Ultralights in Travel Destinations

FLYING IN ULTRALIGHT AIRCRAFT (ULM) IS ACTUALLY A COMMON PRACTICE WORLDWIDE. TRAVEL DESTINATIONS ARE IDEAL PLACES FOR THIS SORT OF LEISURE ACTIVITY, WHICH IS ENJOYED BY MANY. CUBA IS NO EXCEPTION

The Cuban Aviation Club takes care of the introduction in Cuba of “ultralight” aviation (ULM). Ultralight aviation is developed with the aim of introducing this way within the world of sports aviation and, at the same time, providing services to tourism in our different destinations.

Two of these models arrived in Cuba in 2019: The Tucan and the Trican. Both are manufactured by the Italian company Ferrari ULM, a small ultralight manufacturer in Castelbaldo, Italy. Both were exhibited at the International Tourism Fair, FITCuba 2019.

The Trican is an ultralight three-seat, single-engine amphibious aircraft with a fixed trapezoidal wing, retractable trike landing gear, and orientable front wheel. This setting allows two-passenger aerial tours in the journey way and both the origin and the flight destination can be over the land or at sea.

The Trican, with an empty weight of 300 kg, can lift a maximum weight of 600 kg and fly at a speed of 75 km/h. The takeoff runway both on land and water is 150m.

The Trican is powered by an 110hp Simonini Victor PS engine with a KievProp 283 propeller. These features make it ideal for journey flights over travel destinations located in our keys. This air way is highly regarded in travel destinations worldwide.

At present, after the assembly process, test flights, modifications, and improvements — closely followed by the manufacturer — as well as the completion of the pilots' training, the service is about to start in Cuba's travel destinations, being Varadero the first of all.

The Tucan is another ultralight version of the same manufacturer. Today, pilots are being trained, but it can be already included into tourism services.

Polaris AM-FIB — also known as “balson,” as it has a large rubber raft integrated in the structure where the wing and engine are located — is another ultralight model that shall be taken into service. There are currently two available, but new rafts are expected to arrive shortly, which will be assembled into the wing-engine units that are ready. This ULM can carry the pilot and one more passenger.

All this equipment will be operational in Varadero. Once more equipment becomes available, other travel destinations such as Cayo Guillermo, Cayo Jutía, and Cayo Coco will be also benefited.