Trikepilot Social

As much as we do not like new rules, the FAA is finally getting them out. Trikes did pretty well.
See http://beasportpilot.com/category/new-faa-rules/
for details and a video as soon as I can.

Interesting read...

Landing at Dirty Devil from jeffsflightlog on Vimeo.

In November, I went on a backcountry flying / camping trip into the Canyonlands of southern Utah with my flying buddies Paul (Aeros2) and Mike (Rans S-18).   I (Jeff) was flying my trusty Aerotrike Cobra.  We landed at several strips during the day, then headed for our camping spot on a bench overlooking the Dirty Devil River.   This was the most remote spot I have ever landed at.   No road access, just foot, horseback and now ultralight.   The airstrip was created during a uranuim mining boom in the 1950's and 60's.

It was late in the day when we arrived, the sun already below the horizon.  The winds were perfectly still, and all three of us glided in to a easy landing.   The next morning we headed out again to Happy Canyon, Angel Point, Hidden Splendor and camped at Mexican Mountain.

If you are want more details of my trip, check out my flightlog at http://www.jeffsflightlog.com   Here is a link to that days amazing flying.

More to come

Here is the link if you want to watch it in HD
http://www.vimeo.com/9011848

 

From our pals Alex and Claude over at WindsAndWings.com

this may be unanswerable, but here goes, i welcome someone smarter than me (that sure opens up the floodgates!) to explain the dynamics of a 900# trike slamming into water at 40-50mph and stopping in 5-10ft. likely survivable ? or are we just hoping to somehow 'walk' away from such an event. i have always believed that a non-float equipped trike is a very chancy vehicle to fly over water, simply due to the smooth landing we all kid ourselves would ensue, in a forced  landing ,.(unlikely) .the very nature of a long -distance trike, big motor, fast wing, big fuel load, plus equipment all adds up to a fairlyhigh landing speed. add to this the depth perception problem if the surface is smooth, (unlikely at sea) or waves, they aren't always wind driven, you would have to try to set down parallel to the crests in the trough, possibly crosswind, hard to do  under the stress level. i'm hoping that  some  good can come from the latest tragedy, at least the brave flyers that attempt these adventures may have more info to use to tip the scales in their favor, hugs and kisses, monty    ps my wife asked if i'd rather have sex or fly my trike, i asked her  " what's the weather like " ?   i must be getting old!  there was a time when.............                                      

of late there has been much discussion about trike flight over water. personally, having spent 6 yrs of a mis-spent youth at sea, i only need to see it from the shore, not first hand. the mere thought of trying to ' land' a trike, with its high c of g , surrounded by wires, and or rigid tubing, belted in, ones lower limbs trapped in the nose cone, possible injuries, maybe inverted and almost certainly under water just ain't fun, to me. we need to learn from every trikers accident, to perhaps avoid a repeat of it. it appears from press reports that thick fog was ' as our revered faa would say ' a contributing factor'. well having sailed the english channel many times, fog should have been in the weather forcast. its very often foggy. ok, why continue into a worsening situation, that's what 180s are for. we all have our 'chicken' points', some early, some later, some too late. this is not in any way a criticism of martins decision to continue in what was probably a worsening situation, only an attempt to avoid a repeat tragedy. before you start throwing rocks at me, i'm only the messenger ! i've created my share of bent tubing, the latest when i also was flying where a satisfactory landing was doubtful, 50 ft up, 50 mph, my crankshaft decided to seize. my video recorded this latest triumph in stupidity, 5 seconds to 'landing' in arizona scrub brush, which cushioned my rollover, 20 secs to exit the partially inverted trike, and walk smartly away( it hadn't rained in 4 months and the crackling sounds of the brush as i floundered around convinced me my world was on fire). my point isn't to broadcast my own stupidity in  flying in a hostile area ( i had a vague notion that i ain't super smart) but to point out the obvious, had i been in water you people wouldn't be reading this boring diatribe, i'd have been fish food. yeah, i know, 'sully' did it, but we ain't 'sullenbergers', and he proved that a 75ton anvil is easier to land in water than a trike ! anyhow, this latest tragedy has only beefed up my own aversion to waterlandings with a wheeled trike. to the undoubted many of you that have the guts to take on the challenge my hats off , i admire your guts, just pay a little more attention to the details, even more than when flying over land, hugs and kisses, monty