"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:
"Mike Marron" wrote:

Or believe or not, me in my ULTRALIGHT trike! I'm one of just
a tiny handful of pilots in the entire U.S. who can legally take my
tube 'n fabric, 400 pound little space probe into a major Class "B"
airport and mix it up with the Boeing 777's...

What makes you and the rest of the tiny handful so special? Anyone can
operate an ultralight in Class B airspace if they if they get prior
authorization from the ATC facility having jurisdiction over that airspace.

Good question. I loosely used the term "Ultralight" only so that folks
would know what type of A/C I was talking about. My particular
"ultralight" trike is actually no longer classified as such because I
have N-numbered it. Me and the "special tiny handful" whom have
N-numbers on our former "ultralights" (a few others like mine are
based in Southern California) enjoy all the privileges of GA pilots
and operate under Part 91, not Part 103 (see below).

§103.17 Operations in certain airspace.
No person may operate an ultralight vehicle within Class A, Class B, Class
C, or Class D airspace or within the lateral boundaries of the surface area
of Class E airspace designated for an airport unless that person has prior
authorization from the ATC facility having jurisdiction over that airspace.

First, ultralight pilots (and I also use the term "pilots" loosely as
*most* ultralight "pilots" quite frankly suck!) can ask all they want,
but extremely doubtful they'll get permission from ATC to enter
any of those surface-based controlled airspace categories
mentioned in the FAR above. Whether or not a controller wants
to work with an ultralight is up to the discretion of the controller.
Second, even IF an ultralight pilot is granted permission (which they
wouldn't)...but *if* they would, they still cannot fly over congested
areas per 103.15 which stipulates thusly:

"No person may operate an ultralight vehicle over any
congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any
open air assembly of persons."

Because I operate under Part 91, I can base my ultralight trike
in the city (instead of way out in the boonies like 99.9-percent of
ultralights) and fly right over the top of the skyscrapers and
buildings downtown and land at Tampa Int'l, LAX, O'Hare, etc.
if I choose to do so (which I don't, but if I wanted to I could which
is extremely rare). I can also legally fly at night -- a privilege
that no other ultralight and/or microlight pilots (in Europe they're
called "microlights") on Earth enjoy besides us fortunate few.

My craft is the first and only one of its kind based in Florida
(or entire Southeastern U.S.A. for that matter) and I fly it almost
daily since I am able to conveniently hangar it downtown. It's
the greatest!

-Mike Marron