Litespeed Aviation - Ultralight News visits Litespeed in Stanton Kentucky.

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Litespeed Aviation - Ultralight News pays a visit to Litespeed Aviation in Stanton Kentucky.

During trips to Lakeland Florida to cover Sun N Fun, I have run into a variety of BUGS - more commonly found in Kentucky than in Florida. These are special BUGS, big,  friendly,  they fly and will eat you out of house and home if your not careful!

BUGS stands for Bluegrass Ultralight Group. This very active group of ultralight flyers puts on a very impressive 3 day safety, and instructor seminar each year in Lexington Kentucky. 

Since I was sort of in the area, northern Indiana, delivering a  couple of L'il Buzzard's I decided to give Danny Mullins owner of LiteSpeed Aviation a call to see if he could put up with me for a couple of days, if I came down and covered the seminar.  

It  seemed only fair seeing how my wife waits on the BUGS  hand and foot each year at Sun N Fun, getting up as early as 6 a.m. to get the coffee pot perking, and  then having to put up with rowdies  like Frank Beagle, who are just awaking after partying until the wee hours of the morning. As it turned out I was down a couple of days earlier than I expected, this gave me an opportunity to visit the LiteSpeed facilities and to take a trip over to the new Kolb factory.

Litespeed is located at the Stanton Airport  about 40 minutes east of I 75 in a Stanton Kentucky.  Danny Mullins owner of Litespeed has been involved in aviation for nearly two decades now. His first venture into the sport was in the form of a Bobby Baker Bobcat, an all wood plane built from plans.

His reputation for impeccable workmanship spread and the next thing you know pilots are coming to him to finish off projects and paint their craft. About this time he met Mark Smith,  a Quicksilver dealer who probably knows more about Quicks than anyone on the planet. 

Under Marks guidance Danny started fixing and repairing MX's, Rotax engines, and doing repairs to various makes and models of craft.

In 2000 the New Kolb Aircraft Company purchased the design rights to the Kolb Aircraft line of light planes and moved the production facilities from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. Danny saw an opportunity, and approached the new owners with an idea that he felt would benefit both parties - quick build kits.

His idea was to offer Kolb purchasers the ability to buy pre-manufactured quick build Kolb kits and or pre-built Kolb aircraft. After close scrutiny the management of the New Kolb Company accepted Danny's proposal. 

This "joining of forces" has opened a new market for the New Kolb Aircraft company, by considerably reducing the building times on Kolb kits, and allowing pilots who do not have the time or inclination to build, to buy a fly away craft.

The marriage between Litespeed and Kolb works like this. A customer places and order for an aircraft. The New Kolb Aircraft company processes the order at the plant. Prepares all of the raw materials, nuts bolts, tubing, fabric etc into an order which is picked up by Litespeed.

Once at the Litespeed facilities the raw materials are fitted into jigs and a group of dedicated builders, lovingly goes about drilling, riveting, fitting and painting, converting a pile of raw materials into a flying machine. The head of Danny's crew is Brian Milburn, Brain is an conventional pilot,  and ultralight pilot who is in the process of finishing off a wood replica bi-plane. 

While Danny's is the owner, to see Brian work you would think it is his company and crew! While working on covering a set of tail feathers, it was not uncommon to see him get up while the glue was drying and go about the shop with the pride of a "mother hen" tending to her chicks. 

For the three days I was at the facilities the crew worked non stop from first thing in the morning till dark. Each member of the crew works in unison with the group. So much so that members were often seen moving from one section of the plane to another, as needed. Watching them build wings from scratch, was like watching a Super Bowl winning football team in action. Each member the best at his position, and working for the benefit of the team and product.

A final product that is "appreciated" by Kolb customers - evident by the letters adorning the Litespeed bulletin board from Kolb buyers who have written in to thank Danny, Brian and the crew at Litespeed for their work.