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.

Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/378679

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 38 of 39

EAA Experimenter 39 in front of the trike with the wing still attached. It only takes a few minutes and makes it possible for the trike to endure very strong winds. For really severe weather, pulling out some of the wing ribs (if possible) will help kill any lift from the wing. One fi nal emergency tip is that wheel chocks don't work all that well with light aircraft. Instead, try parking the main gear in a ditch or hole. As a storm approached a microlight champion- ship in France in 2005, I watched a pilot pull out a big knife and carve two divots in the sod for his rear wheels. (The divots were carefully replaced later, and you didn't learn about it here.) Fi- nally, there is an unwritten rule in aviation that you should never tie down to a movable object. That's the rule I broke. I was building a house in the country, and sometimes I would fl y to the site in my trike and leave it there all day while working on the house. The winds were light and the ground was dry and hard as iron, so I tied my trike to two heavy 12-inch concrete blocks. One day while working on the back side of the house, I heard the unmistakable sound of someone throwing a bunch of aluminum ladders of the back of a truck. I knew exactly what it was. An unexpected thermal gust or passing dust devil had picked up the blocks and the trike, fl ipping it on its back with the concrete blocks still attached. The blocks fl ew through the air and did not damage the wing, but I had a broken prop, bent ribs, and a bent keel tube. It took nearly a month and $700 to get back into the air, and you can be certain I said I'll never do that again. A MBER WAV E S OF GR A IN My second incident involves the hazard of low-level fl y- ing over crops, something not limited to trikes. Imagine an easy-to-fl y, highly maneuverable aircraft that can fl y safely at 40 mph, has a climb rate of 1,000 fpm, is very stall resistant, cannot spin, and of ers nearly 360-degree visibility. That is a description of a trike, and a few other ultralights. I could look down directly between my legs and see the ground, or look behind and underneath. Anyone fl ying a traditional ultralight knows the mystery and magic of fl ight is intensifi ed at slow speeds and near the surface. In such aircraft, low-level fl y- ing is almost too much fun to resist, though common sense A trike provides basic open-cockpit fl ying fun.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Experimenter - SEP2014