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 Thunderstorms
and continuous rain have become a daily occurrence in S. Florida, but on
Saturday the weather gods granted perfect flying conditions for our
monthly breakfast and seminar.
LAFA members Dick Bronnenberg and Jim
Lindberg were the designated speakers. The somewhat
controversial subject was: "Trikes are easier to fly".
To those with fixed wing experience, the term "easy" is both
relative and subjective.
Although no LAFA member had any doubt that flying trikes really is easier
to Dick and Jim, just before the seminar I went up with
Dick on my first ever trike flight...
 Suffice to say that the concept of
pushing right to go left, left to go right, back to go down and
forward to
go up takes some getting used to if you have three axis experience.
Once one gets past this apparent "discrepancy", however, the
beauty of a very different flying experience becomes very apparent.
 For one thing, the smoothness of the ride stands out.
Unlike fixed wing aircraft where all wing movement gets transmitted to the
cockpit, trike pilots sit in a pendulum that is not rigidly attached to the
wing. As a result, very little of the turbulence that affects the wing
gets transmitted to the cage below.
Another
notable difference was the tremendous amount of control the pilot has due to
the fact that he is moving the entire wing rather than just small control
surfaces. This brings the trike pilot one step closer to "flying like a bird".
We are all guilty to one degree or another,
of limiting ourselves to our own little worlds ...of sticking to what has
become familiar ...of not experimenting.
All too often we find
something we like, get familiar with it, then quickly forget that it was just one of many
alternatives.
If you
enjoy other forms of flying but have never gone up in a trike, you are
depriving yourself of a special treat.
The seminar
was based on an illustrated PowerPoint presentation
that Jim put together. You can see this presentation by
clicking here.
Thank you Dick and Jim for a glimpse of
one of the other ways to enjoy flight!
Thanks
also go to Ron, Clare and Ida for the fabulous breakfast, and to Mike H. and
Adler for contributing photos.
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