Lizzard

Beach landings can be a can of worms . The legalities aside, Here is my hands on opinion if you are considering beaches Flying over coastal areas offers some of the safest flying available to us , no power lines ,clean air, and a lot of runway that is survivable at worst which makes it very relaxing . I also offer a free shark spotting service which has probably saved a few surfers over the years. landing on a remote beach can be an instant rollover , especially with the latest runway queens with small tyres and high stall speeds. The only way to adapt to the risk is to only land on the Known beach which you just took off from . If you can take off ,you can land as long as you are gentle with the front wheel and dont ever pull in for better breaking ..do the opposite . It is my firm opinion that ultralight trikes should be light ,slow , and have instant and predictable handling response which is not common for the modern commercial models . The airborne redback with a wizard is the most capable faster trike with wheels that resist digging in with low pressure on the front . In a forced landing ..engine out or other. You can hope that there is a favorable head wind . Use it ! Vehicle tracks are a god send as long as you took the time to do a low level inspection. Where there is a sloping beach with active breakers and a non flat surface ,its is most likely that the sand will have soft/boggy bits that will grab the front wheel and over you go only to be pounded by the next lot of breakers. In this situation take the high section . Kelp and a relatively flat surface is the best indication of a stable surface . Otherwise touch down as close to the water as you can, ready to steer up the beach asap. If you see small stones and shells its likely its hard there . A small wave will stop you very quickly and you have a job rinsing everything the same day. A sloping beach with a crosswind is a skill that can be mastered safely by practice . Try Not to operate from the same area too often as some beach users don't see you as amusement the second and third time you disturb the peace on their favorite beach I have always made my own trikes and the limited bar out (no stall) that the manufacturers became addicted to is downright dangerous in this situation. But having a no stall aircraft is a great thing ... NOT! For Exactly this reason my home brew models always have an extra 300mm of bar out which means a full braking flare is doable and gets much more weight off the front wheel . It also means that on take off you can haul it off the ground technically stalled but picking up speed. Bad if the fan stops! It is also useful In an emergency landing on say a foot ball field to stall with a sideslip recovery then round out . It can also be fatal if you fail with the timing. Any way if we are taking a trike that was designed for runways to a beach you are out of its designed operating conditions ...best to not do it unless all of what I have said makes sense to you.

Wow similar history . Here is my List Wind soarer mk2 by jay Mc Farlane in wa. No battens but the latest and safest due to the 1.5 inches of keel reflex to prevent luff dives (yeah right) Wings condor floaty slugish but High tech conduit battens and reflex in the keel Wings kestrel sloppy but lots of long soaring flights around cairns and rainbow beach. Twister 5 ...nothing good to say about this one . deflexors heavy ,good LD for its time but who needs LD on coastal Skydart 2 a well balanced lightweight quick setup ..still love it in my mind . a bit small for the soarmaster Chevron 190 a floaty version of the skydart with balanced deflexors and good for the soarmaster and my first trike .

Yep Them were the days alright ! when luff lines became the norm some of us speculated that they enhanced the tumble effect ..we were all amateur aeronautical engineers /test pilots . So we thought . We were right in hindsight. Steve Cohen , the maker of the best dune/coast glider that I know of once had and accident exactly like yours except he went all the way to ground . It was at stanwell late 70's I think. Trikes can be flown safely in some very nasty air but they are simply not pleasurable and fixed wing gliders are the most fit for purpose in rowdy air. Now days we see lots of para gliders filling this genre which we and all pilots KNOW are not safe in turbulence ,even wake turbulence . Yet the portability and easy landings seem to be enough for this generation to accept the risk ...oh that's right they all carry chutes so no problem..? I wonder if I was 17 today if I would be a bag flyer . They are easier to teach hard to launch but easy to land. Here is a shot from a few days ago at shelley beach WA you may be able to see the scratching jellyfish on th ridge. Oh and to the photo addicts out there ...get a canon R5 .. It is an absolute game changer . Expensive but you only need cheap zoom lens as the electronic compensation actually works . I used to take 4 shots and usually get 1 keeper ...now I struggle to find rejects. The back view finder can be moved about enabling you to reach out with the camera and clear wings and wires and the ocasional foot. Th one with both feet is a full res jpeg just in case you want to pixel peep.

Hi all, I dont post much any where these years but some things are important as our declining numbers reduce information sharing. Any way , Im from the early trike days when soarmasters were the rage ,I had the only one in oz for a few years and soon learned that my home built trike with a yamaha 350cc direct drive flew so much better than the soarmaster ..obvious today of course. Over the years as 2 place trikes with 447 503 532 and hanglider wings with some strength added in a few areas, keel, wires and sometimes cross bars . no real engineering but hang gliders were designed by built it until it breaks then fix that bit ( general aviation does this too if you look at the history) These slower machines which were protected by the billow , load shedding and air speed limits of about 40mph there were few structural problems and no spiral dives back then. As some of us started to re invent the aircraft and train pilots to understand that other air users were to be allowed for ,the speeds and stiffness of our modified hang gliders was having the effect of High landing speeds and enough inertia to loop if that was how silly you wanted to be . The one thing that I noticed with these new fast strong hang gliders was that when flying 2 up one could stall in a tight turn and have the bar forced away from you with high force and build speed with no real control . I experienced this once at 2000 ft and somehow pulled out at 500 ft . The problem in a nutshell is that when a well loaded weight shift aircraft stalls at high speed causes the g loading to increase making it even more impossible to recover . Many wind in spiral dive deaths were caused by this . Few were ever defined as speed stall spiral dives. A low weight converted hang glider will not suffer from this defect which was never discussed by manufacturers who would say ,rightfully ,dont stall at high bank and introduce training to avoid the condition in the first place . This was the only sensible thing to do at the time but never admitting that weight shift aircraft have limits as all aircraft do . As my age and wisdom combine I find myself flying my nano trike , an airborne shark or a fun 190 over a m25y black devil ,to be the most satisfying thing to fly just as they were in the late 70's but much better power plants and props . Strictly coastal flying avoids power lines and offers safe landing 99% of the time . This is to me what ultralight flying is all about ,there is no where to go so and lots to see ...what's the $$%ing hurry any way ? 20 paces take off 30 paces landing ...less with wind . and 10 liters of fuel is a days flying ..assisted by cliffs and sand dunes . They are pretty shitty to fly in mid day thermals unless that's your thing ..its not mine . Any way I hope that this message is well received by those who have as did I , out smarted myself with the latest and greatest only to discover that cabin heat and comfort is available at airports and ultralights were invented because of their simplicity portability and forgiving handling (as long as the weight is kept down). This is all just my opinion based on lots of trials and few errors. Safe Flying, however you make it so .

