Reporter Fixing Mistakes.

[Guest Maj Millard]

Querty, I'd say the Lightwing is more a scaled down Piper Pacer, than a Maule, not that there is anything wrong with a Maule in my books. I once asked Howie if he had a Pacer out the back of his factory, and he didn't take it too well, if you know what I mean...............

 

 

[Tracktop]

Resolved already and all happy - good :thumb_up:

 

3 pages in one day - and the days not finished yet

 

But if you still don't understand why trikers got offside with the comments

 

I guess another way to look at it was like calling your Jab / tecnam / cessna etc a glider -

 

exactly the same comparison to trike verses hang glider.

 

Interestingly by definition they are all aircraft / aeroplanes

 

One type ( TRIKE, Jab, tecnam cessna etc) is designed primarily for powered flight

 

the other type ( glider, motor glider, hang glider, powered hang glider) primarily intended for unpowered flight.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Well if we are arguing over what is what, we probably should let the journalist off the hook.

 

On TV last night I noticed Grant Denyer describing a crash at Calder's Thunderdome as involving a "NASCAR" (US manufactured car racing anti clockwise) when we were watching AUSCARS (Australian manufactured cars racing clockwise).

 

Maybe we should ask RA Aus to re-establish some definitions and then get them on the website as reference material for journalists, then we can refer the journalist to the website where they can get a photo for their story as well.

 

Incidentally it's not unusual for people who shouild know better, and who have operated in an industry for years to misquote technical terms.

 

In the transport industry some people talk about "Bogie Drive" Prime Movers, when a bogie is a free rotating set of train wheels.

 

 

[Guest Crezzi]

Guys on the subject of Trikes, Microlights and Ultralights, I need some help.Back in the early 1980s I started flying "Microlights", they were to use Frank Bailey's term, "minimum aircraft". There were Scouts, Condors, StolAeros, Mustangs, Javelins, Jeeps, Thrusters, Maxair Drifters, and Lazairs to name a few. They were equally referred to as Microlights and Ultralights. These rag and tube aircraft were all "minimum" aircraft.

 

Today I am confused, I come back from a long absence into the RAA arena from GA and the term "Microlight" appears to be reserved to Trikes???? Yes an Airborne Trike is a powered weight shift Microlight by definition, but so is my Javelin a powered 3 axis control Microlight and an Ultralight and a Minimum aircraft.

 

So why have we adopted the term "Microlight" as specifically referring to Trikes....or have I got it wrong. Isn't a Trike a Trike, most people I know who have little aviation understanding know what a trike is.

 

I seek your collective wisdom.

 

David

Is I understand it the term "microlight" was invented in the Uk because "ultralights" was already in use for something else (similar reason to how we have RAAus rather than RAA). "Microlights" there included both trikes and 3-axis and still does - a non-GA CT or Jabiru for example would be called a microlight in the UK. This convention was also adopted in some other countries such as NZ I believe.

 

The majority of "microlights" in the UK are trikes but how the term came to be used in Australia to describe trikes exclusively is a mystery to me.

 

Hope that helps (thought probably not)

 

John

 

 

[Tracktop]

Crezzi,Thanks, that does make sense; so what is our official protocol on this in Oz boys???

David

OK Wilkipedia has amoung other descriptions the following -

 

Ultralight aviation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

In Australia, microlight aircraft are defined as one or two seat weight-shift aircraft, with a maximum takeoff weight of 450 kg, as set out by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. In Australia microlights are also referred to as trikes and are distinguished from three-axis aircraft, of which the smallest are known as ultralights.

 

In Australia, microlight aircraft and their pilots can either be registered with the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia (HGFA)[2] or Recreational Aviation Australia (RA Aus)[3]. In all cases, except for privately built single-place ultralight aeroplanes[4], microlight aircraft or trikes are regulated by the Civil Aviation Regulations.

 

CASA has the following info at

 

Civil Aviation Safety Authority - Light recreational and microlight aircraft

 

Microlights or trikes rely on weight shift rather than the conventional three axis control. This means that there is no tailplane or control surfaces such as ailerons, rudder or elevator so the aircraft is controlled by the pilot shifting the aircraft’s centre of gravity in relation to the wing.

 

 

[eastmeg2]

To look at calling a Trike a Powered Hang Glider from a cost point of view, almost 20% of the cost is in the wing which resembles a HG and over 80% of the cost is in the trike base unit containg the engine, cockpit and undercarriage.

 

To mark the description I'd give 10% for the wing (half of the 20% applicable to the wing since HG's are half the weight and price of a trike wing and you'd have to be twice the weight and run twice as fast to use one as a HG).

 

And I'd give 2/5 of the 80% for the base unit = 32% as the cost ratio of the power.

 

Cheers,

 

Glen:clown::pc strikes back: