Woohoo!

[cscotthendry]

Hi:

 

I've just purchased a new Airborne XT912 Tundra with the bells and whistles. I'm doing my basic license with Dave Cookman out of Tewantin in Queensland Australia.

 

[shameless plug]Dave is one of the most kind spirited and generous guys I've ever met. If you want to learn to fly a trike, he's hard to beat.[/shameless plug]

 

My prior flying was in a Hughes Lightwing GR912 (15 hours). I've flown in Tiger Moths, Cessnas, Pipers and helis, but for pure flying enjoyment, you cant beat the trike.

 

As of this writing, I have 6 hours in the trike and at least 14 to go before I solo.

 

See you in the air or at an airfield somewhere...

 

 

[skeptic36]

Hi:I've just purchased a new Airborne XT912 Tundra with the bells and whistles. I'm doing my basic license with Dave Cookman out of Tewantin in Queensland Australia.

[shameless plug]Dave is one of the most kind spirited and generous guys I've ever met. If you want to learn to fly a trike, he's hard to beat.[/shameless plug]

 

My prior flying was in a Hughes Lightwing GR912 (15 hours). I've flown in Tiger Moths, Cessnas, Pipers and helis, but for pure flying enjoyment, you cant beat the trike.

 

As of this writing, I have 6 hours in the trike and at least 14 to go before I solo.

 

See you in the air or at an airfield somewhere...

Hi Scott,

 

Try as I might I couldn't find a suitable 'jealousy ' icon to put in re your new trike but I bet you feel :ecstatic:any time your near it. I don't have the experience in other aircraft you have but I know flying the trike is pure enjoyment.

 

There are plenty of real life experience around here to draw on and hopefully you will keep us posted on your training progress.

 

Regards Bill

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Bill:

 

My son lives in Vic and we will be buying a trailer for the XT and take it touring with us. One day we will take it down to Vic and I will look you up and we'll go flying eh? I'm assuming the trike in your avatar is your machine.

 

 

[skeptic36]

One day we will take it down to Vic and I will look you up and we'll go flying eh? I'm assuming the trike in your avatar is your machine.

Mate,

 

Surely your teasing me, things that good can't really happen can they?

 

That is my baby in the avatar ain't she somethin.

 

My wife and I also have the grand plan to travel with the trike but there is still a bit more money to be earned before that can happen.

 

Which wing did you go for on the Airborne ?

 

Regards Bill

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Bill:

 

Yes, that's a good looking trike you've got there. I don't know WHEN we'll be down with the trike, but given that my son lives down there, we definitely want to go for a fly around the place. Maybe you could show us some good places to fly. Anyway, gotta get my license first:keen:

 

I nearly forgot...I got the Cruze wing, my instructor reccommended it and I'm not really all that interested in looooong cross country flying where I'd need the extra cruise speed. I'm just a flightseer.

 

 

[flyingflea125]

Hi Scott,

 

Well done, when my trike grows up one day it want's t be a Airborne XT912 Tundra :)

 

All the best with training and touring.

 

Mark

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Mark:

 

I see you're in Geelong. My father-in-law barracks for them. We might just make it there one day too.

 

I'm just back from two glorious days flying lessons. We managed nearly 4 hours for the 2 days. So far, I'm flying just in smooth air in the morning. I've had a couple of lumpy days, but I need lots more practice at that. To date, I have 9.3 hrs and both my instructors think that apart from more time in the saddle and experience with the rough stuff, I'm basically ready to solo. We did heaps of circuits today and the instructor threw lots of curves for the landings. Every time we took off, he selected the next runway around to the left to land, So I was doing very short circuits and some crosswind stuff. Then we went to an airfield with an over water approach and a runway closely bordered by trees. I'm proud to say I nailed every landing yesterday and today.

 

As I said, I still need a lot more practice with the not so nice stuff, but I think I've got the basic landing picture taped. My radio calls are a bit wonky in places, but mostly OK.

 

While I want to solo so bad I can taste it, I don't want to rush it as I'm acutely aware of my lack of seat time and lack of work with turbulence.

 

Ha ha, this is turning into a diary of sorts.

