Well, not quite …… but see the next post.

After our thoughts of a few months ago about the merits of an enclosed cabin compared to an open one, we decided to look around the market to see what was on offer. Well, whether it’s because of the Credit Crunch or some other reason, compared to a few months ago (let alone last year when we bought the Trike), second-hand prices for many microlights have plummeted. In particular, we found that there were several Xairs around with various engine options and at various quite attractive price levels.

We started by considering two that were on offer from the same seller ( a group who were moving onto bigger and better things), one with a Simmonini two-stroke engine and the other with a Verner four-stroke. Only trouble was, both had had engine blow-ups in flight and had dumped their owners in fields from a great height! After taking a bit of impartial technical advice, we decided to give both a miss.

After considering a very attractively priced Xair with a BMW R100 motorbike engine (not a bad choice if the installation is done well, but quite a few aren’t we learnt), we decided that the best thing would be to go for an example with a Rotax 582 two-stroke engine. Now this is not a ‘touring’ engine for getting from A to B quickly – it’s more for pootling around the sky in your local area admiring the view and having fun. But really that’s what we want to do – to just get in some cheap flying hours.

We then homed in on a lovely little red and grey Xair being sold by a group in Lancashire. My research revealed that it will need an engine overhaul and new crank in about 50 hours or so, but after negotiating a price that took that into account, the deal was done. And here she is.

It really is a delightful little machine. Ken and I both had a chance to take the controls from the right-hand seat and it really was great fun. Here’s a pic of the cockpit – two sticks unlike some models which is a nice touch.

This is the so-called wide door model but as you can see from the next shot, that’s pretty relative really and getting in and out is something of an acquired art.

Just one last shot to finish off from the left-hand side.

So as things stand, we have had to find temporary hangarage down here in Kent (not an easy thing as there’s not much around at the moment) as the hangar at Ken’s hasn’t even been started yet. Insurance cover has been transferred over from the original owners and now all that remains is to get her flown down from Lancashire (remember, we don’t have our licences yet). But there’s just one fly in the ointment

So now we come to the whole purpose of the title. Ken and I have had a bit of a falling out. At the time of writing, after finding her, researching her and negotiating a selling price for her, sadly my involvement with the Xair has now ceased. I’m going to press on again now with Our Trike and get that to Permit stage and I’ve set a personal target of end of July for that. I’m also going to go ahead with my training for my NPPL (microlight licence) and then see what the future holds at the end of it.

So you see, things are all a little bit up in the air……

Hmmmm…. bad pun not intended, because while time has been flying, we certainly haven’t. As expected, Ken was indeed out of the country for most of the Autumn, up to the end of October. And I was also busy, as expected, with my business. An exciting time for me, but a dead loss as far as Our Trike was concerned.

During the whole of this time it has remained untouched, in the workshop at Ken’s place. I have one of the original wheel spat brackets that was made, somewhat badly, from rather lightweight aluminium. I was going to get two more fabricated from something a bit stronger, but still haven’t done so. I did manage to get hold of a CHT/RPM gauge to replace the original that didn’t work when we connected it up and tested it when we last ran the engine, but it is still un-fitted.

Obviously with Christmas now coming up we need to reformulate our plans in a big way. Nothing will happen now until after the New Year – except we must make sure that the battery, which was fitted new by the previous owner just before we bought the trike, is checked and charged up. But I’ll let you into a little secret. Ken has been making noises about really wanting something that has an enclosed cabin with side-by-side seating and has even suggested disposing of the trike and getting hold of something like the Thruster, shown below.

The one shown above is the T600N, with a nose wheel. I prefer the version with a tail wheel, theT600T, like the next pic, except with a fully enclosed cabin.

Have to say that I quite like the idea. Having held a ‘normal’ Group A (as it then was) light aircraft licence, flying this type of aircraft certainly appeals. However, they’re a bit more expensive to buy than a trike and although there are quite a few open models, there doesn’t seem to be too many tail-draggers around with enclosed cabins. And there still remains the question of what to do with Our Trike. Common sense says we get it airworthy first if we are going to sell it, so the work we’ve started will have to be completed by the Spring.

Ahhh…… problems, problems, so many problems ….. 🙂

Over a month has come and gone since the last post, so what’s been going on? The answer is, “Very little!” in the Trike department. Ken has long since recuperated from his little op so that hasn’t been the problem. No, we have to look elsewhere for what’s been holding us back.

