Posted on 11/26/2025 6:04:31 AM PST by Red Badger
I want one!
Nevermind the fact that I don’t leave my house much (I’m in my chair covering the news and serving YOU most of the day) but if I got one of these bad boys you might see your boy Noah buzzing around the neighborhood a whole lot more often!
A new “Flight Center” where you can take test rides is coming to Las Vegas in 2026:
..............VIDEOS AT LINK........................
“Do we not have air rights, at least to a reasonable height, over our own property”
No the FAA owns the air space all of it from a single foot above the surface. They choose to enforce different heights at different locations.
Most residential area’s are going to be class G FAA airspace which is “unregulated” during VFR meteorological conditions. Class G extends to 1200 feet AGL most places.
FAA FAR regs prohibit other than for takeoff or landing operating an aircraft other than a helicopter closer than 1,000 feet over congested areas versus 500 feet over other than congested areas. Helicopters are exempt from these rules but cannot be a danger to people or property on the ground. This applies to every aircraft subject to 14 CFR Part 91 commercial is under a different CFR.
Anything that can fly and weighs more than 254lb empty fits faster than 55kn and has more than 5 gal of fuel or it’s equivalent and carries more than on person is under 14.91 as does any practical helo and any powered lift regardless of mass.
Ultralights fall under FAR-103 and must be under 254lbs and slower than 55 knots max speed plus helos and all powered lift such as this are excluded by statue.
To operate any helo or powered lift you must hold a valid PPL and have helo cert or a vtol cert at least until 2026 then new regs kick in and you need at least a sport light licence plus a powered lift vtol endorsement for under 250 knots top speed and two people on board. Any more than 2 and you need a full PPL with class 3 med cert.
People get all worked up for a nothingburger, the FAA has already created a licence class for these they are never going to let how sixpack fly one without a FAA licence again right now you need a full PPL plus VTOL rating, and if you want to fly at in weather then a full IMC rating too. That’s $20,000 in PIC flight time, sims and ground schools.
These will be millionaire status symbols and only for those healthy enough to pass a class 3 med cert. Don’t have hypertension, epilepsy or colorblind or clinically morbidly obese or have vision that is not corrected to 20/20 with glasses or lenses.
You can’t hold an IMC rating with a Sport level licence , you also cannot fly at night without a night rating under the sport light and that also means a class 3 medical cert. By the time you do all that just solo and get your real PPL and then do the IMC for night and weather certs.
Your question is no you don’t own the air above your home and unless you hold the mineral rights you don’t own the ground under it someone could use a TBM abs bore a tunnel right under as long as they do not cause any structural damages from ground shifting or vibrations. The USA is way down the list for actual property rights, freedoms too. Don’t pay your property taxes you will learn very quickly who actually owns your home and the land it sits on.
Put a couple of bazookas on that thing, and it would have a legitimate use.
I like the idea of gas and electric power.
Adjustable pitch props could give it better performance and flight time.
Exactly. The required knowledge of rules in the air, education, licensing, and regulation would be absolutely staggering.
Thanks. There’s a FReeper to answer everything.
This Budget Car Rental "commercial" is one of my all time Internet favorites...a bunch of ad executives sitting around a table brainstrorming a way to get people to their rental cars faster, and a guy says: "We could...if we gave them all jet packs!" and everyone stops to think about the idea...all thinking the same thing at the same time!
LINK: Budget Rent a Car Commercial-Jet Packs to get people to their rental car faster!
” was 53 years after the Wright brothers flew until the first Cessna 172 was made. I’ll wait about 52 years and then I’ll trust one.”
I can fly and would never fly one they all have a coffin corner twice per flight. Once on takeoff and again on landing where you are too low and slow for a ballistic rocket deployed parachute to land you safety but too high for even airbags and crash rated seats to keep your G loads under 50Gs the edge of survivability 75G is LD50+ and 100G is LD100. If your engines die or your lose your power electronics for the E motors you die in coffins corner.
The FAA has not fully set the powered lift cert PART regs if they use the Help regs then it’s 40 hours flight time with an instructor for 20, 10 solo. The typical 40-20-10 of any PPL but it must be done in the Helo even if you already hold a PPL I would bet good money the FAA adds the powered lift too under CFR 14.61 which would be a full PPL at the 40-20-20 in the aircraft type to be operated.
Under the new Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) category under the MOSAIC coming in 2026 the weight limits for LSA are being removed as is the speed limits, but helos and vertical lift unless they change it are excluded from LSA specifically. LSA still requires 15 hours flight instruction time+ check rides and ground school and practical plus written exams. No night flights, one passenger only after 2026 and no IMC for weather other than VFR.
