Microlight and ultralight safety is hotly debated and will continue to be. One thing to remember is that comparing private and commercial ultralight operations is no more logical than comparing street racers with limo drivers. And because this genre of aviation matured in modern times it has been and will continue to be more heavily criticized.

Many of the misconceptions surrounding ultralights stem from risky personal behaviors of untrained private operators who have accepted their own actions (the street racers). Many countries' regulations allow ultralights to be operated privately with little or no certification or training. The unfortunate side affect of unregulated flight gives the effect that the industry is unsafe, obscuring the line between the rare legitimate safety failures of the limo drivers and the more common accidents caused by the street racers.

Adding to the concerns is the fact that many ultralights can be home built and flown with no inspection at all. Once again, this is sort of like comparing a jungle vine to a 600 pound test rope. The home built (or the jungle vine) has a significantly higher occurrence of failure (accounting for nearly all of the few mechanical failures in ultralights) when compared to a manufacturer's certified, registered, airworthy, precision aircraft (the 600 pound test) with proper certified maintenance.

The opinions need not be swayed in one direction or another. If you don't want to fly in an ultralight, then don't. End of discussion. However, it should be made clearly visible that ANY commercial organization in ANY country is operating under extreme scrutiny from its governing officials.

Commercial organizations operate on the conditions that insurance, maintenance records, airworthiness certification and applicable pilot ratings for commercial operation be maintained. If they didn't they would be shut down. I don't know of any reasonably developed, democratic country where that fact isn't universal and Belize is no exception.

Successful commercial operations exist in many countries throughout the world and there are some great links provided below to a few companies throughout North and Central America. All of them use precision made, manufacturer certified aircraft with powerhouse, redundant engines and have fully certified, licensed pilots. Some even have the luxury of an FAA Certified Light Sport Pilot Examiner as their Operations Manager.

Hawaii, US -http://www.birdsinparadise.com/
Canada -http://www.ultralightnews.com/pilotslounge/ultralightflight_training.htm, http://www.bctrikes.com/
Mexico -http://www.ultraligeros-mexico.com/, http://sanfelipeultralightflights.com/default.aspx
Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua -http://flying-crocodile.com/HTML/English/flying/flying_frames.html, http://www.flyultralight.com/
Belize -http://www.toucanfly.com/
Kids learn to fly -http://www.eaa1288.org/YoungEagles/ye_faq.cfm
Persons in Wheelchairs learn to fly -http://flightability.bizland.com/

Any concerns regarding commercial ultralight operation are always taken seriously by the organization since any ultralight enthusiast wants to further enhance the industry. Stipulations can sometimes prevent having much of a choice in lingering in front of a busy approach pattern, though, but surely they will do what they can. Most commercial ultralight operations just want to enhance the accessibility to the natural beauty of a region and can actually decrease devastating foot traffic to many pristine areas helping to preserve them from overuse. Plus it's just an amazing experience. Give it a try sometime if you like.