eastmeg2

The HGFA has the "Tug-Master" endorsement for trike pilots to tow hang gliders. No, I don't have that endorsement.

Hi Ray, I've found with the XT that there is no problem with the nose coming up, unlike the earlier X series trikes that always tried to backflip whenever you raise the nose especially when it has a lot of fuel in the tank. To keep the nosewheel straight when loading onto the trailer we have a very high-tech piece of gear to fix that. Cut two notches in an 18 inch (approx) long piece of wood. One notch goes over the passenger steering footpeg and the other notch goes over the front of the seatframe between the rear of the pod an the curved bit of the bottom of the seat frame. But, remember to "Remove before flight". With the steering locked straight and ramps on my non-tilting trailer I find I can raise the nosewheel onto the centre wheel guide on the trailer then go to the back and by pushing on the prop hub push the XT-912 trike base onto the trailer by myself. Though I am 100kg. Although I can lift the packed up 50kg wing by myself I always try to avoid it and get help as it's no good to have the entire weight of the wing supported at one point. Cheers, Glen

Take-off Weight 275kg Wing Area 17 sqm hp 50 (Rotax 503) 3.47 reduction g'box and 68 inch Bolly BOS3 3-bladed prop. thrust estimate approx 250 pounds Fuel burn at 33kts cruise estimated 11 L/hr, only have 5 hours on it so far. It gives me time to count the daisies on final and in some ways is a breath of fresh air after doing twice the speed in the XT-912 :see saw:. Finals are much shorter. Cheers, Glen

That's the one! Where's the legs? It's living proof of how unimportant streamlining is below 40 knots, as are the slower trike wings that have exposed cross-bars under the undersurface of the wing, like my Buzzard trike with it's Airborne Wizard wing that trims at 33kts IAS.

Hi Bill, Maybe it's just the angle of the photo, but it seems you have a short trailer that carries the wing too. Is that your car in the photo? I ask because I drive a Forester 2.5L manual. Rgds, Glen

Ahhh Yes, I remember the Lazair. That was the plane with a cute set of a ladies hips, buttocks and legs for landing gear . . . Or was it just that in the movie the floor fell out.

Hi Scott, Very nice, and in red it should tow faster. A couple of suggestions you may or may not wish to explore. Carrying the wing up high on supports creates extra drag, which can become a drag if you're towing log distance with a 4 cylinder car. I have seen one trike owner lay the wing along the bottom of his trailer. But you'd have to be careful it won't strike the rear of the towing vehicle in a tight turn and would probably want an extra waterproof wing cover to keep the road grime out. While length is good for stability on the road, a shorter trailer will get the trike more into the slipstream of the towing vehicle. But if you're going to mount the wing on the trailer there probably isn't any scope for any shortening of the draw bar. The other is that if you have a full set of travel covers for the trike you wouldn't usually need a stone deflector on the trailer, unless you're going to drive a lot of dirt road at highway speeds. A friend of mine did a Darwin trip towing his XT-912, covered many hundreds of k's of dirt road and his rear suspension struts now look a bit 2nd hand, though the rest of the trike is unmarked as it had it's travel covers on. Wouldn't mind a copy of your trailer plans. Will PM you with my details. Cheers, Glen

On 2 occasions when I've been travelling, near Perth & near Darwin, by talking the talk, demonstrating knowledge of the aircraft and airmanship and showing my log book and pilot certificate the CFI will let you fly in the command seat while they sit in the other, closely feeling the dual controls. One of the CFI's let slip his continued doubt after the flight by complimenting how well I handled turbulence on late final, as if he didn't expect it to be handled that well. Cheers, Glen

Hi Ultralights, Can I ask what made you choose the Vampire instead of a Sapphire? Was it the resemblance to a historic military aircraft, or the option of HKS 4-stroke being available on the Vampire, or something else? Cheers, Glen

I'm not convinced as it's the AM receiver you would have to make operate in the air-band, not the FM receiver as he appears to be doing in this instance. Even tuned into the right frequency, an FM receiver would not give the audible output corresponding to am AM transmission. BUSTED . . . thumb_down

Either you did or you didn't. Or maybe it's just that you had a hard Saturday night, or was it on eBay? My own experience of Sapphires is limited to knowing that they fly faster than (most) trikes and that they are a tidy looking little plane with Rotax 447 or 503 engine options and probably a good candidate for the HKS700E 4-stroke. And they're a tail-dragger, so you'll need that endorsement to fly one.:gerg: Cheers, Glen

Yes, but ask about actually ordering it and it's a different story . . .

