The Airborne XT and cross-country adventure by Larry Jones
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In Australia it is now law that all powered aircraft must be secured when unattended to minimise the possibility of unlawful use thereby presenting a risk to public. This law does indeed include microlights and fines of up to $5,500- is the penalty for non-compliance. If you leave your aircraft unattended, be it at an airfield or in the middle of a farmer’s paddock, then it must be secured (locked) before you wander off into town or elsewhere. I carry with me a prop lock in a Prop Lock bag. The prop lock is a heavy-duty steel cable and padlock conforming to the prescribed Australian standards. Whilst in flight this is kept in a Prop Lock bag, which sits between the soft side, and the pilots seat and clips around the seat frame, just near the hand throttle. Once I have parked and shut down the engine, I place the Prop Lock bag on the dash and clip to the front pole, before removing the lock. Once removed from the bag the cable is wrapped around the propeller, gearbox assembly and secured with the padlock. The prop lock bag remains on the dash, it is bright red with large white printing which reads, REMOVE Prop Lock before starting. If you neglect to complete a proper daily inspection and jump in the trike to start it the Prop Lock bag is in your face reminding you to first remove the prop lock. Although it may seem unnecessary to lock a trike and I know many trike pilots are choosing to ignore it, with a system like the prop lock and bag it is no real hardship to carry and use. Besides it does give you some peace of mind when you head into town leaving your pride and joy sitting out in the open in an unfamiliar area.
For the vast majority of pilots the above outlined set up will leave you in a good position to log some quality cross-country flying adventures and camp outs. However for those wanting to take it to the next step, another item for consideration is fuel usage and availability along the way. Earlier model trikes in general had fuel capacities of around 40 to 45 litres and when heavily loaded with camping gear and a hungry 2-stroke engine, fuel could disappear at a frightening rate. We solved that problem with the use of sidesaddles that allowed the carriage of a 20-litre fuel container either side of the trike. This gave us an extra 40 litres of fuel to play with and hence a good range and also a couple of containers to carry into town to purchase fuel in once we landed for the day. The XT models now come standard with a big 70-litre fuel tank and coupled to the Rotax 912 4-stroke engine, fuel usage is minimal which gives a very impressive range without the need of carrying extra fuel or sidesaddles. Of course eventually that fuel will be spent and you will need to be able to refuel, so what are our options?
I personally like to run my trike on standard unleaded fuel and by preference would use only this, however it may be necessary to be a little more flexible during a cross-country adventure. Most of the larger regional airfields will have avgas available and it can be used in our Rotax engines. If you look in your Rotax manual you will find that the maintenance schedule is a little different if always running on avgas, but the odd tank full here and there should not pose too much of a problem. Of course avgas can be expensive, particularly if you have to call out the operator, which is often the case either after hours or at the smaller airfields. So that leaves us with the option of getting into the nearest town and petrol station, buying some unleaded and back to our trike to refuel. But just what do we carry to allow us to do this. The sidesaddles we carried on earlier models may seem the answer, but we do not need to carry extra fuel and these are a big and bulky item to be carrying empty. Also the XT relies on a clean airflow along the sides of the trike base for engine cooling. Fitting the conventional sidesaddles to the XT will see both the oil and water temperature rapidly rise to a dangerously high level, so for the XT models sidesaddles are not an option.
I have recently sourced some collapsible 20-litre fuel bladders which roll up to fit in a sausage bag that can be easily attached to the XT trike base. These fuel bladders are certified for fuel and can be legally filled at any Australian petrol station. These fuel bladders give you a few more options and a little more freedom. Walk or hitch a lift into town, fill up the fuel bladders and then back to the trike to refuel. Not always an easy task to handle a couple of 20 litre bladders full of fuel but you must remember this is not something that you will want or need for every cross-country flight. They do however provide another option that may prove useful for those of you who choose to be involved in the longer more adventurous flights. They are not intended for carrying extra fuel whilst in flight, just a couple of containers to help you get fuel to your trike for refuelling.
At the time of writing the fuel bladders and their carry bag are new items that I am still playing with and testing but believe they have worth and will update information on these as I develop the idea further. The remainder of the products and ideas mentioned throughout the article have had extensive flight testing and proven themselves to be a great asset to cross-country adventure flying. I hope you find this information helpful in learning more about how to equip your XT and what accessories you may need to expand your horizon in the world of microlight flying.
So there you go, a few ideas to help get you started, become involved in a group flight. Set yourself a short flight with an overnight camp out, work out what you need and what you don’t need. Invite some other local pilots along and make a long weekend of it. As your confidence builds and you become adept at loading your trike with all sorts of goodies start to venture off a little further afield. Before you know it you will be heading off on some great cross-country adventure flights of your own.
Go for it!
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