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Questions I get asked
This is bit long winded here, but I am answering some questions i am being asked from different people some of who are not yet trike pilots, questions coming in from various places all over the world. These are my opinions, take them for what they are worth. Posting here to advance TrikeAction use.
WHAT KIND OF TRIKE TO GET:
The big questions are, budget, your mission, who will you be flying with , where can you get parts and who is there to help you, and finally what you prioritize.
BUDGET: only you can decide on that. The good is that Trikes hold a pretty good value. The bad is they tend to be expensive.
MISSION: I fly for fun, so the speeds i prefer to travel are in the 60 to 70 mph range. My mission and priorities when i fly is to be safe, have fun, explore and film. My flights are sometimes short and sometimes up to 6 hours of flying in a day. Most of my landings are on paved runways but I also fly and land on dirt roads somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I don’t do risky landings with passengers on board so i stay away from sand washes. Wing width is the most common limiting factor of where i can land in the back country. Lots of roads would be good enough to land on but the bushes or trees on the sides of the road prevent a landing.
WHO DO YOU FLY WITH: If you have friends that fly, most often you will be happiest by buying something similar to what they have. Most of my pilot friends like to fly point to point in mostly a straight line. I tend to want to fly the most scenic route making circles around things to get a closer look. I tend to fly over the mountains instead of around them. I fly very low at times (only after i know there are not power lines there). I actually enjoy some turbulence and winds and enjoy using the free energy that thermals and ridge-lift give. Almost everyone I fly with has a double surface wing and most have trim. Almost everyone has ADSB and everyone loves using it. Almost everyone has at least an 80 hp 4 stroke engine. The two stroke fellows tend to not fly with us much because they burn more fuel and can’t stay up as long as we do. The single surface wing guys around here don’t do much cross country because they feel they fly to slow. Not that you can’t do cross country with a single surface wing but it does have more of a limiting factor especially in head winds.
MY PLANE: A RevoLT 100 Hp ULS . A normal RPM for me while flying is around 4800. I have my wide open throttle pitch set at 5700 rpm and i am using a 4 blade prop. I normally burn a little less than 4 gallons per hour. I use 100LL. I change my oil approximately every 25 hours and my spark plugs every 100 hours. I have the 14 meter double surface Rival X. The Rival X does a great job for me. I fly heavy with lots of climbs over mountains. By heavy i mean i take off with full fuel, 18.6 gallons, 99 percent of the time i have a passenger. I have a ballistic chute and carry lots of additional equipment and some safety gear and drinking water. I have flown many different sizes of wings on various other types of trikes. IAs of this writing, I don’t have any experience flying wings Larger Than 14 meter. Larger wings can be a bit harder to control in winds and turbulence. Larger wings also allow you to fly slower with higher lift and generally don’t fly as fast as a smaller wing. Wings are something you want to ask questions about with the people that really know about them. If any CFI’s chime in here, pay attention to what they say because they know way more than I do about wings.
WHAT CAN MY PLANE DO: I recently flew a 250 pound passenger for a 3 hour flight with climbs up to 6000 feet for the view with much of the flight 100 feet off the ground or lower. I had power to spare with air temps around 60 degrees. I had winds in various directions up to 20 miles an hour during the flight.
ANSWERS TO SOME GENERALIZED QUESTIONS. During the summer months, I fly in very hot weather with the extremes of 115 degrees at the ground level elevation of 1000 feet. It is even hotter right above the paved runway.
Faster rpm equates to a higher climb rate but does not change the speed of the trike much. (Throttle) Power setting = climb and rate of descent. , Trike and wing design is basically what determines your overall speed. A faster wing is a double surface wing and i won’t say more than that about wings because your local CFI would be the people to talk to about that.
