We went with John Oliver at Point Cook on the edge of Port Phillip Bay where he operated Melbourne Microlights. "CLICK HERE".
Unfortunately, one flight, and we were hooked so John has a lot to answer for.
Our two sons, Alex (18 at the time) and Max (15), came with us for our first flights and also enjoyed the experience.
For those readers unfamiliar with trikes (or their official name Microlights), they are open cockpit, and most we have been in contact with are very friendly two-seater (one behind the other), though there are a few single-seat ones around. Being open cockpit, when flying you have a lot of wind in your face, and particularly during winter they are extremely cold.
A trike is commonly called a Powered Hang Glider. They are really a sophisticated hang-glider with a motor. The wing is on top of a capsule or pod with a motor behind it is suspended under the wing for the occupants to sit in.
Stan and I started lessons with John, and spent about a year backward and forward early Saturday or Sunday mornings to Point Cook, sometimes getting in a flight, but a lot of time not managing to 'get the weather right'. Home to Point Cook was at least an hour drive. "CLICK HERE".
Trike pilots generally fly early morning or late afternoons, as the weather is usually a lot calmer than the middle of the day.
All aircraft are weather dependent, in as much as if the weather is too windy or stormy you just don’t go! A trike, being very light and with a large wing-span, is even more weather dependent than most small aircraft. Mind you, a lot of trike pilots enjoy flights in windy weather while Stan and I remain on the ground. There’s a well known saying among pilots - “It’s much better to be on the ground wishing you were ‘up there’ than to be ‘up there’ wishing you were on the ground!”
After a year not progressing very quickly at Point Cook, not only due to weather but often because John was too busy with students, we decided to bite the bullet and drive three hours each way for lessons at Benalla in central Victoria where the weather was more consistent and we found by staying the weekend we managed a lot more air time.
Our new instructor was Tony Dennis who, with his wife Therese, ran the Right Altitude.Strange as it now seems, both instructors operated out of Bellman hangars which are old World War II hangars. At Benalla the huge hangar doors to this day prove a challenge to open and close. "CLICK HERE"
We shared the skies, taxiways and runways at Benalla with gliders from the Benalla Gliding Club which is the largest gliding club in the Southern Hemisphere. "CLICK HERE"
Generally we flew our trikes early morning, (you’d be surprised at how many sunrises I’ve seen since flying trikes) and as we were coming back to base for the day, activities at the gliding club were getting underway. Gliders fly during the middle part each day as they look for and enjoy thermals for lift and flight duration. As they packed up at the end of the afternoon when the earth cooled down slightly and thermals reduced, the trikes would head out again to enjoy flying until sundown in the smoother evening air. "CLICK HERE". We do have one friend in particular (yes Ian, that is you!) who enjoys nothing more than chasing thermals in his trike. Ex-hang glider pilots seem to have a different outlook.
WHY TRIKES?
The trike appealed to us in many areas:
Firstly, it was fairly affordable (at the time we started around the price of a small boat). Now 10 years later, new trikes are too far out of our price range (a much more expensive boat). I don’t think we ever considered purchasing a small aircraft or ultralight until we flew with a group during winter and kept hearing over the radio chat channel other pilots gloating how warm they were in enclosed cockpits with heaters, while our fingers were so cold we were having trouble operating the radio. But we do love our trike.
The view from a trike is superb. Unlike most small aircraft your view isn’t blocked by the engine and you can easily lean out the side without being limited by a restricting pane of glass.
You can do most of the engine maintenance and services yourself without the expense or inconvenience of finding an aircraft serviceman.
Trikes run on ordinary petrol obtainable from service (gas) stations. We collect it in jerry cans and add an approved oil to each jerry can prior to pouring into the trike.
