eastmeg2

And Slarti, Love those graphics, almost makes me want to go 3-axis. Cheers, Glen

Sain, Barby sounds great, I should be there that weekend just before Xmas packing up the trike to tow home and then to Taree Xmas night to start the coastal run to Evans Head. Weather permitting on the day we'll fly in for the Barby. Cheers, Glen

Hi Peter, Staying coastal is looking more and more likely as it looks as though I'll be towing my trike to a friends property near Taree and flying with 2 slower trikes from there, with a stop at friend of theirs place at Nambucca heads, possibly another at Grafton for the other trikes to refuel. I wouldn't aska Sapphire to slow down to 60kts, we get a couple on the annual fly away each year and they look like a very tidy little single seater - 447 or 503 and am suprised I have not heard of any with an HKS yet. Cheers, Glen

For anyone who ever watched the doco on Brian Miltons world circumnavigation in a trike in 1998, there was a section over India where his co-pilot Keith Reynolds flew in cloud at 7000ft for 5hrs over 5000ft mountains in their Pegasus-Q 912 with IFR cockpit, they also both hold UK GA PPLs with IFR ratings which no doubt explains why they survived that very difficult leg. That's well beyond most trike pilots level of training that I know and certainly beyond any trikes level of cockpit equipment that I've ever seen in the flesh, but shows that trikes can be flown in that stuff, albeit with what I would call an elite level of equipage and pilot training in the realm of triking. As for me, I don't fly through any cloud I can't see through. VMC for me thanks. Rgds, Glen

Hi All, Is anyone else planning to fly to Evans Head for the Great Eastern Fly-In 28th-31st Dec? Am looking for any other 60kt machines that might be planninng to fly there from the Sydney surrounds, starting coastal from between Moruya-Taree or inland around Goulburn, Cootamundra etc . . . Cheers, Glen

Heck Field has to be one of the most difficult strips to locate visually, that I have come across in my travels. I flew there in 2004 by GPS in my trike and was still looking for it from 1500ft directly overhead when my GPS indicated I had arrived. Good thing I was only doing 50kts and can look straight down in straight & level flight. Cheers, Glen

Has anyone been asked Airborne what they plan to do when the 582 is discontinued? It may trigger the end of production of the Edge-X based trikes - Redback, Outback & Classic. OR, it may even drive Airborne to certifyt he Edge-X base with the HKS-700E engine, or God Forbid a h-h-h Hirth. (Just passed on prejudice, no experience with Hirths). But certainly I think Airborne will at the very least have to consider some replacement engine for the XT-582's already out there as their market would most likely suffer if they only sold 912's. Although I've heard 75% of their production is 912's these days, a possible 25% loss of sales is not insignificant. Rgds, Glen

Hi Matt, Thought you might like to know that the flight I caught home from Singapore on Monday enjoyed tail winds between 180 - 210km/h from Port Hedland to Broken Hill on Monday evening. Only started to decrease east of Broken Hill when we started to descend for Sydney. The 108kts you mentioned is in that range. Got us home 35 minutes early. Small mercy for me as I'd just done a 13hr flight from Amsterdam-Singapore and the 3 hr transit in Changi airport. Cheers, Glen

Re 4) It's more of an insurance issue and I hold little hope of ever being able to get insurance companies to submit to something that is so logical.

As an HGFA trike pilot I do recall seeing a figure of about 1000 pilots flying about 600 trikes in Australia. That was a few years ago. Sometime around 2001 to 2003. No idea how many were regular flyers though, and it was only HGFA and did not include RAA. I also hold an RAAus pilot certificate for trikes. People like me might skew the statistics, in a good way.

Baphomet, how did you go with getting your GRS re-packed? I've heard from another forum member once that he had trouble getting GRS to re-pack, or might have been that he couldn't wait for the turn around time that caused him to simply buy another after he used his first one. Reason I ask is that the GRS on my trike will be due for a re-pack in another year or 2. Cheers, Glen

I think the discussion is starting to get a bit beyond the question. I also think that by now we're all starting to wonder what Giorgio's feelings are on the matter and what type of flying Giorgio has in mind. Giorgio ???

Another option for you Darryl, though your budget might grumble if its too tight. If you Google around enough like I have recently you can find some trike manufacturers who make complete single seater trikes and you should have no problem purchasing a complete new wing from them. The Ozzie Dollar FX rate will help you at the moment too. Aircreation make a single seater, as do another mob in the USA whose trikes are made in India from European & USA materials & designs - search "Magic Trikes USA". You should find that under 95.10 which applies to single seaters you are allowed to mix and match in this way. Cheers, Glen