The only VTOL I would fly or fly in is either a helo or a gyrodyne. More so a gyrodyne because unlike a helo they are in full auto rotation from the moment they leave the ground and can return to a soft landing from any altitude and speed they are the ONLY aircraft that can do this helos cannot they also are the only aircraft that doesn’t have a dead mans zone on takeoff or landing the rotors are spun up before you do a zero / zero take off and in flight they never stop being at auto rotation speeds as they are unpowered in flight as is, if your engine dies in a gyrodyne you just settle down like under a parachute using the airflow already flowing upwards through the blades from the moment you left the ground. A gyrodyne fly by air flowing upwards through the rotor disk creating rotation and lift exactly opposite of a powered helicopter which must reverse the airflow in the rotors and then spin them up to auto rotation speed, and worse still for powered lift with small quad props the disk loading is so high they can never auto rotate at any speed they fall like a brick. Nope nope nope.
This is the way...
https://newatlas.com/aircraft/skyworks-aeronautics-evtol-gyrodyne/
Watch the videos they show zero / zero jump takeoffs and it’s always in auto rotation for landing by physics. You can cut your engine at will and drop to a soft zero / zero landing every time in fact to land you throttle back to idle and coast in that’s how you land a gyrodyne. As they say an aircraft so safe they would put their gramma in it. I agree it’s the only VTOL I would put my wife or myself or children in. Never ever a EVTOL I hold a PPL-H which I added years after I got my regular PPL and I still don’t like getting under the Jesus nut even with two engines and dual dog clutches for a single engine out capable helo.
“Exactly. The required knowledge of rules in the air, education, licensing, and regulation would be absolutely staggering.”
The only way the FAA is going to allow the general public to fly in EVTOL is either a commercial rated pilot as PIC onboard. Maybe if 5G and Starlink can be proven to be 99.99% per year reliable then remote pilot’s and onboard AI to fly in drone mode where it’s autonomous flight from point A to point B with the AI flying and a remote licenced human ready to take remote full flight control authority remotely like the FAA let’s predator drones fly today in the national airspace. NEXGEN with electronic filed flight plans,Mode-S, ADS-B out & in plus TCAS already has the ability to automatically keep requires clearance distances from all aircraft in flight if every aircraft has ADB-B in, Mode S and TCAS then the FMS with AI certainly can keep the required aircraft separations even in IMC conditions and at night it’s a giant comparative network. Pretty much every general aviation aircraft must have mode S, ADS-B out already adding in ADS-B IN + TCAS solves the problem once and for all oh and UAT for all aircraft including EVTOL for live traffic ,weather and NOTAMS the AI can easily read a NOTAM they already are a standardised format.
Joe six pack will never be cleared to fly one of these but AI FMS(flight management system) plus human remote via 5
G and global 6000+ satellite Starlink Gigabit data streams would work to appease the FAA.
“take you into Oblivion,”
OR
“Beyond Bolivia!” as a neighbor lady once said.
At the bare minimum whomever gets inside one of these EVTOL has to be able to read, understand, and obey the VFR regs to even leave the ground and enter class G airspace let alone B,C,D,or E.
This is DFW’s VFR sectional for the helo routes which every one of these EVTOL would be legally required to follow and any violation is a federal offence and also due to the proximity to DFW and Love Field you are putting hundreds of lives at risk on every aircraft you get near.
https://aeronav.faa.gov/visual/06-12-2025/PDFs/Dallas-Ft_Worth_Heli.pdf
Notice how much of DFW is covered by SFC class B around DFW and Love. You cannot leave the ground without ATC prior approval and they will require a VFR flight plan for sure. You will have to fly out to a designated helo airway marked in blue and maintain tight altitude, speed and spatial control inside your assigned corridor until you are well outside DFW area , you will need Mode S within 30 nm of DFW and Love it’s the dark blue outer rings that also means ADB-B out as well. This is to just leave the ground. A lot of North Texas cities already have outlawed help landing and takeoffs from anywhere but a properly licenced FAA AND city approved heloport or helipad this means only hospitals, city buildings. You can never takeoff or land anywhere else inside those city limits, EVTOL will be added bank on that. AAllen , Fairview, McKinney, Frisco all have wealthy people and they banned helicopter pick ups year’s ago over the noise and rotor wash. Every one of them will add a single line to their existing ordinances no powered lift inside city limits to include electric VTOL, personal VTOL or uberair ect ect ect.
It’s nearly impossible to get approved for a helopad even if you have the 8:1 slope obstacle/building clearances for your approach and departure slopes and 2:1 for side slopes a big ask inside and suburban area even rural and exurban struggle to meet 8:1 for a FAA approved LZ. You land more than once a year and they FAA could rule you have a in regular use helicopter landing zone and demand you certify it the city even if they don’t outright ban helos and VTOLs will get on that as soon as your neighbors start calling them when you land repeatedly 100+ decibel aircraft over their homes and in their yards blowing 100+ mph down wash all over tipping chairs , tossing lawn items and blowing leaves, acorns and loose branches all over and down into their yards...yeah the council and HOA will pass ordinances so fast you will be lucky to get a couple months of flights in or out of a suburb ha even on ten acres the county could step in if my neighbors complained and again the FAA has and will rule anything more than once a year is “ in regular use” they HATE not having control of THEIR airspace.
Am I the only one who sees these things as flying ginsu knives?
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