Trailerable aircraft

[JG3]

I've had excellent experiences with trailerable aircraft in the USA, as shown in my website stolspeed.com. I've also done lots of Xcountry travelling in fixed wing aircraft, but having to camp under the wing in bad weather and having no transport from airfields into town is a nuisance. Towing an ultralight in a trailer with a camper van gives a comfortable bed and wheels to get around. But very few of such aircraft and trailer rigs around. One of the best would be the Kestrels, designed and built in Brisbane, with a long history of safe flying. I once flew such a Kestral from SE Qld to Horsham Vic, and it went well.

 

Now I note that there's a Kestrel with an excellent trailer for sale in the classifieds. I've seen that particular aircraft flying many times years ago and know it's well looked after.

 

Kestrel Recreational Aircraft Cat 95-10 | Recreational Flying

 

I'd grab it myself except that I've just finished building my own design and trailer to do the same sort of travel around flying.

 

JG

 

 

[howe]

Hello John,

 

Yes,its a great little plane and has been kept in excellent condition by its original owner.

 

Cheers ..Howard

 

 

[Hargraves]

G'day JG3 ( john ) you are absolutely correct that air touring without having to rely on anyone else's goodwill and generosity and with your own ground support vehicle and accomadation is the only way to go sir. I am in the process of doing the same thing with construction of a very streamlined, due to pusher designed aircraft type, fully enclosed lightweight stabilized and braked duel axle trailer to accomadate my aircraft choice for that purpose which is my GT500 the wings do not ( fold ) but are removed and carried on the airframe as a single loading unit. I have yet to see or be advised of any aircraft in our class with folding wings that would survive, or could be trusted not to be damaged in transit on our outback roads, I would very much like to chat with you off forum re our similar interests sir my email is [email protected] thanks and hope to talk soon. Mick

 

 

[houndog]

Cec Lea (Designer) built a Kestrel with folding wings (Swing Wing variant of the Kestrel) but only one was ever made.

 

There was a small time saving when rigging the thing, but it was a bit more cumbersome and heavier when moving it in and out of the trailer at the strip, and when doing maintenance at home.

 

Photos of my Trailerable Kestrel at Woody Point in June

 

 

 

[Hargraves]

What a wonderfull flying machine sir. Did that variant have the 503 in it and what was the preformance like on floats

 

 

[howe]

Greetings from Brisbane. New Float Plane Video........ more info here Hargraves

[houndog]

What a wonderfull flying machine sir. Did that variant have the 503 in it and what was the preformance like on floats

Hi There Hargreaves, Yes pretty much all Kestrels have the 503.

 

The floats are simply a mid density polystyrene block, shaped then glassed with woven cloth and epoxy resin.

 

The main advantage of this design is if they spring a leak they won’t fill up with water and sink.

 

It’s a well tried and proven method dating back to the early 1970’s when Cec was the first who designed and made Ultralight floats using this method.

 

Thanks for posting the link for the float performance video Howe.

 

Rob

 

 

[dsam]

FYI, here is an earlier link on this topic:

 

Recreational aircraft with folding wings

 

 

[Hargraves]

Thanks dsam, their are some great combos in that lot for sure and it does highlite the associated problems of the concept ( for this countrys air touring at least). Like most I looked at trailerable befor buying my first aircraft and that combined with my trade experience resulted in my minimum criteria to do the job being settled on, and that is by no means meant a critique, but mearly my choice of travel, I was adament that I would,nt tow a low set unstabilized lightweight single axle brick on some of our worst roads, (savanah way ect) particularly as i,m building from the ground up and wish to get it right first time. If the reason for trailering is hanger cost and security driven, primarily, that changes things considerably and allows much less to be taken into consideration. Bottom line is horses for courses I guess, but a teriffic way to go all told. Cheers Mick.

 

 

[dsam]

Thanks dsam, their are some great combos in that lot for sure and it does highlite the associated problems of the concept ( for this countrys air touring at least). Like most I looked at trailerable befor buying my first aircraft and that combined with my trade experience resulted in my minimum criteria to do the job being settled on, and that is by no means meant a critique, but mearly my choice of travel, I was adament that I would,nt tow a low set unstabilized lightweight single axle brick on some of our worst roads, (savanah way ect) particularly as i,m building from the ground up and wish to get it right first time. If the reason for trailering is hanger cost and security driven, primarily, that changes things considerably and allows much less to be taken into consideration. Bottom line is horses for courses I guess, but a teriffic way to go all told. Cheers Mick.

I should point out that I don't regularly transport my Eurofox via the trailer. Australian outback roads can be extremely punishing to such cargo. For me, it serves as a "hangar" stationed at YLIL. However, should I need to retrieve or relocate my aircraft for repairs from some unfortunate event or breakdown whilst on an excursion, I have a good option to use this trailer to facilitate this. Luckily, throughout all of my outback excursions, I have had no such incidents, and flew home safely.

It's not really my preferred mode of aviation, but I would have thought an ideal "aircraft" for ground/airborne outback "tourism" would be a powered parachute setup from the back of a 4WD ute. I have no personal experience with this, but others on this forum may well have much to contribute in this regard.... over to you guys...!

 

 

[howe]

One more solution.

 

 

 

[Hargraves]

G,day again houndog do you know of the float desingers contact number as i,m keen to learn of the method required for bouyancy calculations and size.

 

As a retired TQ shipbuilder its not an ailen concept to me and though I loath the mess and smell of glass work, I have been doing a little lately on the yacht and could well decide on a float build if a proven technical plan of construction techniques could be advised. My email is [email protected] ph 0414607563 if you can assist in anyway, cheers Mick

 

 

[howe]

Mick as a rule one float must be able to displace the mtow of the aircraft i.e. if mtow 300kg you will need 300litres per float. A set of floats for the above ac gets reasonable expensive. For materials alone I would say approx $3,000 and thats not the support structure.

 

 

 

 

[Hargraves]

Thank you for the help sir. The GT 500 in consideration is a two seater and has a mtow of 1000 Lb and as a 55 aircraft would have to go to experimental cat to acheive float configeration anyway as the factory doe,s not fit them. Its a whole box of worms for sure but efficent and structual sound design of the floats would have to be achievable (in plan) befor you opened the box I would say, so thats what i,d like to find out first. Thanks again for your help and interest, cheers Mick.