The Airborne XT and cross-country adventure by Larry Jones
Page: 1 2 3
| Article |
People fly trikes for all manner of reasons, some are happy just cruising around their local area, maybe taking family members or a mate for a flight. For the man on the land it may be more of a workhorse used for spotting stock and mustering or for checking fences and watering troughs. Still others may have a desire to head off and see a bit of the country, camp out and put a bit of adventure in their lives. Trikes are well suited to all the above applications, however the type of trike you have and the way you prepare it can have a big influence on your enjoyment of flying. I have always enjoyed cross-country flying in my trikes and have been lucky enough to be involved in many successful adventures in and around Australia.
There are really two types of cross-country flying, one is an organised group flight with ground support to help along the way and the other is to venture off totally self-sufficient. An organised group flight is a great way to get involved for your first cross-country adventure and many flying clubs around Australia organise such flights, ask your local instructor for contacts. In an organised group flight there is generally a mix of new pilots through to very experienced pilots and plenty of help and good advice. A ground support vehicle can carry camping gear, food and supplies, fuel requirements and look after your every desire. There is little need for you to carry much at all in this type of flight, however I would advise you use a flight like this to practice loading your trike. Try to be independent, learn what to carry and how to carry it, plan your fuel stops and use this flight as a stepping stone to future flights for which you can be totally self-sufficient.
Over many years of cross-country adventures I have learnt ways to load trikes efficiently and carry all I need to be happy, safe and comfortable. What you decide to carry is up to you but the obvious things are tent, sleeping bag and mattress, food and water, a few spares, tools and first aid kit, safety aids like a radio and EPIRB, personal items, cameras and the list goes on. I could easily write a complete article of the type of things I carry; however it does change depending on the type of flight being planned. For instance a flight out into the remote parts of Australia or across a large stretch of water or a flight along a well-populated route all would require different planning and different items to be carried. Once you have decided what you need to carry you are then left to ponder, how the hell am I going to get all this on my little trike!
Of course if you are flying solo then the back seat is a great place to load a big pack and for many flights this may indeed be sufficient. If, like me, you enjoy taking a passenger along then not only is the back seat no longer available for your gear, you also have an extra mattress, sleeping bag, food and personal items to find a place for. This is where things can get tricky; you must have the right gear. Small lightweight tents, sleeping bags and camping gear is readily available from adventure and outdoor shops. The good gear will cost a little more, but look around and choose carefully, as it will make a big difference to the comfort and success of your flying adventures. The advantage of buying quality camping gear is that it will generally pack up a lot smaller and weigh a lot less than the gear from the discount store, it will also function better, keep you warmer and will last for many years. Speak with other adventure trike pilots, see what they use. There is some really great lightweight gear available.
Air Hog is a small business who make a range of microlight accessories including some great cross-country gear suited to the Airborne Edge, Edge E and Edge X series trikes. This gear has proven itself invaluable to me and other trike pilots over many years of flying in and around Australia. Of course I should point out my bias here as I have a close association with Air Hog and have designed and tested many of the items manufactured by them. With the release of Airborne’s XT series trikes it was time to take a good look at these new aircraft and come up with the best way to set them up for some long cross-country flights. Once again I teamed up with Air Hog and set about designing and flight testing a number of ideas that I thought would enhance the cross-country ability of these new models. As a result Air Hog have now added several new products to their growing list of microlight accessories. Some of these are completely new and specific only to the XT series trikes, while others are an updated version of earlier products.
|
|
|