The first thing has undoubtedly been the weather. By now the whole World probably knows about the deluge of biblical proportions that struck the UK during what was supposed to have been the early part of our Summer. Miles and miles of the North and West of the country under water, homes, farms and businesses flooded and Lord knows what else. Thankfully we were not affected half so badly in the South-East but we still had day after day of unremitting rain. So that’s the main reason.

But there’s something else. For the last couple of years I’ve been developing and running a small family-owned business for a client who in that time has also become a good friend. At the end of June the family decided that they wanted to pull out of the business and divest the company. So I acquired it off them.

This was a totally unforeseen possibility when I first had the idea of getting the Trike and, of course, it has totally thrown my plans into confusion. Obviously the business had to become my first priority and that’s what has happened. For now anyway.

The Summer months are the ‘quiet’ time for this particular business but (I’m glad to say!) that has not been quite the case this year. So as well as having to make the necessary changes to financially integrate the company into my existing business and get it ready for the Autumn, I’ve also been quite busy just running it.

I guess with the weather being so poor, I didn’t mind this too much because even when the sun has emerged it has been far too windy for microlighting. However, as I type this we have blazing sun and a clear blue sky and potentially the hottest day of the year to look forward to. Still a bit breezy though as the sun warms everything up.

So does this mean we’ll be able to get back on track again? Hmmmm…… maybe, maybe not. Ken now has one or two business trips coming up. Did I say a few? In fact from Tuesday week he’ll be in and out of the UK more or less non-stop until the end of October. And me, I’ll still be concentrating on the business of course. We had a chat the other day and the conclusion we came to is that as a result of all this, this year may end up being a wash-out in both senses of the word.

Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see. If my business settles down as I hope it will, I’d still like to get some microlighting under my belt this year if I can. In the last few years we’ve had some glorious long Autumns in here in the UK and perhaps that will happen again this year. If it doesn’t, then probably no chance.

And pity all the poor devils who run microlighting and flying schools!

So last Sunday we managed to get almost all of the airframe inspection work completed. We finished off the re-cabling but the problem was that when we eventually reconnected the battery and fired up the engine, the RPM/Engine Temp gauge didn’t work properly. We don’t have a wiring diagram and just had to rely on the fact that the original connections were correct. That might be a dodgy assumption. In any case, on closer inspection the gauge is U/S anyway, so until we obtain and fit a replacement, we’ll not know for sure. It would be nice to have a proper wiring diagram, though, so we know that what we’re doing is correct, so we’ll have to get in touch with Medway Microlights, who now officially support our trike model, to see if they have such a thing. My guess is they do 😉

Final job today was removing the wheels and checking and regreasing the roller bearings. Bit messy but we didn’t find any problems and it’s good to know that they are now packed with nice fresh grease.

As the weather was fine, I wanted to take some pictures of the field. Now I have a confession to make. After just taking delivery of my lovely new Pentax digital camera a few days earlier, I have to admit that I forgot to take it with me. Luckily, Ken’s son Marc came to the rescue and loaned me his, so I was able to take the following pics which give a good impression of the lie of the land.

As you can see, the field can hardly be called level, but we think there’s a strip angled slightly right to left from the foreground into the distance that will be long enough and flat enough for us to use. There are some tallish trees along the boundary of the field behind where the pics were taken from, but again these should not cause too much of a problem as the field is pretty long, as you can see, and microlight approaches are also steeper than fixed wing.

Then there was a bit of a din and Ken’s brother, Peter, decided to drop in with a friend for a cup of tea. Din, you say. Motorbike? Sports car? Not likely. Jet Ranger helicopter!

Toddie, my Springer, is an ex-Gun Dog so he was not too perturbed by the noise. The afternoon was warmer than it looks in the pics so after Peter had switched off he decided to take advantage of the helo’s shade. Bit cheeky eh 🙂

Anyway, at the end of the day. we’d made a bit more progress. More or less got everything back together and have run the engine again. Pity about that flippin’ gauge, but C’est La Microlighting Vie, I guess 😉

Should hopefully from now on be a thing of the past!

First thing was, took my good ole Minolta digital camera down to Ken’s at the week-end and took a few shots of the field from which we’ll hopefully be flying at some time. Weather was sunny and bright, field was being mown by the local farmer’s tractor. Conditions – more or less ideal. Took shots. Result – rubbish! Exposure a total disaster, and I’ve found this quite a lot with this camera just lately.

