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The forecasts had threatened muck and bullets but in the event the weather was generally favourable. A low turn-out but that oh so French ambiance is

irresistible, says Brian Hope.

(Right) It’s quite rare to see Spanish homebuilts so this colourful RV-7 built by Alfonso Hernandez was a real treat. The weather in the south was particularly stormy, so much so that DynAero, now based in Pau down by the Pyrenees, did not make it to the show, so Alfonso may well have flown up earlier in the week.

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This year’s RSA (French Homebuilt) Rally was again held at Vichy in central France, in mid-July. Unfortunately the weather forecasts leading up to the event were not

good, indicating that getting there might be problematic and certainly the homeward journey on the Sunday would be difficult. Sadly that meant a number of potential UK visitors decided to give it a miss, as did many French pilots, meaning only around 250 arrivals (half that of last year) were recorded, most of whom arrived on the Saturday. Worse, with the expected bad weather over much of France for the Sunday, there were fewer than 40 aircraft remaining in the aircraft park by Saturday evening as pilots beat a hasty retreat for home. This must have been a bitter disappointment for the RSA, which has been putting in a lot of effort to establish the rally’s permanence at Vichy and raise its profile.

I travelled down with friend Gary Smith in his RV-9 on Friday and we had a trouble-free run, routing via Troyes for Customs and stopping for our usual overnight at one of our favourite watering holes, Avallon, about three quarters of an hour north of Vichy. The weather was very hot, it had been 40°C on the apron at Troyes, and there were reports of people fainting in the streets. An early morning departure saw us touching down at the rally by around 10:00 local.

After an absolute deluge on the Saturday night the weather took a real turn for the better at Vichy on Sunday and the weather radar showed the worst of the rain up the eastern and western sides of the country, with the middle clear. And so it turned out, with us routing past Troyes and Soissons east of Paris and not running into the weather until about ten miles from Amiens, after we had turned west. We landed at the deserted airfield and crossed the road to a McDonald’s where we could use its free Wi-Fi to keep track of the weather – not exactly haute cuisine but it was tipping it down outside. By early evening the worst was over, the rain radar images were reasonable, Southend’s metar was good and phone calls confirmed Kent was in the clear, so we filed a flight plan online and headed for home.

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(Above) The Rutan Defiant-like push-me/pull-you twin was very nicely turned out. Apparently a one-off (very little info is available), it is powered by two Rotax 912s. The advantage of such a configuration is that it does

away with the asymmetric handling problems encountered with conventional twins with an engine out but Cessna’s similarly-configured 337 Skymaster had a reputation of being uncomfortably noisy, both inside and

out. This aircraft was not unduly noisy, typically 912 in fact, and climbed out very unobtrusively.

(Left) Despite the low turnout, the event still threw up some interesting aircraft and in the expanded exhibition area, two in particular caught my eye. The first I reported on last year, the HKW-aero which represents a category of aircraft that I find quite intriguing – low-powered two-seaters designed to emulate the efficiency/economy concept of Michel Colomban’s single-seat Luciole. The Luciole weighs in at less than 100kg yet lifts its own weight and will cruise at 100mph for four hours, sipping around five litres per hour of mogas. The challenge of creating a two-seat equivalent has been slow in delivery but if it is going to happen anywhere, I think it will in France. The rumour mill suggests that Colomban himself is working on a two-seat design, but I have heard nothing substantive.

Followers of such ultra-light designs will recall that last year the HKW was debuted as a concept, rather than a physical aircraft. Powered by the same 627cc Briggs & Stratton Vanguard V-twin as Luciole, only tuned and with a belt reduction drive to reputedly produce 40hp as opposed to Luciole’s very mildly tuned (from 23hp) 25hp direct drive output, it looks an interesting candidate.

Its appearance this year was also, sadly, not ‘in the metal’ but again as poster images, the designer commenting that with the prototype being only about six weeks from first flight, and the complexities of arranging suitable transport, they chose not to bring it.

It does, however, have some rather unique, dare I suggest quirky, features and I cannot help feeling that perhaps there has been

unnecessary over-complication of what in essence needs to be a simple, very light structure if it is to perform well on less than half the power of today’s typical 450kg microlights and VLAs.

Certainly new to me is the wing structure, which features a full span carbon fibre ‘I’ beam spar that is threaded through the fuselage as an individual component, with the wing panels then slipping onto it and being pinned at around each’s mid-span, plus at the rear spar root/fuselage junctions. Large Fowler flaps are fitted, a relative rarity on light aircraft let alone in the microlight category, but with a wing area less than that of contemporary machines no doubt necessary to bring down the stall speed to the required 35kt maximum permitted.