I have to chime in here ... A few years ago ,while looking for an oil supplier in perth wa I chanced upon a guy in a back lane industrial suite filling 4 litre containers with oil from a 200 ltr drum . The containers were labled castrol ,mobil,and shell ...all from the same drum! Sensing my distress,the guy just looked up and said didn't you know? Reading the rubbish that is written on oil bottles these days is like reading a new idea or woman's day ... nothing against women, but we are all fools to think that there is relevant information written on the bottle .

Yep, that's always been the aim.............. extra fuel stays with the wing . I still see it as viable but it would take few hundred grand a few dedicated people to bring it about . No gaurantee of commercial success, but sponsorship might do it. What I found interesting was that bike manufactures seemed pretty keen on it while I was getting it ready..then when it flew they were ashed faced...they obviously were humoring me in the construction phase, then were terrified that they might have to fly ..or something like that , not what i was expecting at all. Even my girlfriend ..who I consequently broke up with said it will never fly! Like so many things , unless the bucks are about they are just gimmicks. It blows me away how many flying cars that are in concept yet raise heaps of capitol and not even flying?? There are so many bikes that will fly easily ..therin lies the problem! Just remeber, next time you ride down a road clear of powerlines and raise the front wheel ........yes it is absolutely possible!

I asked for the cheapest way to get the bits for the aframe, even suggested second hand to them.

Hey Frank, There is something special about diy with this, more achievement and satisfaction. Im pretty damm sure that the wright brothers (and others at the time )were only ever really looking for a good trike to feel flight ..or something similar. They might well turn in their graves to see the red tape created by the "business" of flying I have come to understand that if your machine weighs more than you then it is difficult if not impossible to make it an extension of your self easily. That said, power steering will likely be the next development like bicycle handlebars or handles pivoting on the centre of the base bar , connected to winglets . Im sure that would have already been done ? The heavy trikes of today really need a runway to be safe rather than a bit of track with clear entry and exit The circuit area is truly a dangerous place . I fly mostly solo o.c.t.a. from a road , a beach, a lake , paddock . I also recall seeing "pilots" with no apreciation of other air and ground users do some really silly stuff. Remember what's fun and be safe with that.

The basic of the skybike A friction drive from the rear wheel drives a chain which drives a 3;1 90 deg drive the rear brake becomes the throttle. A hard compound tyre was vital ... you can hear the drive slip just after the flyby . I only did a few hours on it ..but it really needs a stack of money thrown at it to get it refined . I would have used a lighter trail bike but needed the excess power (110 hp) so that i could ground test the drive system to possible destruction with safely. I only ever used 60% for the flight testing. a refined drive system with no chain would be impotrant as would the propper testing for tbo Theres not much on a bike that isint also needed on an aircraft. The weight with one is just like 2 fat guys on a trike having mass foward(engine and bike ) and rotational mass to the rear offers some potential challenges in severe turbulence It was interesting that the front wheel in flight, would spin backwards so a light touch of the front brake was important just before touch down I really want to do a car like this some day ..the rear diffs on some cars are just begging for this "treatment" you can (breifly)fly a plank with enough thrust

Hi all, I just found this forum .. great stuff everybody! I come from the roots where if you didnt build your own trike ... you shouldnt fly. Pioneered a few hangliding sites and still get grubby hands ..54 now I see that commercial ,ga influences, and blame games (insurances)have allowed many non mechanically minded people to fly with relative saftey. I dont see engine off spot landing comps I do see that it's something that MUST be practiced safely. Of note is that trikes are now very over equiped and over priced for a machine that basicaly flies in fun circles ..whats the hurry? The very best trike I ever flew was a moyes mars 170 and a 277 rotax..slow but the handling! I have a few trikes, all of which I built, and wings wizzard 2 pegasus airborne shark(hanglider) My bases are tig welded stainless steel brackets with 6061 t6 tube sections . very light and impossible to make commercially. Sharing the little bits we have learned enhances our experience and makes everybody safer. Still reading.......... here's a video of one of my builds Lindsay

Hi Guys , my first post here, sorry it's a whine but. Been triking since the early eighties and build my own bases ..mostly I recently purchaced 2 uprights and a base bar with 6 new bolts for my wizzard which had corrosion damage to the lower section .Total price , landed in perth over 800 dollars. The holes were not clean, had to be de swarfed and the bright annodised tubes have die marks running their length. It really hard to see how so little material can be so pricey .. I was used to buy this tube by the lenght for 80 dollars ... 15 years ago... it was 6061 t6 not the new "easy corrode" stuff Their "service" was fast and friendly .. sorry to whinge ! perhaps this is normal and I need to adjust my economic expectations