine. Here are the photos of the Pup that I took today before loading it up for the road trip back to Arizona to continue the flight across America.

Don made a few custom modifications to this airframe for me while I was in Athens and swapping over everything that was useable from the Mini Me. We weighed the Pup today with all accessories and the wing in it's bag on the seat. Yesterday we ran
the F-33 and Don was able to make it idle a little smoother by leaning out the low end. We also leaned out the midrange and the rpm drop at full throttle seems to be eliminated. I will need to check it out in the conditions out west before flying of course.

The pup weighs 202 pounds with everything except fuel, or 232 pounds with a full tank. The thrust test yielded the same results as when the engine and prop were on the Mini Me, 200 pounds static at 5770 rpm.

This means that the Pup is actually 20 pounds lighter than the Mini Me was. Now that I will have ground support to tote the load of my gear, I estimate the total weight savings over my last couple of flights to be approximately 100 pounds, and 40 pounds less than at anytime during these flights so far. This is a very good thing as the next few flights will be into the high country, and some of the legs are long flights.

Have a good one!
Steve

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Steve Thomas/Part 103 Ultralight PPC flight across America

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