Hi!

 

Although I like to fly varied aircraft in flightsim I have been thinking more recently of trying some Ultralight flying in Fs9 and FsX. What I like doing in flightsim is simulating real flights which pilots make. However I have been finding it quite difficult to find much info about it on the internet as they don't seem to write too many trip reports!

 

The first question I wanted to ask is does anyone know how trike pilots navigate. Do they have a VFR map clipped in somewhere? They seem to wear big baggy suits which I don't think have kneepads for maps. And what happens if they need to turn the page!

 

The second question I had was does anyone know of any flight routes which trike pilots have done in the real world. Ideally I would like flights in the South of the UK where I am and have scenery but anywhere would be cool. I have seen ultralights at Popham and Headcorn in the UK and I'm sure they fly somewhere for the day but I have no idea where.

 

Many thanks for any help/info,

 

Pierre

Most microlight pilots I know have a GPS rigged up and fly using a combination of that and VFR navigation. The important thing to do if you fly like that, is to always fly on the right hand side of any major feature you are following, such as a road, railway line, or river. Because anyone else doing that coming the other way should also have the feature on their right, and consequently, you won't crash into them because you will be on opposite sides of the line. That is in fact one of the reasons why the pilot sits on the left hand side of the cockpit of an aeroplane, so that he can look out of the left window and see the road he is following.

 

Often microlight pilots fly in a very casual fashion in the UK, although one thing they do tend to do is zip from one well known microlight airfield to another. However, I've seen microlight pilots getting away with landing in places where they really should not actually have landed, for example, one came in at Camphill a few years ago, when I was on duty signalling the winch on the flight line, and he did not radio that he was in the circuit, but he should not have landed there anyway, because it is clearly marked on the peri track as not being for powered aircraft, but he did not see it because he came straight in, not flying a circuit at all.

 

He had a swift brew and then fecked off sharpish and nobody was too bothered, because there weren't actually many gliders up that day and in any case, everyone in a glider watches the circuit like a hawk, and we put out a general warning call on the radio, but it does illustrate the kind of thing that can happen. He was lucky actually, the way he came in was very low and flat, and did not take into account the wind shear that his approach direction is prone to since the run in before peri track drops steeply away, in fact most pilots coming in that way add about 30 knots to their approach speed and dive through it at about a ten-to-twenty degree descent angle to negate the wind shear and then slow with the spoilers to flare.

 

Anyway, back on topic, you might want to check out Pooleys, it has a lot of info related to the kind of airfields Microlights use:

 

http://www.pooleys.c...107&menuHold=15

 

http://www.pooleys.c...104&menuHold=15

 

You might also be interested in this by the way: http://secure.simmar...ights-fsx.phtml

 

I've often been tempted to buy it, but have never done so, thus I cannot vouch for its quality, and so you might want to read the review of it at the bottom of that page, since there are I believe one or two minor issues with it, although nothing appears to be a show stopper.

 

Al

I have flown trikes in the U.S., mainly from a dirt strip near Quartzite Arizona. The trike environment, being exposed in a 45 knot slipstream, doesn't lend itself to carrying a map. As already mentioned, some use a GPS but I never have. My flying was always within ten miles or so of a dirt strip, and the only other place I used to takeoff and land was a dirt field with approx. a quarter mile of usable landing surface about six miles away from the strip I used. I navigated by dead reckoning which was easy enough to do--there were plenty of landmarks to navigate by. I haven't flown a trike in several years but still have fond memories of my experiences.

 

John

Hi!

 

Many thanks for the replies and links. That addon looks pretty nice although I don't own the photoscenery for Northern UK yet. Maybe I will head down to Popham and see if there's a cafe where I can eavesdrop on people's conversations and see what they're up too! I'm guessing they generally just fly between places where they're allowed to land as I think (I'm not sure if I'm right) that a lot of airfields are too busy and don't let them land there. And finding out about small farm strips and dirt strips might prove very difficult.

 

Anyway many thanks again. Will keep looking into it and hopefully get airbourne soon!

 

Pierre