In 1998 petrol cost less than $1 per litre and a 20 litre jerry can obviously under $20. Now (2008) it is $30 plus. A full fuel tank in our trike is approx 44 litres, and that gives us one and a half to two hours flying time with some left over for safety. We find an hour’s flight suits us fine. After that we tend to get a few aches and pains, so always a relief to stretch our legs on landing. We have a custom-made carrier (by Punkin Head Air Sports "CLICK HERE") on our stone guard under our trike and in that we can comfortably carry an extra 10 litre jerry can, or 20 litres if required. (With a 20 litre jerrycan I can still squash in my essential handbag, a couple of hats and a bottle of water!)
Compared with general aviation, lessons were cheaper.
Keeping a trike in an aircraft hangar is great as it only requires a relatively short time for full airworthy checks prior to wheeling out and flying away
But if you don’t have a hangar available, a trike is easily transportable and can be parked in your back yard if necessary. We found it always takes us an hour to either unpack or pack up and tie securely onto its trailer. Others, particularly with a hang gliding background, manage the process a lot quicker.
When we first started transporting our trike, we were ‘all at sea’ over which bit went where. Tony and Therese Dennis had produced a video on the process, so we went through that several times and from it we typed out our own pack-up and un-pack transcript, which we followed religiously. We printed it out with large print so we could read it easily, and inserted the pages into a clear plastic folder. Ten years after starting flying we still refer to it. I’ll attach it somewhere on this blogspot and hopefully readers can print it off if they think it might be helpful. But, it isn’t gospel, and is only relevant to an Airborne Edge X. <
Obtaining a licence for a trike didn’t seem quite as onerous as for general aviation. (In other words, if I could do it most people could).
LESSONS
The licence requirement is approximately 20 hours of lessons (depending on the student) and after going solo was 10 hours before obtaining a passenger endorsement.
Those 10 hours were the longest 10 hours imaginable, particularly when you share a trike. We spent many weekends ‘hot seating’ the trike. One of us would fly for maybe an hour, return to the runway, jump out and the other would jump in and take off for their hour. Sometimes one would get in an hour, return to the runway and find the weather had deteriorated and the trike would be put away in the hangar to fly again another day.
OTHER BENEFITS
A pleasant side effect unknown to us at the time we started lessons. Friends.
And lots of them.
As someone recently observed, “If you have a small boat at a busy landing and are putting it either in or out of the water and having trouble trying to get it onto a trailer, others just wait for you, getting impatient, without going out of their way to either assist or give helpful advice. If you fly with a group of trike pilots, there is always someone coming forward to either offer advice, lend a hand or find someone who can help you when needed”. Truer words never spoken!
It doesn’t matter if you fly the fastest trike or the slowest, you are made feel welcome.
One day I was flying under instruction from Tony, Stan was with another instructor, and Max was with Bill Worrall, and Tony said “Wow, all the Walkers are in the air at once – we’ll have to call you the Sky Walkers” so Sky Walkers became the obvious name for our trike.
We purchased our trike (an Airborne Edge X with Executive wing) from Bill Worrall and went to Benalla for Easter to be met with the shocking news that Bill had perished with Kevin Gleeson from Wangaratta in a Jabiru aircraft accident a few days earlier. Bill was well liked and it was a very sombre Easter.
I flew my first Solo on 18 April 1999. What a thrill - the biggest high I could imagine. It was late in the day and last light when I did a great landing way down the end of runway. I was afraid friends supporting my flight wouldn’t have seen as I was so far away, but was assured they could see the light on front of trike and it didn’t bounce!
Stan did his first solo a week later, 25 April (Anzac Day).
That was the start of what I always felt was the longest time in our training, had to fly 10 hours solo before taking a passenger, and when you are both going solo that’s 20 hours. A lot of cold flights were taken around Benalla before we could finally take our first flight together. Ever since we take turns on who has the back seat (giving advice) and who is in the front (ignoring person in the back and having more fun!).
We approached Wayne Sternberg at Ballarat to construct our trike trailer and have been very pleased with the result. Each trailer Wayne produced had an innovation. It’s a tilt trailer with a break across the middle and a winch at the front so we can lower the ramp at the back to roll the trike on and off. It has a wing carrier on one side which put the wing above our car boot when we had a sedan, but after several years we changed to a four-wheel drive. The trailer went back to Wayne and he lengthened the front support on the wing carrier so the wing would be up above the back of the four-wheel drive. Obviously it was too high for us to reach, so utilising the winch for the tilt trailer, we are no able to place the wing on the front support out at the side of the trailer, and easily winch it upright without further exertion. I don’t care what they say, the wing is heavy. For more on trike trailering "CLICK HERE".
