How high did you usually fly ?
Mostly we flew as low as we could safely fly. Generally we would fly about 1000ft to 1500ft above the ground to allow us to view life in the USA. Going up high is generally colder and you see less detail.
Trike are great viewing platforms as they fly relative slow, you can easily circle around a pack of sharks or dolphin or a house fire on the ground or more challenging is catching thermals.
How fast did you fly ?
The speed of the trike across the ground depends on the wind, it is usually either with you or against you!! The trike flys at about 50 knots. (55 miles or 92 km/h). With a strong tail wind you can see a ground speed of 70 knots with a headwind you can be moving at just 30 knots across the ground. (trucks overtake you it is reallly embarassing ! ). Generally we were able to avoid flying into a headwind as we had no real destination on a given day. WE would either head a different direction or spend less time in the air.
In generally aircraft spend 2/3 of there airtime in headwind as opposed to tailwind. It took us a while to work out why this would be the case but it make sense.
Where did you sleep at night?
Over the 40 days we spent 3 nights in hotels, about 15 nights sleeping at the airfield , either sleeping under the wing or in the airport lounge, clubhouse or somewhere else suitable. (back of the courtesy car/van). The rest of the time we where put up in fellow pilots houses or just curious onlookers how saw to us having a place to sleep, sometimes a real bed and shower for the night. So many great people.
Do you use a radio to talk to other aircraft and towers?
Our trike was fitted out with a good radio. This allowed us to do the usually call sign and radio call procedure while operating in controlled airspace. The radio was handy as it allow us to listen into the recored weather at the next landing as well. Knowing the weather and the wind is vital for survival in an ULTRA-light aircraft !
Did you ever get into trouble and thought that there might be tears when the flying stoped ?
A couple of times we where in serious trouble and fearing that it was all going to end in tears. The first time was on Day 3 when we had to land on a farmer's field by the Mississippi River. SEE DAY 3.
The second time we almost ran out of runway and almost ended up in the trees with a costly bill.
You live and you learn. Ah
At the time these little "events" where happening I was just hoping we would make it down alive and in one piece. Destroying the aircraft was a price I was more than willing to pay as long as we survived.
They say at these times "it is better been on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground" Great advice , ah !!!
How did you navigate?
Anna-Klara was the navigator in the back seat of the Trike. She had a laptop on her lap that had Aeronautical charts that told us about airspaces etc. The laptop was connecting to a GPS device via Bluetooth. The laptop have a battery life of two -three hours and we have the ability to plug it in onboard, but never had to.
How much fuel can you carry? What is the range of the trike?
The trike takes 70 litres or 18 US gallons to fill it. This allows for about 4 hours running to dry with the engine we where running. Of course we never ran the tank dry but we got close once and resort to landing in a field? !
The range of the trike between fuel stops is about 180 Nautical miles, realistically.
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