A second unusual feature is that the fuselage bulkheads, four in total, are of plywood, the aluminium skins attaching to them via angle extrusions attached to the ply. The upshot of these diverse construction methods is that they almost certainly contribute to what some might consider a disappointing projected empty weight of 250 -260kg, which is only 10-20kg shy of a typical 80 or 100hp 912 powered three-axis 450kg microlight. The performance targets, however, are impressive – 4.2 litres of fuel to cover 100km (67 mpg), 182kmh (113mph) cruise speed and a range of 950km (590 sm)… and all on 40hp. It will be interesting to see how it measures up once flight testing commences.Initial plans are to sell the aircraft as a ready-to-fly machine with a target price of €42,000 plus VAT.www.hkw-aero.fr

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52 LIGHT AVIATION MAY2011

(Below) Another minimalist machine that has been 15 years in development is Bernard Geffray’s Spratt 103, for which a set of plans is available (€100). This really is a basic machine that easily falls into the UK SSDR category and can be built for relatively low cost. The ‘fuselage’ is built from welded stainless steel and is more reminiscent of a flexwing than a three-axis machine – but the Spratt 103 isn’t three-axis either, it is what in the US is called a controlwing design. The wings move independently for roll control, although they also have a degree of free movement which allows them to absorb gust loads. They work together for pitch when, with power, they control climb and descent. There is no yaw (rudder) control or pedals, the control yoke steers the nosewheel for ground operations in conjunction with the roll control.

The wings use a simple ladder spar built from aluminium box section tube, and foam ribs. Covering is a matrix of Kraft paper, glass cloth and Dacron encased with polyester resin. A similar system is used on the fixed V-tail surfaces. Commercial grade materials are used throughout.

Engine choice is suggested as a Honda V-twin GX670 industrial unit of 22hp or a converted Citroen 2CV motor, although as long as the powerplant is less than 45kg and delivers at least 75kg of thrust it will fit the bill. The example seen at the show is an early, and not yet finished, customer example which differs from the prototype in that it has a nicely styled composite enclosed cockpit. www.spratt103.com

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(Left) While homebuilt helicopters remain a rarity Rotorway has stood the test of time, the original company being started in Arizona 1961 by BJ Schramm, with its latest machine, the Talon, today being produced in South Africa. The Kompress Charlie CH-7 shown is an Italian kit two-seat tandem machine that has also been around for a while, 120ish having been produced to date. The seating is reminiscent of a flex-wing, where you need to be on especially friendly terms with your passenger, but the company also has a side-by-side design, the CH-77 Ranabot. The -7 can cruise for three hours at 100mph, with the fuel tank being removable to aid refuelling at off-airfield locations. www.ch-7helicopter.com

Heli Light ULM is a training school that uses the CH-7 and is based an hour’s drive east of Paris at Chateau-Thierry. www.helilightulm.com

(Above) The pretty little Sensation is a two-seat, all-metal design built in France by the aeronautical engineering company ESPACE. It was designed by former Airbus engineer Jose Verges as a 450kg microlight which cruises at 130mph on an 80hp 912UL. Price around €65,000. www.espace-sa.fr

It was a bit mucky past Abbeville and out to the coast but by a couple of miles out into the Channel it rapidly improved and we soon had a 4,000ft ceiling all the way back to sunny Farthing Corner.

Do yourself a favour and plan to go to the RSA Rally next year. It really is a unique event and if, as I expect, Vichy remains the venue, it is a lovely spa town with a history that considerably pre-dates its WWII connotations; parks and beautiful buildings abound. And if you fancy a stopover en route I recommend Semur en Auxois, Avallon or Chartres, all delightful old towns that are within easy walking distance of their airfields and well worth a visit in their own right. Bon vol! ■

(Above) Sticking with the lightweight theme, a two-seater that pays almost cult-like homage to the Rutan mantra of 'if you throw it up in the air and it comes down again then it is too heavy' is Thierry Pujolle’s Agrion. At first sight it looks a bit like a microlight version of a Breezy but on close inspection you can see that the tubular fuselage is actually made from carbon fibre tubes and not 4130 steel. Some of the attention to detail in saving weight has to be seen to be believed; exquisitely made carbon and aluminium parts abound. The wing uses carbon tube spars and Klegecell foam ribs with a carbon leading-edge, all fabric covered with Oratex. Kitfox (Junkers) style flaperons are fitted and the wing swings through 90° to run along the same axis as the fuselage for transport.The engine is a 28hp single-cylinder Airmax 220M, more commonly used on paramotors, and although that sounds ridiculously small for a two-seater, it does begin to make sense when you consider the empty weight of this machine is just 78kg and maximum all up weight is 290kg, 10kg less that our SSDR limit for single-seat microlights!

The aircraft first flew at the end of May this year but it is only the first step towards Thierry’s goal of a two-seat, side-by-side amphibian which will weigh in at 210kg empty, have a useful load of 240kg and a maximum cruise of 225kph (140mph) on a 65hp Rotax two-stroke. The Agrion was built to prove the construction concept but Thierry, who won the Jean Pottier Trophy for Best Prototype, did say he may consider making plans available. www.ulminimalist.sitew.com

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