After obtaining our licenses, we took our trike to Tyabb (40 minute drive from home at Pakenham) in November 1999. Without cross country endorsements our flying was limited to a radius of 25 kilometres from the take-off runway, and after about three weeks we made what turned out to be a really good decision and returned to Benalla and obtained our endorsements a few days prior to Christmas. It had involved several weeks of navigation study and flights under instruction, and completion of three flights and back to destinations we hadn’t been previously.
Over the years we had many wonderful flights, but below I'll list just some of our more memorable:
January 2000. Our first real trip away was to Marlo near Orbost where I have a brother and his family who arranged hangarage during our stay. After much fiddling we finally put our trike together and stood back and watched the rain. It rained. And rained. And rained. After several days we eventually managed to get into the air for three very short flights. So much for our first flying holiday.
We then returned the trike to Tyabb and were based there for several years, but being so transportable it didn’t restrict us to just that area. When I thumb through our log books I was surprised how much time we had spent back in the Benalla district.
While based at Tyabb we had many lovely flights over Westernport Bay to French Island, and while it was very accessible, we never flew to Phillip Island. Over several years we did many flights around Tooradin/Pakenham area.
29/30 July 2000. Tyabb to Yarram.
Amazing how far away you can easily see the power stations in the Latrobe Valley. Stayed overnight with several others at Yarram, and didn’t really enjoy an extremely slow, cold flight back to Tyabb next day with a severe head wind. I distinctly remember seeing a landmark enroute in the distance at Foster and it seemed to take hours to reach and finally fly past it.
2001 seemed to be our busiest and most adventurous flying year.
27 Jan 2001. Flew to Barwon Heads and then next day with other trikes to Lethbridge. Too rough for us and didn’t fly back with others, stayed on ground with Richard Price. Collected trike next morning for smooth flight back to Barwon Heads, then onto Tyabb with Dianne Pierpoint, who didn’t land at Tyabb but flew on to Coldstream.
February 2001, flew to Coldstream from Tyabb and stayed overnight with Dianne Pierpoint, and obtained the Southern Microlight Club ‘Come and Get It Trophy’. Returned the next day.
3 March 2001 we flew north from Tyabb with Mark Howard over Eildon Weir to Merrijig (between Mansfield and Mount Buller) where we stayed the night. Flew into Mansfield late in the afternoon for fuel. Some flights the air feels ‘magic’. Cannot explain it, but the flight back to Mansfield was one of those. Headed back toward Tyabb but beyond Taggerty we were clouded in so returned to Taggerty to obtain a ground report from Tyabb. When told there was cloud cover all the way we called in the troops in the form of Mark’s wife Jeanene who arrived a few hours later. While waiting we packed up both trikes. Mark’s trike was loaded onto their trailer, and we left our trike at Taggerty airfield. Jeanene and Mark kindly drove us home to Pakenham where we promptly put our trike trailer onto our son’s car and headed back to retrieve the trike just prior to nightfall. Thank goodness we hadn’t left trailer at Tyabb with our car as that would have added a further two hours to our journey.
16 April, 2001. From Benalla flew to Ryan and Karl Romeike’s strip at Barnawatha, near Wodonga.
21 April, Trike still at Benalla, so flew to Wangaratta for Trike Fly-in Weekend. We were to attend many enjoyable Wangaratta weekends. The camping ground was top class and right at the airport, and members of their Aeroclub provided cooked breakfasts and cut lunches. In 2008 the Trike Gathering was held at Benalla.
4 May, Tony and Therese were host to group of Japanese trike pilots. They couldn’t get over how much space we had available to fly in. (Some were used to as little as seven kilometre radius for their normal flying area). Among others, we enjoyed a flight with them to Porepunkah.
