Photograph:
New Zealand registered Rag Wing Ultra Piet ZK-RWA (c/n RW344) in 1998 (NZCIVAIR)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Single-seat parasol wing ultralight aircraft
Power Plant:
One 19 kw (25 hp) modified two-cylinder Volkswagen air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 8.07 m (26 ft 6 in)
- Length: 4.57 m (15 ft)
- Wing area: 10.59 m² (114 sq ft)
- Max speed: 100 km/h (62 mph)
- Cruising speed: 89 km/h (55 mph)
- Stalling speed: 42 km/h (26 mph)
- Initial rate of climb: 198 m/min (650 ft/min)
- Service ceiling: 3,048 m (10,000 ft)
- Range: 145 km (90 miles)
- Fuel capacity: 19 litres (4.16 imp gals)
- Take-off run: 30 m (100 ft)
- Landing run: 46 m (150 ft)
- Empty weight: 114 kg (252 lb)
- Loaded weight: 238 kg (525 lb)
History:
The Ultra-Piet is one of a number of designs produced in kit form for the amateur constructor marketed by Rag Wing Plans Service of Craytonville Airfield, Honea Path, South Carolina, USA. It is a 75% scale model of the Pietenpol Air Camper of the 1930s. Engines in the 19 kw (25 hp) to 39 kw (52 hp) range can be installed, many using the Volkswagen conversion which is a four-cylinder horizontally-opposed unit cut in half to provide a two-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled unit.
Construction of the aircraft is of wood with fabric covering. The Company also produces kits of ultralight replicas of the Midwing Sport, a racing monoplane of 1931, the Heath Parasol, the Ragabond, which may be built to replicate a J-3 Cub or a Piper Vagabond, and the Special Bipe, an ultralight replica of the Pitts S-1 Special.
First of the series registered in this region was an Ultra-Piet, a scale replica of a Pietenpol EXP, which became ZK-RWA (c/n RW344) registered to its owner in Christchurch, NZ. This aircraft was powered by a Simonini single-cylinder two-stroke engine of 36 kw (48 hp) driving a 1.82 m (72 in) IVO propeller, and was completed and made its first flight on 4 July 1998.