WHAT DO I RECOMMEND: I have been asked many times by many people about trikes and what type of wing or motor to get. Any trike you get will be amazing fun. If your budget allows, I do recommend a double surface wing and Trim which allows for some variation of speed. I prefer 4 stroke engines because they burn less fuel, last longer and are in my opinion smoother running and safer. I have flown about 500 hours with 2 stroke engines but not in trikes. i never liked my two stroke engines as much as I have my four stroke engines. i love our 100 hp Rotax, however just because i prefer 4 stroke engines doesn’t mean others don’t love their 2 strokes. Both are good engines. I also don’t prefer WINGS with kingposts. They are harder to take down and transport and also i don’t like the looks of them as much. Some hangers you can not get a kingpost wing into while it is on the trike. My hanger for example will not fit a king post wing. I am not saying a kingpost wing flies bad.
PRIORITY: As with everything there is always some give and take with things. For instance you could buy a truck or a car. It is obvious what the advantages and disadvantages are. So with any aircraft, choose YOUR priority/mission and realize whatever you choose you chose for YOUR reasons.
FUN: Fun Is not going to happen unless you are comfortable. My copilot also has to be comfortable and she is very noticing of comfort. So if you plan on carrying anyone consider the comfort of both yourself and your passenger. I would say most trikes in the front seat are pretty comfortable, the back seat in some not as much. The trike i fly has the perfect comfort and view for both myself and the passenger. The passenger does not have to look through my helmet to see ahead. Heated gear is a must in cold weather. In summer high temps, i turn on my AC and I fly up to a wonderful temperature and get myself a bit chilly just before i land 🙂 I love a large windshield like the one i have on my trike, some people may prefer to fly with no windshield. I could convert mine in a minute or so to do either. i never have flown it that way and probably never will.
SAFETY: Another reason i chose in particular the Revolt is that my preflight inspection of the airplane is super easy. I really hated flying things that i couldn’t see all of the working parts. I hate hidden control cables, gas tank hoses behind panels etc. Working on an airplane that doesn’t have a lot of shrouds and panels is much easier and safer. Without having to remove wheel pants, i can inspect the whole tire and brakes easily and change my tires quickly. Without shrouds to block my view of engine and hoses etc. i can inspect everything, every time. So if that is important to you, it is something to consider. I suggest a ballistic chute ,if you fly over terrain like I do. If you are flying over trees, mountains and even large bodies of water, you will have an option of using your chute in the case of an engine out or structural failure. TETHER all of you and your passengers equipment, such as cameras, cell phones, pens, jackets and gloves if you are taking them out or off in flight.
I have a private pilot license but prefer to fly trikes. Much more fun for me!.
NO YOU DON’T WANT TO LEARN HOW TO FLY A TRIKE ON YOUR OWN. Not only will you crash it will be expensive to replace your plane if you live through it. CONTACT A CFI FOR HELP.
I consider flying trikes safer than riding a motorcycle and maybe as safe or safer as driving a car. Don’t hit a powerline, Don’t change anything on your engine or wing unless you know it is safe to do so, Don’t fly in weather you shouldn’t be flying in, get proper training, Don’t get hit by another aircraft or hit another aircraft, have equipment that adds to your safety, keep up on your maintenance. Progress at a rate that keeps you safe.
Yes Buckeye has lots of crosswind, there are tricks to landing in crosswinds. Refer to your local CFI for practice. Remember though that not having a tail is also an advantage. A tail is a big leverage that can work against you in a crosswind. A trike has no tail so there is nothing back there to affect you. With a trike you move the Entire wing which also has some advantages over other aircraft.
WHY 60 MILES AN HOUR: This is my preference. This is the ideal speed for me. It also is what my plane likes to fly at. I fly fast enough to get places, slow enough to see and enjoy things. Above 60 the air flow gets significantly louder. Fuel mileage decreases at higher speeds. If i am flying point to point and desire to get there quickly, I trim faster and climb or descend to look for the layer of airflow which gives me the highest ground speed. Using GPS, i pay attention to ground speed constantly throughout the flight to determine the wind flows at various altitudes. It is often possible to find winds flowing at completely opposite directions at various altitudes. Sometimes the opposite direction flowing winds are just above or below one another which causes a turbulent layer. As i recall the fastest ground speed i have seen in my trike was 95 mph. I saw 25 mph one day for a short period of time until i flew lower closer to the ground. I enjoy looking for winds going my way in both directions of flight. That is not always possible but am able to do that at times.