ACTION – order a lovely new Pentax 7M pixel Optio S7  😉

Have now got it – it’s tiny and really nice. So now there’s no excuse – expect to see a few more pics in future postings 🙂

Couldn’t resist slipping this pic in here. What a nice piece of kit it’s turned out to be! 3x optical zoom plus 4x digital, 23MB internal storage (and an extra 1GB fast memory card that will hold about 1000 pics cost only an extra £10!!), 2.5″ LCD screen, captures sound and movie clips and all only 85.5×53.5x19mm. How do they do it.

Moving on…… we nipped down to Medway Microlights as well on Sunday to get the info we need, on membership, training, hangarage (if we decide we’d like to have any part of our training on our trike), stuff like that. Was rather quiet for a week-end but we had a very pleasant couple of hours drinking tea and chatting with staff and a couple of members.

Ken’s now thinking of training on a 3-axis aircraft rather than a weight-shift (which ours is) because at the end when he’s got his licence, he’s thinking about splashing-the-cash and going for a 3-axis with an enclosed cockpit. An Instructor we spoke with thinks that he should make a choice because the skills required are different and not immediately transferrable. For example, with a weight-shift, you push the bar forward to ascend whereas with a 3-axis you pull the stick backwards. This can obviously be quite critical at certain times – eg when you’re flaring to land  😕 – and it’s at times like that when stress can be relatively high for a student that accidents can happen, if they keep switching from the one type to the other.

He doesn’t have to make that decision quite yet as after a small recent op he can’t fly yet anyway, but he probably will go 3-axis I think.

I’ve taken the decision to start dual training as soon as possible. Unfortunately I’ve not had the time this week (I wanted maybe to do a couple of hours on Wednesday but I was too busy with work commitments) so whether I’ll be able to do any this week-end or have to wait till next week, I don’t know.

I’ll let you know as soon as I do 😉

Oh – by the way – we have managed to get a bit more work done on our trike. The week-end before last I replaced the dodgy cabling. Well, almost. There’s a panel-mounted single fuse in the circuit and that turned out to be naff, so I couldn’t finish the job. Have looked for a replacement but not found one yet. But we will, we will….

Well, something like 10 days have slipped by and we’ve been able to get very little accomplished in that time. But not quite nothing!

Managed to make contact with our local BMAA Inspector who will have the job of giving our trike a thorough look-over and deciding whether she’ll get her Permit To Fly or not. Anyway, that’s still a few weeks down the line. His name’s Jim and he sounds like a very nice chap indeed. Obviously safety must always remain the top-most priority but already the differences between microlights and Group A light aircraft, that we’ve been used to in the past, are becoming apparent. With the former, you’re discouraged from touching anything on your aircraft whereas the opposite seems to apply with microlights.

The policy seems to be to positively encourage you to do things yourself (on the assumption you do have some idea what you’re doing, of course) and I think this is a very good thing. The more you get to know about your aircraft, how it’s made, what the various parts do, how it goes together and, more importantly, the condition it’s in, surely the safer it will be for both you and your passengers. Not even a complete fool would risk flying something they know to be unsafe, and how can they know that unless they’ve been all over it with their own eyes and hands, touching, feeling, removing and replacing bits, tightening nuts, checking cables, fabric, components and so on. Luckily I’m pretty experienced in those things, but for other less experienced owners who have yet to learn, that surely is why at the end of it all you have an experienced inspector go over it with a fine tooth comb just to make sure you haven’t done anything silly. Anyway, in my book, it’s a good system.

What else have we done? Well, not much unfortunately. I got hold of some excellent 4-core multi-strand cable at the weekend but the FA Cup Final saw to it that the old cabling didn’t get replaced. After watching the match I almost wish I’d spent the time working on the trike instead!

A grudging ‘Well Done’ to Chelsea 😐

Well, the Bank Holiday weekend came and went. The weather forecast for Sunday wasn’t good (in fact the weather turned out not too bad as it goes..) so Ken suggested going down to Popham on Saturday. I’d already told my son that I’d fit new brake pads on his car – how come sons nowadays don’t seem to be able to do half the things we had to at their age….. or are they just cleverer than we were and can always get their Dads to do things for them instead? So I couldn’t go and Ken went down by himself – said it was a terrific show and that he’s never seen so many microlights of all types and sizes, together in one place. Oh well, too bad that I had to miss it.

But come Monday I decided that come what may, we’d get our hands dirty. The day started alternately bright then overcast, but always breezy. We thought we’d nip down to Rochester Microlights to see if we could get any first hand advice on what we needed to do by way of stripping and inspection for the Permit to Fly.

