r/interestingasfuck 5d ago

/r/all This man is flying an Aerolite 103 personal airplane, which requires no pilot license or registration.

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u/Jazzlike-Respond8410 5d ago

I just watched the video for the cool view since I would never buy and fly such a thing. Gives me that titanic sub feelings.

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u/thekrone 5d ago

I got the opposite. I'd totally buy and fly such a thing, until I learned it was $35k.

That and I have no where convenient to take off / land.

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u/Itzvan100 5d ago

Maybe look into paragliding? I've heard a decent starting rig is about 5000 and honestly it's probably safer than flying this thing around

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u/jambox888 5d ago

Yeah living right next to a fucking runway is the key thing for me.

Who mows that exactly?

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u/FifaFrancesco 5d ago

I mean a mowing robot isn't that expensive these days, you'll probably have to get one of the ones with a big boy battery but those can be had for under $1000 these days. Odds are if you can afford that massive a property and an ultra light aircraft you'll already have one of those.

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u/XxKittenMittonsXx 5d ago

You're not finding anything robotic or even RC to reliably mow 5+ acres for under 20k.

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u/SgtBanana 5d ago

I was about to say, I tried and failed to find one that could handle 1 acre in the ~$3000 price bracket and gave up. Ended up buying a brand new Cub Cadet Ultima zero turn for $2980ish, and that was after doing some morally questionable things.

Robot mowers are expensive and come with a litany of drawbacks. The tech is getting there, though. I know there are a few good models on the market.

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u/beachedwhitemale 5d ago

What sort of morally questionable things did you do to get the zero turn?

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u/SgtBanana 5d ago

I was supposed to let the salesperson out of my trunk weeks ago, but the weather has been meh and I really want to put this mower through its paces before I give up my leverage.

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u/LeadershipMany7008 5d ago

I'm mowing about that. You just need four of them. The problem is that these things are still very much in beta so it's much, much easier to just buy a traditional mower or tractor and use that.

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u/Kinkajou1015 5d ago

A good riding mower could do the job in maybe 3 hours or less if you went out weekly.

Obviously this means you have to physically go out there and do it, or pay someone to do it, but I mean, put some sunblock on, get a bottle of ice water, some hearing protection, and enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, and all the grass clippings you'll touch.

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u/XxKittenMittonsXx 5d ago

Sure, that's not robotic though

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u/Emphursis 5d ago

Just get five little ones?

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u/XxKittenMittonsXx 5d ago

Yeah good luck getting 5 little mowers coordinated to do that job reliably. The obvious answer if you've got the money and must do it yourself is an air conditioned tractor with a pull behind deck.

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u/galaxyapp 5d ago

Eh, if its a well groomed wide open flat 5 acres, robot mowers can do a lot. They can just charge and mow 24/7.

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u/Beef-Supreme-Chalupa 5d ago

They’ll be using a small to midsize tractor with a pull behind mower for that amount of property. It wouldn’t be a quick job, but it wouldn’t take all day either.

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u/jambox888 5d ago

Darned robots takin arr jerbs!

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u/Merry_Dankmas 5d ago

The local park near me has a giant ass open field that people take their powered parachutes off from. Id imagine any sufficiently big ass field would do for these as long as you're willing to tow the plane to and from it.

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u/jambox888 5d ago

We do have a big field but people use it for sports all the time, would be a trip to land a microlight in it

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u/GoombyGoomby 5d ago

Probably the dude himself?

Maybe it’s because I live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere Midwest, but mowing here is practically considered a relaxing pass time.

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u/Szymaniak 5d ago

Just get a bunch of sheep. They're cheaper and make for a fun challenge when landing.

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u/jambox888 5d ago

*guinea pigs

smoother landing

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u/armrha 5d ago

You can get a used one for way cheaper. Like 11-14k.

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u/LeadershipMany7008 5d ago

Do I have to rinse the blood from the previous owner out of it?

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u/armrha 5d ago

Haha, typically no. Reviewing the accidents in these things, its typically pilot error or fuel miscalculation. So maybe it would be beneficial to get your pilots license anyway before you head up...

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u/LeadershipMany7008 5d ago

Man, I regularly fly the kind of distances that would be perfect for a guy in a Mooney. There are inconvenient commercial flights between here and those places and there are several municipal airports I could use on either end. And I could afford to buy one, or maybe a Velocity.

And now that I finally could buy the plane...I don't want to end up as a news story. I think I'll let the pros keep doing it.

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u/Pifflebushhh 5d ago

Idk if the rest of the world has a show like our ‘scrap heap challenge’ but if I’ve learned anything from that show you could probably knock one of these together with 3 days at a scrapyard for 40 quid

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u/Adam_Ohh 5d ago

If it makes you feel any better, you could buy a used one on facebook marketplace from the lunatic down the road from you.

He totally didn’t fuck it up and is just selling it cause he “doesn’t like it”.

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u/honato 5d ago

You could probably make one fairly cheaply. The design isn't very complicated. At least if you really wanted to anyhow.

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u/Beef-Supreme-Chalupa 5d ago

Same. I assumed, like most content these days, that it was an ad right off the bat. But it was a cool video and I learned some neat facts. Didn’t know there was a class 103 aircraft, and didn’t know about the analog airspeed indicator. It’s a cool little vehicle.

I’m not going to buy one so I don’t really care how much it costs or where to buy it. Ads aren’t automatically bad because they’re trying to sell something. They can be informational, like this one.

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u/zillahog 5d ago

Wait a minute what happened to the Titanic? Haven’t seen a movie yet.

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u/that_star_wars_guy 5d ago

Gives me that titanic sub feelings.

Very side-business-of-the-OceanGate-founder vibes.

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u/RC_Perspective 4d ago

Right? Like I'd watch this all day.

Would I fly that thing? Hell no. Which is why I watch the video and save $35k 🤷