Constructions
Studies on the design were done by one of the most respected aeronautical schools, ENSICA. The aim of the design was to produce a hight performance ultralight aeroplane of the simplest construction. The Sky has been certified in England to meet the BCAR standard, the highest standard for an ultralight.

Philippe worked hard to keep the design as simple as possible. At SUN N FUN the Skyranger won best assembly type. Jean-claude said the Skyranger has very conventional "light aircraft" type lines, but internally it still uses typical microlight construction aircraft grade 2017 aluminium tubing bolted together. No composite materials were used for structural components. Other parts are made from stainless steel and plated mild steel. The aircraft requires no welding for final assembly as all components are preassembled, ready for mounting with u-bolts and cables with turnbuckles in place. They are folded for reasons of volume during transport. It is easy to unfold the triangles and to assemble them. All the control surfaces are already cloth-lined, with the axes already fixed.

" In a week, I had the Skyranger on wheels with the fuselage on and a Rotax 912 in position" Jean-claude said. "In less than a day the two wings were mounted, covered and ready to be fixed".

Most of the building time "is around the engine, firewall, cowling, windscreen, doors and instruments".

Quality was also important. Since 1997 ex-Antonov engineers manufactured the Skyranger in the Ukraine."You can really see that it has been done by professional craftsman with experience in building ultralight" he said.

"This type of construction is easy to do, you just need various metric spanner sizes. All parts of the plane are accessible for easy inspections and if you have to repair anything it's just a matter of changing a few tubes, easy to find anywhere and inexpensive. If the fuselage were welded you would need to send your plane back to the factory for repairs. Not a cheap process".

Above and below: Construction stages in building the Skyranger. Here is the Skyranger frame after five days of building. The doors can be fitted to create an enclosed cabin or two half-cabin. The photos below give a good idea of the instruments panel and instrument layout in the Skyranger

Interior

Approaching the SKYRANGER you are first struck by the size of the large doors and roomy interior making entering the cockpit a breeze (no tubes to climb over). The doors are bubbled for more shoulder room. Twin tanks sit behind the seats offering 60 litres of fuel capacity. A baggage sack can be fitted above them without intruding into the cockpit.

Looking forward, the instrument panel is unusually wide lending itself to a straightforward left-to-right instrument scan. This works well in a wide cockpit, and allows both plenty of legroom for the tallest pilots, and a very clear view forward for even the shortest. The joystick is central with the possibility to have a double stick.

I found the access to the primary control such as joystick and the 3 position flap lever to be very good. It uses goofballs as knobs on the throttle and trim control levers, (the perfect size and grip). As Jean-claude points out that they are not included in the kit.

The RAA has accepted the SKYRANGER for 540 kg. If a Rotax 502 or 582 could be fitted and fly well with 450 kg, I would recommend, for the Australian condition, to have a Rotax 912 or 912S, if you want to carry more weight.

Getting airborne
It's time to taxi. The front wheel is connected to the rudder, which makes it very easy to steer on the ground. The hydraulic disk brakes are powerful. After all checks, I line up and open the throttle. With a Rotax 912, 80hp acceleration is fast. The plane needs very little right pedal to stay straight.

At 40kts after what seems a very short run, the SKYRANGER lifts off. I wanted to climb at 50/55kts but the Skyranger is already at 60kts and climbing at nearly 900f/m. I level off at 1500 ft and reduce to the economical cruise speed of 4500 RPM (50% power).

The Skyranger's speed stabilises at 70kts with a fuel flow of 12 litres. The attitude is surprisingly nose-down and even with this hot day and windy conditions it seems stable. I try some turns in both directions, very little rudder is needed to turns and the Skyranger stays there without more input. There is very little adverse yawl.

I increased the RPM at 5200 (5400 is the maximum RPM for continuous cruise) the speed reach 85kts, that's not bad with 80hp at 1500ft with no wheel fairing. With the way the Skyranger climbs, adjusting the pitch will give you 90kts but you will loose some rate of climb.

You can fly with the doors off or you can make a two-part door. The bottom part is mounted on vertical hinge that stays closed when you fly and the top with an horizontal hinge that you can open in flight (70kts max), ideal for summer or to take pictures. Glide rate is 9:1 with the 912.

Stalls are a no-event with strong buffets at 32 kts with flaps or 36 kts clean, altitude loss is minimum. You can improve the 32 kts with little changes to the flaps rigging. (The Skyaranger has three flap positions). Approach speed is 50kts, wheels down at 40kts.

With the powerful wheel brakes the Skyranger stops very quickly.

The way it is set up it should be a very good training aircraft, no wonder it won best trainer at SUN N FUN.

Summing up
The aircraft has an impressive list of "Bests": Best assembly, best trainer, three times UL Word Champion plus a long list of European victories. The Skyranger is not an ordinary aircraft. The first time builder should have few if any problems and should not find the kit difficult to build. No half finished projects here!.

Older Drifter pilots will appreciate the closed cabin, the two side by side seats and the better performance. The Skyranger is an aircraft to have fun in.