The Gypsy Ultralight
Date: Mon, April 11, 2005
The Gypsy is in the peculiar position of mostly being described on the internet in pictures. No one has anything bad to say about it, and it's certainly cute as a button. It was the subject of an article in Popular Mechanix back in the day.
You can get plans for the Gypsy from the Vintage Ultralight Association, who also provide plans for several other homebuilt ultralights. It was designed by John Chotia in the late 70's / early 80's, and has only recently become available again.
The Gypsy is a refinement of an older design, the Woodhopper. The flying qualities of these planes suit the type of person who simply wants to get into the air and not go anywhere particularly fast. All the wires make these planes quite draggy and slow. It looks like maximum speed is in the 45mph range. Of course the stall speed is rediculously slow...
You can get plans for the Gypsy from the Vintage Ultralight Association, who also provide plans for several other homebuilt ultralights. It was designed by John Chotia in the late 70's / early 80's, and has only recently become available again.
The Gypsy is a refinement of an older design, the Woodhopper. The flying qualities of these planes suit the type of person who simply wants to get into the air and not go anywhere particularly fast. All the wires make these planes quite draggy and slow. It looks like maximum speed is in the 45mph range. Of course the stall speed is rediculously slow...
Ernie Moreno:
It's actually a good aircraft that can fly up to the ultalight window of 62 mph with a Chotia 460 engine. The Gypsy that I built has a modified trailing egde on the wing that I believe helped the aerodynamics. The majority of wires on this aircraft go to front to rear direction so drag is really minimized. A slightly different tub was built out of tubing and fabriced over giving a very pleasing shape. It weighed when finished 232 lbs. and when flown pitch is gentle, rudder has enough power,but ailerons are a little heavy. Landings are very benign taking under a 100 feet to full stop. A picture of the Gypsy was futured in EAA Sport Aviation 4 or 5 years ago
Ed Wright: Earnie,Could you please supply more information about performance & any other comments about the GIPSY/WOODHOPPER as i am purchaseing Plans Regards Ed
Ernie Moreno: The Gypsy was an easy aircraft to
build and the plans were excellent for a homebuilt.. You need to study them
very carefully and saying that, ALL the info is there if you look hard
enough. Mods that I would do would be to change the cables that actuate the
ailerons. Not a good system. Also, some comments that have been made over
the years,that a change in cable bracing the wings might make it stronger.
I'm not completely sold on that yet, but I and a buddy designed the Indy
Flyer project which uses the wing of the Gypsy with an additional
compression bay and corresponding bracing with extra flight and landing
wires installed. I would make the pod out of the materials that we did
instead of the foam called for in the plans. This pods has been very
serviceable and comes complete with door for easy entry. Also a change in
the trailing edge of the wing was made substituting aluminium instead of the
foam callout. This one mod may have had a impact on the speed of the plane
and so highly recommend this. This Gypsy is a very docile flier. I have
aquired a numbered original set of WoodHopper plans and am amazed at the
similarities. in many areas. By the way, even though my Gypsy is Chotia
powered, I have not had reliability issues with the engine. I recently
completed and flew a WeedHopper Model C with a Chotia and find that it is
also very docile design. Something to think about is that Gypsy, an
ultralight of this weight were not meant for heavy weather conditions and
long cross countries. This a a true project that can be built for 3 to 4
thousand dollars. The engines can be found in serviceable condition for a
few hundred dollars. If you look at the TRUE ultralights that are out there
weighing less than 254 lbs. there are not many and few are as capable as the
Gypsy.