MY BIG GAUGES. I added those and i attach them to my trike using ram mounts connected to the roll cage which holds the windshield in place. The RevoLT has everything you need to fly and has all the digital gauge, but i like gauges big and up high . I might use this kind of stuff more than the average flying in the mountains and playing with the winds. Some people would say these are unnecessary but I enjoy using them and they fit my needs so why not have them. I have had many people ask me about my gauges, so i guess I am not the only one that likes them. :). I have rate of climb, airspeed and Altimeter analog gauges. An Analog airspeed gauge will show the strengths of the gusts where a digital gauge does not.
NAVIGATION: I use mainly FlyQ on my ipad. That has everything and even logs my flight. It is very similar to foreflight. FlyQ has all the aviation maps, satellite images, road maps, weather, ground maps hooks up to my ADSB so i can see the other planes flying around me including the speed and altitudes and N-numbers. I have the lifetime subscription. I also. use FlyQ on my road trips. I asked them to add several features for me and surprisingly they did. I also asked them to add rate of climb but so far they haven’t done that. I should ask them again.
Our HEATED GEAR is mostly made by Gerbing. I added a fuse block under my seat and attached with a 10 gauge wire directly to the battery. I have independant switches to turn everything off and on. I only need heated feet which draws about 2 amps total. Diane uses heated Feet, gloves and a heated jacket. She draws about 8 amps . We turn off heated gear when taxing.
ADSB hooks up on our Revolt by WIFI. Turn on your WIFI on your IPAD and you will see it pop up when you turn your trike avionics on. Connect by tapping on your IPAD in the WIFI Section . After connection you will see the other aircraft but there are some optional settings if your using FLYQ. I don’t know about using any other program for that setup. You can chack to see if your putting out a signal by going to various apps on the internet. Put your N-Number in Flightaware to see your track and location. Or check with your buddies that have ADSB in and see if they see you. It is a good idea when on the ground to ask your buddies what altitude you show at and look and see what altitude they show at. It is generally not off by more than 100 feet from what i have seen. Not everyone has ADSB so don’t rely on it 100 percent. It also lags at times and so be aware.
Our FLIGHT SUITS are from First Gear thermo suit racing motorcycle/ snowmobile suits.
FLYCOM HELMETS use no batteries but get their power from the airplane connection. Yes they are comfortable and very quiet. I replaced the microphones by soldering new ones in. I did a post about flycom helmets here on trike action. They cost Just over $2.00 each. :).
My EarthX battery got rid of me 3 years ago so I am using a lead acid battery which weighs a lot more but is working out well.
Diane uses a Sony AX53 for her hand held camera shots as well as various GoPros. She edits on Final Cut ProX. Most of our Videos are posted under LARSON ADVENTURES on Youtube.
Hopefully others will chime in and add some questions they are most often asked.
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5 Replies
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Roger, Thank you for so much information!
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WOW Roger what a great collection of WSC trike FAQ questions. Nothing like experience to figure it out.
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Thanks Paul, i am going to refer people to Trikeaction when i get future questions. It might be nice for someone to start a list of CFI’s across the States and whatever countries out there at access this site. Each CFI could add their contact information. Maybe that is already on here and I missed it.
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Hi Roger. That’s a great read, thank you. Just mostly not relevant in Australia 😉 Maybe I could do an oz version (translation) if anyone is interested. I probably would first have to do a lot of research to get the right answers though.
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Hey Stewart. Its always good to hear from down under. Quick question off the top for you. Whatever happened to the two guys that filmed Motorkite Dreaming. That was fun watching. Do you know if they are still flying trikes?
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