Trike piloting techniques

[skeptic36]

Well worth a look.

 

Different to what most of us have been taught, but they definitely work.

 

 

 

[Air Creation]

Flight Pathe Management.. never mentioned in Larry's brief.! Only control inputs, all weightshift movements.

 

So if you were to fly a different type of aircraft.. fixed wing, rotor craft, soft cell.. could you fly safely if you learnt to fly with Larry.. or you encounter a life threatening emergency near terrain..?

 

Simply, ROTE.. instruction technique, a very old method of flight instruction.

 

Hands & Feet.. Slabs of MEAT..

 

Try this - Close your eyes momentarily next time you are flying any aircraft for a few seconds.. can you safely command the machine..think not - very similar to flying in cloud !

 

Cockpit attitude, energy management and time are the primary factors to command your flight pathe in VFR conditions, relative to the horizontal datum or skyline.

 

A variety of instructional techniques are applied across the aviation industry, usually ROTE being the most common.. ie. 'pull the stick back to go up'..'push the bar forward to go up..'

 

So what do you do.. pull or push the controls.. sorry Too Slow, your brain has no idea what to do, and you have just impacted the ground - fact!

 

What if you are flying inverted near terrain.. pull the stick back, your dead, flight pathe into the ground!

 

More than two decades ago, my flying career crossed pathes with a very intelligent man - Robert Lorreton, the Flight Commander for the Roulettes Team...

 

Bob educated my brain with one simple lesson about Flight Pathe Management.. and how your brain interprets the invisible course of your machine..

 

See it in this manner... Vertical + Azimuth + Energy over Time (short/long) = Aircraft Flight Pathe..

 

End result - the piloting control input to safely command any aircraft.. is to - Do What Ever It Takes.. to SEE the flight pathe YOU desire.

 

IMHO - well worth investigating - you may be surprised...!

 

 

[kasper]

Handling rough air and not chasing the bar - standard

 

Not locking your elbows - standard

 

Relaxing your shoulders and resting hands - standard

 

Flying the path of the trike not the wing - standard

 

Doing high alpha and crow hops with one wheel up turning - Hmmmm I'll pass, its far too easy to get a gust or get the weight holdoff wrong and see the onground wheel catch and lay the trike on its side - seen that multiple times and seen the trike in the factory for rebuild.

 

Sorting out pitch before worrying about roll - Hmmmm - if you fly the trike not the wing this only really occurs in extreme unusual attitude events - so I'll pass and continue with 'std' unusual attitude recovery of dealing with roll wings level then deal with pitch - last thing I want to do is try pitching when the trike is already rolling strongly.

 

Interesting to watch though

 

 

[skeptic36]

Interesting to watch though

Even more interesting to practise.

After flying my Q2 for 150 hrs, then getting into a RivalS, the method I was taught to use when managing turbulence (stir the porridge he said) i.e keep applying big corrections until you are straight and level again, just doesn't work on the more sensitive wing and rapidly becomes PIO. Waiting the four seconds before doing anything, often you find no input required and often just squeezing the bar as described in the vid is enough to get you back on track. I asked Larry how well his methods work on the heavier wings, and he says very well. I'd love to have a go again one day, but unfortunately I have sold my Pegasus.

 

 

[kasper]

Even more interesting to practise.After flying my Q2 for 150 hrs, then getting into a RivalS, the method I was taught to use when managing turbulence (stir the porridge he said) i.e keep applying big corrections until you are straight and level again, just doesn't work on the more sensitive wing and rapidly becomes PIO. Waiting the four seconds before doing anything, often you find no input required and often just squeezing the bar as described in the vid is enough to get you back on track. I asked Larry how well his methods work on the heavier wings, and he says very well. I'd love to have a go again one day, but unfortunately I have sold my Pegasus.

Well all I can say is I learned on a Quik and then on a Q2 wing before going backwards (performance wise) to an XL and was told effectively to let the wing ride the air and you focus on the path of the trike - no porridge stiring - and even wehn I moved onto the Raven wing whcih is fast and light you let it ride the air and only make correction in rough air when the trike is moving off the flight path.

Maybe it is the UK weighshift syllabus and training, we don't learn to stir the porridge.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

I was taught to think of turbulence in the same way as a cork bobs about in the ocean.....don't fight every movement, all you'll do is become tired quickly, just make sure that your average course is aligned with where you want to go so adjustments only when becoming very divergent from intended course. Loose arms approach with widespread hold is standard approach, but loose arms only works when flying in trim. bar back to go a bit faster isn't going to work, but then again forcing the wing to go faster in turbulence may well be a recipe you don't want to follow anyway....

 

Interesting that he was flying revo's I thought mednicks where airborne through and through..perhaps that all changed when the AUD to USD became greater than parity....... might soon be again an airborne outfit

 

Andy

 

 

[skeptic36]

I thought mednicks where airborne through and through

Larry is the owner of Evolution Trikes, he and his former partner designed the Revo and they have the carriage built by a PPC manufacturing company and their wings by Northwing.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Then I have him mixed up with the gang that do flight training and sight seeing in Hawaii Birds in Paradise

 

Andy

 

 

[skeptic36]

Then I have him mixed up with the gang that do flight training and sight seeing in Hawaii Birds in ParadiseAndy

Gerry Charlebois (spelling). He was killed recently when his trike crashed. Yes they where Airborne, but had recently switched to a Revo. The story goes that he had been messing with the fuel system and had fuel venting inside the wing, and the whole thing caught fire. But that is just a story.......