Experimenter

SEP2014

Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.

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38 Vol.3 No.9 / September 2014 ULTRALIGHT WORLD IN 1982 I WAS INTERESTED in weight-shift-controlled, hang-glider trikes when I read an article called "Trikes Are Dif erent" in an EAA publication. The author warned prospective pilots that these new aircraft were quite dif erent from conventional air- planes and cautioned against bringing conventional aviation knowledge into the situation. Trikes were rare at the time, with only a few coming from Europe, and dual instruction was prac- tically nonexistent. We had only the advice of those who had survived teaching themselves. Faced with these conditions, I pursued conventional fi xed-wing ultralights and benefi tted greatly from the knowledge accumulated over decades of air- craft design. Some 15 years later, the trike scene was a different pic- ture with a variety of imported two-seat trikes available and instructors operating under a training exemption. By 1998 I had taken transition training and was flying my own weight- shift-controlled trike. In conventional flight maneuvers, these fun but strange aircraft fly just like any other airplane. It is still simply an "air-craft" that climbs, glides, turns, and lands like most other airplanes. The controls are different, but that's not an issue; we drive cars, motorcycles, boats, and tractors jumping back and forth with no problem. It's just another machine. Within the fi rst 50 hours of fl ying a trike I learned three les- sons in the "I'll never do that again category." That writer back in 1982 was correct. Trikes are fun and capable, but they are also dif- ferent, and they can surprise you. Some dif erences are mundane and will only cost you money. Others will give you a good scare. T HE SOUND OF FA L L ING L A DDERS It should be obvious that a high-wing, tailless aircraft with a pivoting wing needs to be tied down well, but old habits are hard to break. While your fi xed-wing friends can simply hop out and walk into the local pancake breakfast, trike pilots need to fuss with tiedowns and ropes. More than a few trike own- ers have paid the price for that knowledge in the fi rst year of ownership, and I am one. I've learned that two ropes are not enough. Some trikes can fl ip upside down while still attached to the ropes. It's usually backward, but some can fl ip forward. I like a third rope directly under the trike that will stop all of that nonsense. Permanent tiedown rings mounted at airports are not spaced for this method, so I sometimes push onto the grass. If the lower keel isn't available for a tiedown spot, you need four ropes to include the trike nose and an aft position. Fortunately most trikes feature a folding mast, making it possible to lower the wing until the control bar is on the ground I'll Never Do That Again… In a trike BY DAN GRUNLOH Photography courtesy of Dan Grunloh A typical view of Illinois fi elds from the trike.

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