Hi Giorgio, It's all fine and well to learn to fly trikes with a 503 and a Wizard wing, but if you have any aspirations to do some X-Country when you get up a few more hours then you will find the Wizard wing rather limiting. As soon as any wind appears in opposition to your desired direction of travel your groundspeed and fuel range plummets. You may find yourself wanting to upgrade to a Streak wing and then find you need the extra power of a 582 motor to fly the Streak wing. Some instructors may push you towards learning on a slower wing like a Wizard and that learning on a faster (50kts hands off trim) wing is like learning to drive in a Ferrari. This is Bollocks in my opinion. You will learn whatever you fly, and safely with the instructor in the back seat until he is happy you have learned to fly it sufficiently to start your solo circuits. On the other side of things, the slower wings are better for just boating about and for shorter airstrips/paddocks and are usually simpler to rig due to having fewer battons. If you live in a warm climate then there's no real need for you to have a pod, I recommend a good 2nd hand Outback 582 which can take either the Wizard or Streak wings. If you fly in a cold place like me then you need a pod to keep most of the wind off you, then a good 2nd hand Classic (also 582) would be the go. If you go for the 582 motor then you at least have the choice of whether to use a Wizard or Streak wing, depending on what you want. Another point is the Wizard wing will be more affected by turbulence and cannot lose height as quickly when you want to, ie, sudden thermal on approach at the end of the runway. In the end it depends on what you intend to do with the trike and if serious XCountry is not in your future plans and you just want to float up and down the coast then you could save yourself a lot of money getting something like a Redback. Cheers, Glen

Many years back I did get some good advice . . . "Don't smoke your thongs". I suppose they must smoke everything up there, this one was a "back of the dunny door" special, in the pub there.

Hi All, The big one that concerns most of us recreational flyers is that from some date in late June 2014 it is proposed that all VFR aircraft must also operate ADSB/OUT in any situation where they are currently required to use a radio. On friday I have sent my response indicating that I object to the mandate requiring ADSB for G-Class airspace >5000ft and at CTAF®'s and that I'm only ok with it being required at Non-CTA RPT airports if the RPT's operate ADSB/IN. Rgds, Glen

Hi Neal, I am passing through Singapore for a couple of days later this month but don't really have the time to kill unfortunately as one day will be in the office there and the other day I fly out again late at night. Perhaps some other time though when I have a bit more time up my sleave. Cheers, Glen

Hi Andy, At small angles of less than a few degrees, or less than a 10th of a radian the calculations are pretty linear and complex trigonometry expressions can be dispensed with. In your earlier post you mentioned a distance of 1000ft. This is your radius, hence it is also your 1 radian arc distance. 1.2 milliradians = (1.2/1000) x 1000ft = 1.2ft. Cheers, Glen

Avgas at Loxton would be suprising. Loxton sticks out in my memory, in May last year en-route from Waikerie to Loxton my GPS died (GPS external power wiring problem resulted in flat GPS batteries). Clock and compass got me over the township of Loxton but the airfield was nowhere in sight from 2000ft AGL over the town. My options were to orbit over the town until another aircraft in our group appeared, try to get the GPS up for long enough for a bearing & distance, or to land in a paddock somewhere and canibalise batteries from the camera to put in the GPS. (They both use AA's). Thankfully another aircraft from our group arrived over the township, whom I radioed and followed to the Loxton airstrip another 6Nm further ESE of the town. Loxton airstrip was a dirt strip with a large tin shed/hangar, looking like countless other properties in the area. Still, better than nothing. Oh, and Waikerie was a great experience for us as we stayed for 2 nights in the stateroom in the top deck of the River Boat Queen, our our trike uses Mogas. Cheers, Glen

I had often wondered if there are any private UL airstrips on PI, anyone?

Hi John, I think your question is already answered since I last posted on this thread. XTS-912. Back in May I had a lovely XC flight from Temora -> Cowra -> Our strip near Goulburn - see the August Soaring Australia mag. Chris, I had poured over the Aircreation website in the months before placing my order with Airborne, but alas still came to the conclusion to stick with Airborne this time due to pricing and accessability of the factory being 130kms each way from home. Cheers, Glen

Hi Chris, I've never really heard of the issue of pitch stability on trikes being discussed much before other than a quick observation that the pitch stability comes from the centre of mass being so far away from the wing. I assume you are referring to a trike wings resistance to entering an end over end tumble in turbulence, or a stall? I'm not familiar with NAA Certification and not even that familiar with BCAR-S Primary Category certification which the Airborne Trike I fly is certified to. Rgds, Glen

We manage to get 3 fully rigged trikes into our 12m x 8m hangar. One of the 12m sides is the doors with the opening probably a bit over 11m. The extra 1m width allows us to offset the trikes about 1ft from the hangar centre line so that the 2nd trike in noses up to the rear undercarriage strut on one side of the 1st trike in and likewise with the 3rd trike. We also loop the rear seatbelt around the control bar of each trike to tilt the wing noses down to get the wings that close together without clashing. I'd estimate that the 1st trike takes 2m x 10m and each trike after that needs another 3m x 10m, plus the offset from the hangars centre line. If you're thinking of building a long hangar 5m x (n x 10m), you may not need 10m for each column of trikes as the wings could overlap approx 2m by tiliting them in the roll axis a bit, eg, rear seatbelt around one end of the control bar. You may have also noticed that trikes can fit in closely amongst 3 axis aircraft due to their wings being mounted much higher. Hope this gives you some (new) ideas. Cheers, Glen

Having the luxury of a GRS, I don't have to hope the untrained passenger would be lucky enough to pull off a good landing. I show them the basic controls and where the GRS handle is and that if I get hit by a Pelican to get the trike over a nice big open field and pull the handle. Cheers, Glen

No good for Trikes with those pillars in the middle.