howard

i agree, the sky above you is useless, but for example, have you flown around the coastal track at brisbane? from the mainland to the first island, you cannot achieve a 'engine out gliding height" due to controlled airspace. very unnerving spending 20 mins listening to every note of the old 2-stroke. as opposed to crossing shark bay in WA, where i crossed the coast at 3000 and continued to climb to the midpoint before cruising down the rest of the way. my original thoughts were to bale out when you got the trike near the water & down to about 40knts/stall but this would still mean your body hitting water at 75kph. not good. so undo headset, keep helmet and seatbelt on, visor down and pray. as for preparation, get round to a neighbours pool, get your boots, flying suit, headset and helmet on. jump in the pool and have him throw a hills hoist & a huge tarp over you. repeat until there is no panic. one idea was to insert inflatable beds in each side of the wing so the trike might float, any test pilots out there?

just had a thought on disconnecting the front bar prior to crash landing. in my trike (outback with streak II) the trike is 'locked' into place by the front bar. so with the bar disconnected and the trike coming to a sudden stop (50knt - 0 knts in 4 secs), wouldn't the whole engine and wing weight make the whole main mast come forward and smash you on the back of the head?

i haven't reported it either. i think maybe the common denominatator is that we both rig and de-rig very often. i had just put it down to the wing being compressed while packed, and the sleeve is not always exactly lined up with the hole when unfurled. (only affects one sleeve) i will repeat that, in my case, it is very very noticable when the batten doesn't go in the sleeve and there is NO WAY you can attempt to tension it when it misses the sleeve (misses sleeve about 1 in 5) that it probably why i have never thought of reporting it.

i have one batten position that is prone to that, but when it misses the sleeve, it feels very very loose when trying to tension it and is easily detected in my case.

have you thought about starting with a 4.2m aluminium ladder ( wrapped in that thick pipe insulation)? works for me on my trailer. old pic, the ladder is now mounted on the trailer