The owner flew it into the side of a barn, and survived. That story is fully detailed in my blog, along with some additional pics.
The Dragon was a Belite powered by a Hirth F23 50 HP engine. The marvelous paint scheme was inspired by the movie, "Avatar", and was applied via a printed wrap.
This plane was sooo coool.
Built by Belite, at the factory, it was sold to a pair of owners in Oklahoma. One of them came to Wichita and insisted on a test flight. I'd never before (or since) allowed anyone to fly one of my ultralights before purchase, but for some reason, I went easy on this guy and let him fly it around the pattern. He did that and greased the landing, and bought the plane.
A few months later, I got a call from him. "You may have heard, James, my partner wrecked it. He wasn't able to get into the plane on his own, so some people helped him. He took off, flew around the pattern, and at full power, slammed into the side of a barn. (Which was made of steel, BTW...). The impact moved an air compressor on the other side of the wall about 4 feet."
That guy survived, with back fractures. But he never flew again.
Meanwhile, the other guy bought another Belite from me. He had it for many years, and I sold it on his behalf last year.
I'm slowly getting back into building ultralights.
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