FlyBoy1960

There have been a few used in trikes, including one in a storm down in the Maitland regeon that I remember from almost 20 year's ago. Cant remember if it was HGFA or RA-Aus registered but he took off just ahead of a gust front which caught him out and made his flying uncontrollable. He deployed the chute and landed safely.

I was flying out at the Forbes flat land competition in the 90s Aero towing using an airborne trike. I remember one of these passing me on the descent. He had been up to about 12,000 feet doing temperature traces so they can work out the atmosphere for the days adventure. He would descend past me at over 3000 ft/m almost heading vertically. An amazing aircraft, simplicity but so very well made and perfect for the purpose they were designed for. Certainly not a cross-country machine!

I thought it was Bill Moyes who designed the Dragonfly?

My tinfoil hat uses aluminium made in China, and now all I want to do all day is watch tik-tok. I obviously got Covid twice from the clouds, I was feeling really good and looked up at the sky noticing a dark and ominous cloud and then mysteriously I got Covid twice, double Covid, twice as bad for a man than it is for a woman!

Yes i saw a Jabiru doing the same thing. Smoke trail out the back and then it just stopped and the plane went in silent mode so we couldnt hear it return to base. Something very fishy going on! 🤪

WOOOOOWWWW But the front forks are mounted backwards?

If he is then i am WAY off the track (again) Sorry

No, No, No. the best way to transport the fuel blader is with zero air in the system, it is the air that expands at altitude or heat. They recommend to fill the bladder up to the required level and then expel all of the air before sealing airtight. Then you can do anything with it because unless it gets frozen there is negligible expansion of a fluid. As you use the fuel from the bladder if it is plumbed into the aircraft system it just the deflates the bladder, if you use it to pour fuel over the wing then it will get air into it but it doesn't matter

this was hardly a big explosion, I think you could fit a lot more Ordinance or even drums of fuel inside the aircraft if you want to.

Damm It ! I was counting the coins in the back of my couch !

???

See above, the sustainer takes them somewhere else? Different location, cross strip, parallel runway, you need to read the posts properly

It can do a missed approach because it has a sustainer engine. The aircraft just needs to decide at 1,000 feet (or other arbitrary figure) if it is ready to land but I expect this decision has already been made some 30 minutes prior when the aircraft is descending through 10,000 feet or whatever. If it is not ready to land because there is something on the runway it can start the sustainer and fly a circuit and then land again. It obviously probably can't climb very well but it can maintain its altitude according to the information I have read. This however is an unmanned aircraft and therefore does not need to do missed approaches, it just comes in and lands. All of the UAV aircraft out there don't do a missed approach, they all come in and land the first time.

The runway is 6,000 feet

I have been following this for a while, what they didn't mention is that it has electric deicing as required, there are little generators on the wingtips which provide supplemental power during tow to power all of the systems on the aircraft and also top up batteries (more below). They also have an electric motor which can sustain them for several hours if needed, the example mentioned above of the tow plane having an engine problem is relieved by the glider having a sustainer engine and a glide ratio of approximately 30:1 when fully loaded. Typically these will fly at 30,000 feet and will glide around 250 km in distance once disconnected from the aircraft whilst not using the sustainer engine so they have a massive footprint for landing and 10 times this if they use the sustainer engine which may also be used as a supplemental power source for takeoff to lower the rolling distance. It is a little bit "Jetson's" but it is not as stupid as it first sounds. They are even thinking long-term with a pilotless aircraft at the front towing 2 of these behind.