 

Mark: BTW, I'm getting a red trike like yours. What wing do you have on your trike?

 

 

[flyingflea125]

Hi Scott,

 

Yeah take your time, you learn more when it's not a race to solo and you get to experience that bumpy stuff more and seasons. It took me a long time to solo due to work commitments but I must say it's well worth the extra hours.

 

My trike is an Airborne 503, with wizard wing. It's a slow wing but forgiving and easy to transport. Best of luck with your training and keep nailing those landing :)

 

cheers

 

Mark

 

 

[Tracktop]

Hi Scott

 

Good choice :thumb_up: but then I'm biased :big_grin:

 

Did you go for the high windscreen as well?

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Mark:

 

You're quite right. I'm in no particular hurry to solo, although it is good to know that what I'm doing is working. I like the security of the instructor in the back seat. The other day we encountered some moderately strong thermal activity which was a first for me. We flew under the tiniest wispiest cluod, but the trike dropped and tilted sideways quite savagely. My first thought was OMG we're going to die here!!! Second thought was Uh, Oh have I made a mistake getting into this. Third thought was, No, if we were in any danger I'd hear screaming in the headsets from the back seat and Dave would have grabbed the controls, which he didn't. All three thoughts took place over the space of about 2 seconds so I settled to it fairly quickly. The point is, that if the instructor wasn't there, I would have worried a fair bit more about what happened.

 

Ray:

 

LOL, you've got a red Tundra!!! What a beautiful machine. I went for the Cruze wing as it seemed like the best compromise of speed and maneuverability. What is the streak like to fly?

 

BTW, I did go for the tall windscreen. I was flying Dave's trike with a different instructor the other day and we didn't bother to put the tall windscreen on. What a difference. I would reccommend to anyone who has a trike which can mount the screen to purchase it. It is so much more comfortable with it and it reduces the wind noise in the headsets quite a lot.

 

I also have a theory which my instructor seems to discount but I wonder whether the screen improves the aerodynamics of the trike. When I fly with Dave, we always have the screen on and the trike seems to trim out at about 52KIAS. When I fly with Bob, we generally fly with the screen off and the trike seems to trim at about 48KIAS. Any theories? I thought about the difference in the weight of the back seater, but would that account for 4 knots? Their weights are different but not by a great deal.

 

 

[skeptic36]

I also have a theory which my instructor seems to discount but I wonder whether the screen improves the aerodynamics of the trike. When I fly with Dave, we always have the screen on and the trike seems to trim out at about 52KIAS. When I fly with Bob, we generally fly with the screen off and the trike seems to trim at about 48KIAS. Any theories? I thought about the difference in the weight of the back seater, but would that account for 4 knots? Their weights are different but not by a great deal.

Hi Scott,

 

I was talking to a bloke at a fly-in recently who recommended I put a tall screen on as he had done it and increased his airspeed by 4 knots. I will be definitely doing it in the future :thumb_up:

 

Regards Bill

 

 

[Tracktop]

Hi Scott

 

Yes love my high windscreen too

 

The speed difference between trikes could be a difference in the trim setting ( the handle on the right of the A bar) to slow the trim speed down, or could also be just a difference between wings.

 

I think I ordered my trike after about 6 to 8 hrs training too.

 

Recently went solo at about 35hrs. The course structure I am working to (HGFA), you don't solo until you can do glide approach landings consistently, stall and unusual attituded recovery etc, etc. Better and safer not to rush it and reduce the possible stresses on your trike from hard landings etc

 

Like my streak, when new it was trimming at about 70kts though I think its trimming a but slower now its settled in. Used a number of wings early in my training but at that stage of experience the only noticable differences to me were windage / speed, a bit of bar pressure difference and take off distance. Since then only flown the streak.

 

Enjoy the journey.

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Ray:

 

The difference in speed I saw was on the same trike with the same wing. I've spoken to Airborne and two things became apparent to me (1) if the second instructor was heavier than the first (which he is but only a little) that would increase the trim speed. If you think about it, more weight on the wing means the wing must generate more lift to compensate. How do you do that with a fixed A of A? Fly faster. (2) The screen would reduce the parasitic drag of the pilot somewhat, but would that increase the flying speed? Consider this. If the weight was the same and you increased the flying speed, then the wing would generate more lift resulting in a climb. So my new theory is that although the screen would probably reduce drag and save fuel, it would probably not actually increase the trim speed. So my new guess is that the increase in trim speed I'm seeing is due to an increase in overall weight, not the screen.