On the way down it stayed breezy and there were a few spots of rain on the windscreen. It was great to get back to Rochester Airport. It’s where we kept the group Cherokee before we sold it back in the 80s and I don’t think I’ve been back since. I’d forgotten what it felt like to be driving onto an airfield – funny thing is although we’ve only got a microlight and it isn’t even flying yet, I’m already beginning to feel ‘part’ of it again.

Anyway, you’ve guessed it, because of the weather there was no flying going on at all, let alone of microlights, so the office was empty and locked up. So we nipped into the airfield restaurant. I just love how restaurants on small airfields all seem to have the same atmosphere – two cheery ladies behind the counter and bacon butties on the go the whole time. We had a mug of tea each and the largest sausage rolls you could ever see, with 3 big fat sausages inside.

On the way back the sky darkened and the heavens literally opened into the most intense deluge I’ve seen for a very long time. Even with the wipers on full speed, we could hardly see the road ahead and traffic had to slow right down. I’d hoped to start work on the Trike in the open air but that was impossible. Luckily the garage it’s in has pretty good lighting so we were able to get started anyway.

By the way, while we were getting going inside, Toddie, my Springer was outside in the rain. Like all Spaniels, he loves water and getting soaking wet and filthy dirty are doggie heaven for him. There are plenty of opportunities for him to do both at Ken’s so I suppose you could say that despite the weather, everyone was happy 🙂

Unlike most trikes, ours has got electric start which uses a small battery in a holder below the main tube just in front of the engine. So the first job was to disconnect it. We then started off by removing the mainwheel spats (quite easy) and then I thought it might be a good idea to remove the nose pod so we could get a good look at the nose gear. Bad idea – very bad. After removing all the mounting fixings and a lot more besides including a length of wire locking (that will now have to be replaced) between the pod and the main frame, we couldn’t see any way barring magic or a hacksaw to separate the pod from the frame. I think we’ll just have to hope that the engineer who does the inspection will be able to see enough with the pod in place, so when we’ve done all we can in the nose area, we’ll just refit everything and hope for the best, I think.

Ken had to finish early but I pressed on and had a really productive few hours. I checked the plugs (nice and new, no wear) and found them to be very oily. Not surprising I guess being as it’s a two-stroke engine with inverted cylinders (still no new pics yet, I’m afraid – just too dark today). Compression seemed OK so enough oil must be able to drain down the cylinder walls and foul the plugs if it stands for a while. Must remember that for the future – might have to remove and clean the plugs as a pre-flight check before starting the engine if it’s been standing for several days, as it inevitably will do.

Here’s a pic taken by the previous owner showing the engine.

I was then able to check every tube, nut, bolt, joint, mounting, cable, locking pin and locking ring from the rear of the Trike (including the engine) down to the cockpit. I was really happy with the progress made and glad to find, as far as I could see, no major problems. I did find a bit of abrasion damage that somehow looks to have been caused by a cable when the frame has been folded down, on the right hand main undercarriage strut. The integrity and strength of the strut do not look to have been impaired and hopefully this will not be regarded by the engineer as a serious problem.

So at the end of the day, we were able to make a good start on the pre-inspection work we need to do before the Inspector gets his hands on the machine. We now need to get hold of 2-3 metres of good quality 4-core cable to replace the telephone cable that’s been used to connect the instruments (incredible isn’t it!!), do the checks we need to on and around the front section of the Trike and that’ll just leave the wing. I reckon just another weekend should do it for the main frame, controls, engine and body. But the wing, ahhhh… that’s a whole new bag of worms. I doubt failure of a trike frame is ever responsible for an accident but wings can and do break if they are not in perfect condition.

We will need to get it assembled and thoroughly check the tubes, battens, joints, cables and fabric and as we don’t even know yet how to assemble it as mentioned in the previous post, we have a small mountain to climb in that direction. But we’ll press on undaunted and think about that in a week or so, when the time comes 😉

Sorry, no pics for this posting.

We had our first fairly close look at things over the weekend. No major problems found. The engine gauge actually shows RPM and engine temperature and doesn’t seem to be working properly. Hardly surprising as someone looks to have used single strand household telephone cable, which is very fragile at the best of times, to connect it (!!) and the connections look very dodgy. The in-line fuse may have gone as well, but none of this matters as we will be renewing all electrical wiring (there’s not much) in any case.