10 October, 2001. Took my mother, Ruby Cousin, aged 87. for one circuit at Tyabb. (She said later that she might open her eyes next time).
23 November 2001, Trailered to Mt Beauty for the Gathering of the Moths. We attended the Gathering for several years and the following year while at Mt Beauty the weather was perfectly calm and we flew with six other trikes to a height of 8100 feet and went over the top of Mt Bogong (Australia’s highest mountain). As Mt Bogong sits high above Mt Beauty, the airstrip was clearly visible and from that height within easy reach should we encounter any problems. Descending, we actually flew across Mt Beauty and the beautiful Kiewa Valley to land at Porepunkah in the next valley.
14 March 2004. I was lone female pilot in a trike display with six other trikes at the Tyabb Air Show. Solo. The Air Show insurance wouldn’t allow a passenger so I didn’t even have Stan in the back for extra ballast. And of course it had to be middle of the day and quite bumpy. I was so scared I would mess up the take-off or landing in front of all those people, but all went well. I was so nervous I doubt I’ll put my hand up again for anything similar.
24 May, 2004. Our first Megafauna trip left from Euroa departed a day later than planned due to weather. That day we flew to Yarrawonga (where Anne McLean briefly showed us their block of land), and then on to Narrandera. During the next week we visited Temora, Cowra, Cootamundra (most memorable flight - got lost - inserted incorrect GPS settings, extremely rough flight, Stan airsick, and then had to do two go-arounds prior to landing due to heavy traffic. Why do we fly?), Wagga Wagga, Holbrook, Corowa, Benalla.
Megafauna is a trip run each year by Peter and Anne McLean – The Lore of Flight now situated at Yarrawonga. >>> INSERT<<<< . They take a variety of small aircraft (usually including several trikes), have a preset course, staying each night at motels where an evening meal is partaken with much merriment. Ground crew for the flyers is a small bus to transport pilots to and from accommodation and towing a trailer which is packed tight with full jerrycans of fuel and luggage. Breakfast, morning tea and lunch is usually supplied each day where all help making sandwiches, washing up, or any other chores. At breakfast each morning several people boil jugs of water in their motel rooms and take them to pour into vacuum flasks for the days requirements. 26 February 2005 – Took part in the Great Air Rally. With 10 other trikes left Tyabb via coast of Port Phillip Bay, past Moorabbin airspace (with permission), around the edge of Melbourne and Port Melbourne (overlooking all the city landmarks), further along coast to Werribee. After morning tea proceeded in very bumpy weather to Barwon Heads. Stayed the night with Tony Wheal and attended Air Rally dinner at Geelong Football Club. Next morning flat front tyre on trike. Lucky for us there were many helpers to sort out and fix our problem before sending us on our way over Port Phillip Heads to Tyabb.
22 May 2005. Left on our second Megafauna trip. From Yarrawonga travelled through Jerilderie/Griffith to Lake Cargelligo to Condolobin. Parkes, Forbes West Wyalong, Narrandera and back to Yarrawonga. On all Megafauna trips the camaraderie is wonderful, and so much continual flying certainly improves your ability. We would recommend them to anyone who has the opportunity.
21 May 2006. Third Megafauna for us. Left Yarrawonga, Echuca, Swan Hill, Robinvale, Mildura, Renmark, to Waikerie where we spend three luxurious days on a riverboat. The boat didn’t go anywhere, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Back through Loxton, Mildura, Balranald, Kerang, Deniliquin to Yarrawonga.
3 March 2007
Once again, weather conditions prompted us to take our trike permanently to return to the Benalla hangar. Tony and Therese were no longer instructing there, but the hangar still housed many trikes and it wasn’t often we went there for the weekend without some other trike pilot arriving to also enjoy flying in the area.
And now, 17 October 2008, we have moved our trike from Benalla to Peter and Anne McLean’s hangar at Yarrawonga, awaiting the completion of our own hangar next door. It might still be several months before our hangar is ready for occupation, but it will be easier having the trike onsite.