Careful what you say Yenn, the insurance provider might be reading . . .

If I recall correctly, the shop whose link is given in post #12 can provide new hubs and bolts for Brolga props, but 68 inch Brolga prop blades can no longer be bought - anywhere.

I can say from recent experience when I assembled a new Bolly prop that it would be very easy to over tension the bolts as I was achieving the required torque on my torque wrench and I barely felt like I'd even started getting some tension on. The setting was very close to the start of the scale on my wrench. Cheers, Glen

Now that you've taken up flying, you will need a bigger hat to keep all those thoughts in.

Hi Darky, As Maj says, check out as many different aircraft as you can. By the sounds of it you have plenty of years to go before old age is going to slow you down. You might want to get a tail-wheel, or god forbid, even a weight-shift:lol 8: endorsement after you get your X-Country and Pax. Getting yourself along to ultralight gatherings is another great way to glean knowledge and experience so you should get yourself to Natfly at Easter. You might even find a spare right seat if you start looking. Cheers, Glen

Baphomet, I'm certain you will find that they are "AN" series aircraft quality bolts and you won't find them in a suburban hardware store. There was a good article in a recent RAAus magazine, Oct 09 I think, about AN bolts and why they are used. Most CFI's have a healthy stash of them as they buy them in bulk and will usually on-sell them in small quantities to pilots like you and me. Cheers, Glen

I hope you're right about it being bull****. What about trikes, there is no throttle lock design that I've ever heard of, besides the hand throttle could still be operated when the foot throttle is locked. That just leaves the steel cable around the prop and gearbox solution . . . or is turning the key to disable the starter motor circuit and removing the key adequate? Probably not. To me the argument that the fine stands because "someone could remove the prop and replace it to fly" is up there with a cop smashing your tail light with a baton and issuing a fine.:baldy: Where does one stop with this kind of mean argument?:dousing: Removing a prop and replacing it requires knowledge, tools, skills and pre-meditation. With those ingredients there is little anyone can do to stop anyone from flying their aircraft in their absence, short of hiring 24 x 7 security. Something to think about . . . A replacement throttle cable and throttle mechanism are cheaper and easier to carry and fit than a replacement Prop. Cheers, Glen

if they have to run Windows, thank goodness they're still using XP. Who knows what could have happened with Vista.:spam:

A while back I got talking to a couple of PG pilots who were ridge soaring off the bluff at Longreef in Sydney. Upon mentioning I am a Trike pilot and how portable PG's are the reply was that Trikes are about as transportable as a caravan. I have to admit there's some truth in that, though they're a bit easier to tow. Having towed trikes as far as Fraser Island and Yarrawonga and with future plans for longer trips an enclosed trailer is on the cards. Cheers, Glen

An interesting quirk of Airborne's XT range of trikes is that they have two ASI's. One in the Glass dash display and a separate "steam guage" style backup. If I recall correctly when I asked about it the answer was that it was a legal requirement. Maybe that only applied to some countries where they are sold - can't really remember that well. Cheers, Glen

Hi TFC, (DJ?) I was going to mention someone as likely to achieve that in the near future, then realised it's probably you, going by your location and your 2 aircraft. Cheers, Glen

In May last year a friend had just completed his trike pilot certificate in Tumut and wanted to get it back to his home strip east of Goulburn, but he lacked his RAA X-country and Pax endorsements at that time so I did the 100Nm flight with him as my Pax in his XT-912. Squeezed my Garmin-296 into my knee board with a WAC chart and borrowed a compass from my own XT-912. Since adding an RAA WM pilot certificate to my HGFA certificate a few years back, the only opportunities I've had to fly other trikes have all been RAA registered, so I'd have to say it was worthwhile joining RAA. Cheers, Glen

I tend to think of it more like Holden v. BMW :stirring pot: in line with geographical location of each. There are plenty of good valid reasons why you might choose either, like $$$ and ease of maintenance. Cheers, Glen