More importantly, there’s no sign of any airframe damage or corrosion and all the cables look good as well. The airspeed indicator wasn’t connected (plastic tube from gauge was not connected to nose venturi) and when it was reconnected it tested fine. Left rear tyre was almost flat so it’ll probably need a new tube or maybe just a valve core. Add it to the list!

Laid the wing out for the first time. Have to confess that without having the manual with us, we couldn’t fully assemble it! Lots of tubes and battens have to be carefully inserted and secured in the right places and exactly how wasn’t immediately obvious. It has to be done right, of course. Bit of a learning curve there I think. One thing we did find was a tiny bit of abrasion damage – a small hole near the right wing tip caused by a metal stub on the wing leading edge tube being left unprotected and rubbing against the wing fabric during transit. Looks to have happened some time ago, but what a silly thing for someone to have allowed to happen. Otherwise the wing looks to be excellent, but it’ll have to have what’s called a Betts Test. The Permit to Fly Inspection Notes state that ‘major’ fabric damage has to be repaired. This probably wouldn’t be classed as that but we’ll still see what’s needed to get it fixed as we’d like to start with a ‘clean sheet’ so to speak.

I’ve been collecting info and advice on what we need to do next. I’ve been told that forms and other info are on the UK CAA and BMAA web sites so I’ll be checking those out soon. First thing will be to get the trike re-registered with the CAA and then we’ll need to make contact with a local BMAA Inspector. But we’ve decided that we’ll strip all the ancillaries, like the pod, side fabric and spats off first so we can get a good look at what’s underneath, as we’re sure he’ll want to do that.

We have May Day weekend coming up and a holiday on Monday 7th so we hope to get the stripping well underway. We’re probably going off to a Microlight show at Popham on the Sunday (good opportunity to see how the wing goes together eh 😉 ) so hope to return with bags of new-found knowledge.

That’s all for now.

Nothing much happening trike-wise right now. We’re both very busy with other things so the trike has stayed locked away in its garage.

So in the meantime, here are a few more pics taken by its former owner. Sorry about the rather low quality 😉

They give some idea of the excellent condition the wing is in. As it’s been stored away in its bag, even for several years, deterioration should be minimal. The danger for any wing comes from exposure to UV, and that just hasn’t happened with this one.

As you can see, instrumentation is pretty basic – just an airspeed indicator, altimeter, compass and clock, plus cylinder head and exhaust gas temps. It has both pull and electric start – reassuring to know, I’d have thought, if the engine should happen to stop mid-flight. Nice to know that if it should happen, on top of everything else, you wouldn’t have to be frantically yanking on the rope to get the fires alight again!

Look, we’re two old friends and we’ve just bought a microlight together. Nothing wrong with that. I saw it on eBay and on 19th April 2007, we trailered it home and locked it up in a barn at Ken’s place. I’m Roger by the way.

OK, so we’re both in our 60s but we still want to have some fun!

One or two of our friends seemed quite surprised when we told them. Yes, we both have zero hours on microlights and will have to get our microlight pilot’s licences. But we both have some previous flying experience so that shouldn’t be too difficult. And yes, the microlight hasn’t been flown for over 10 years, so it’ll have to be made airworthy and be thoroughly checked before being given a Permit to Fly. But we reckon we can do that.

Turned out that quite a few of the people we told about our plans said how interested they were to see how we got on. So then I had a thought. How about starting a blog – then we can take everyone along with us and share all of our experiences and adventures, maybe, along the way. ‘Great idea!’ they said.

So here it is! Welcome to Our Trike.

Our trike’s a Southdown Sailwings Puma Sprint – one of the best and most popular trikes of its time. Built in the UK in 1985, sold to its first owner in 1986 but not flown since 1995. Only 308 airframe hours in total and only 38 hours on its immaculate wing and Robin engine, which were replaced in 1990 and 1991 respectively with only a 30 minute check flight on the new wing in the eight months in between!

It’ll be a lot of fun getting it (and ourselves!) flying and neither of us can wait! If the Summer carries on like the Spring has been here in the South of England – long, clear, warm, calm days, this will be a year to remember.

Oh, by the way, just a little footnote to finish this posting off. Apologies to any of our US cousins who may be reading this. To you they’re ultralights, to us they’re microlights. We’ll be using the British term all the time, but anyone can feel free to use whatever description they prefer in any comments or replies, which we hope to see plenty of.

That’s it for now.