 

I too am qualifying under the HGFA rather than RAA rules. As for glide landings, LOL! When I was doing three axis training on a Lightwing (many years ago) glide landings were all I could manage. The different attitude of the aircraft with a powered approach completely flumoxxed my brain and I couldn't judge it. With a gliding approach, the nose of the aircraft was pointing to where I though it would land. With power on though, the nose was pointing at the sky and I couldn't work out my aim point.

 

In the trike I have no such problems and I can judge quite well where my aim point is. My main problem was how much to move the bar by for the roundout. That was solved for me by instructor 2 who told me to let it fly into trim at the roundout height, then start to judge the setdown. Once I got the idea of that, I was able to judge the rate that it recovers from the descent and consequently when I should start to let the bar ease out to roundout. Now I've got that part OK, I can concentrate on radio calls, emergency landings, flying in rough air etc. I haven't practiced stalls yet, but from what the instrucor demonstrated to me, these things are very docile in the stall, as long as you don't do a whip stall which could precipitate a tumble.

 

What kind of "unusual attitude rcovery" do you do? I haven't got that far yet.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Guys

 

The high windscreen doesnt increase your speed, what it does do is create an area of low pressure around the dash and as such the pressure in the pitot inlet for the ASI shows a higher airspeed.

 

Proving this is simple, a hand held GPS can be used, on a day where the Aviation forecast shows winds aloft as negligable to compare speed over the ground vs indicated Airspeed.

 

Of course you need to know if there is an indication error when you get to doing Xcoutry etc where an indication error will create problems for you inflight.

 

All that said, that has been my experience with an addon higher windscreen your machine may prove to have differnet characteristics, though how a drag inducing addition would add speed is somethng you should think about.

 

Andy

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Andy:

 

That sort of makes sense to me, but would the higher screen produce a lower, low pressure area than the standard screen? I would have thought that the pressure differential would be related to the speed rather than how big the windscreen is. In any case, Airborne tell me that if you increase the weight in the trike the trim speed will increase and that makes sense to me too.

 

 

[alf jessup]

Hi Scott,

 

I'm with Andy on the speed increase, I fitted a tall screen a few years back and saw an increase of 3 kts, worked it out as the static vent as described by Andy.

 

But in hindsight it is a damn site more comfortable with the tall screen, can't work out why I waited 6 months to fit it.

 

BTW I must be the daddy of all your Airborne 912's, I have the first 912 built s/n 001 and she is still a bewdy, got it when it had 287 hrs on it and now she has 630 and still going strong.

 

Good luck with your training and congratulations on purchasing a damn fine flying machine.:thumb_up:

 

Cheers

 

Alf

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Alf:

 

Hey how's about a pic of your machine. I for one would love to see it.

 

 

[alf jessup]

Scott,

 

I shall see what I can do for you:thumb_up:

 

 

[JimandJo]

Hi Scott

 

I started my licence in December 08 and like you I too bit the bullet and bought a brand new XT912 Tundra. I opted for the Streak 3 wing and also the extended windshield and took delivery in February. Seems that since then good weather is a real treat. So far I have clocked up 28 hrs and about to go solo. My training is with Brendan Watts at SW Microlight School in Bunbury WA. It brings to reallity a dream I have had for many years to fly. Had no idea a two hour flying lesson would take all day - time seems to race away doing pre flights, briefings and chats with other pilots. Shame the weather this weekend is one again not so good. One thing we learn as a trike pilot is patience. Take care and fly safe and enjoy that 912.

 

JIM

 

 

[Tracktop]

Hi ScottOne thing we learn as a trike pilot is patience.

JIM

mmmm so that's the bit I'm having trouble with , weather over here has been dealing the same cards. Still the journey is good :big_grin:

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

mmmm so that's the bit I'm having trouble with , weather over here has been dealing the same cards. Still the journey is good :big_grin:

So in SA its triking reality that Autum generally provides the very best flying weather. Spring, being the opposite side of the spectrum doesnt, often with significant winds etc.

 

That said once youve finished your training you probably need to push yourself (safely of course) to try and aviate in some of that less than holliwood weather other wise you will find that the potential flying days available to you are very much limited....and then theres the time when things deteriorate while your up and suddenly you have to deal with bumpy stuff on return. In otherwords while flying in windy turbulence may not be that pleasurable its something that we all need to be perfectly capable of doing and not being scared of it. Ever noticed how the turbulence falls away in the last 6 ft as you settle onto the runway....

 

Of course you'll find yourself flying commercial in the big boeings and go through a bit of turbulence, even medium to severe when there are groans and a dgree of fear around you and you'll think to yourself what are the rest of the passengers going on about....

 

Anyway, weather and speed where the two reasons why I purchased the jabiru J230. Its more forgiving of weather conditions than the trike. 120Kt cruise means that there isnt anywhere in Aust that isnt that far away. The trike at 55kts cant claim that. That said on a hot summers afternoon tootling along at 3500ft in the airconditioned stratosphere watching the rest of the world suffering in the heatwave is one of those golden moments.....

 

enough rambling on

 

Andy

 

 

[alf jessup]

Eh Ray,

 

If it's any consolation to you I got .7 of an hr in late this afternoon as the wind died down here.

 

Was nice and smooth to to make your matters worse.:thumb_up:

 

BTW hope to get a couple in the morning also :clap:as it is looking good before i do some work on keeping the birds out of the hanger:censored:, got a cherry picker ordered for the morning to pull down their nesting areas and fix it up for good.:thumb_up:

 

Cheers

 

Alf

 

 

[bones]

Hi:I've just purchased a new Airborne XT912 Tundra with the bells and whistles. I'm doing my basic license with Dave Cookman out of Tewantin in Queensland Australia.

[shameless plug]Dave is one of the most kind spirited and generous guys I've ever met. If you want to learn to fly a trike, he's hard to beat.[/shameless plug]

 

My prior flying was in a Hughes Lightwing GR912 (15 hours). I've flown in Tiger Moths, Cessnas, Pipers and helis, but for pure flying enjoyment, you cant beat the trike.

 

As of this writing, I have 6 hours in the trike and at least 14 to go before I solo.

 

See you in the air or at an airfield somewhere...

Hey scott no doubt about Dave being a top guy, i learnt to hang glide with him many years ago, then seen the light and went to gyros, cause you can fly all weather, but say giday to him from me next itme your there, propper name is Mark Bredden, he will remember me, i still got a glider in his garage for next time i get down there.

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Hi all:

 

This week I decided to take the week off flying as Dave was going down to Airborne to pick up another guy's trike. It turned out to be a good decision as in Dave's expression, "It was blowing it's tits off" all week. Hopefully next week I'll get a couple more hours in. Then the week after, Dave and I will go back to Airborne to pick up my trike. Then the fun will really start, eh? Flying my own machine will mean that what I'm flying will be what I will fly with forever and also it reduces my training costs a fair bit.

 

Mark: I'll tell Dave you said hello. Gyros eh? Oooh, not for me, although, my other instructor, Bob is mad keen on them too.

 

Andy: I understand where you're coming from with the 120kts cruise. The thing I like about the trike though, is that every time I've flown in ultralights or GA planes, I felt like I was shut into a little box. I like the freedom and visibility of the trike. But Oh, the air-conditioned heights as you said. Sooo cool (in more ways than one)

 

Jim: LOL! A 2 hour lesson takes all day! Mate, once I get to the airfield, I don't want to leave. At our field we get some helis doing circuits. I love to just watch 'em do their thing. The auto-rotations they do scare me though. They come down soooo fast. Generally we get two at a time and they do their autos in quick succession. I have to sharpen up my elbows to get on the runway. That said, they're pretty co-operative about letting us in.

 

Ray: The good weather WILL come as the sun WILL shine. Are we addicted to flying and suffering withdrawl? I know I am.