If you have a personnal story, a comment  or some experience with the Raven Soaring Trike that you would like to share, email it to us at: trikes@tds.net 

 

Trikosoarus? by Bob Corbo

Kitplanes article by Dan Johnson

Oz report interview by Dave Glover

 

“Wow”, reading all the stuff in the Jan. 2006 Hang Gliding magazine about alternative launch methods, and the different reasons for using them sure hit home with me. Although a lack of flying sites close by, or working too much to be able to devote a whole day to flying aren’t the problems that I deal with. The fact stems from being an aging hang glider pilot. I’ve been flying hang gliders more than 25 years now, and I’m pushing fifty.  A good day of flying off the mountain would leave me sore for a week. That’s the problem I was up against. Our local mountain has a half hour walk to launch, and even if I went towing, just flying prone for a few hours would leave me all ginked up. So in the spring of 1999 I decided to find a way to alleviate all these problems and boost my sagging air time. The following is a quick run down on how I solved my problem.

          

         Although first conceived in 1999 it wasn’t until the spring of 2000 that the first Trikosoarus™ as originally named, got airborne. What it is in one form is a rigid supine harness with a tricycle landing gear, and rigid connection to a hang glider, designed to be aero towed or roll launched. In its other form it’s the most fun powered micro light trike you could ever fly. Capable of both super slow powered flight (18 mph indicated airspeed with a 160lb pilot) and engine off soaring with electric restart. And the real neat thing about these two very different flying machines is that it only takes 10 minutes to convert from one to the other.

 

            I started the design process by working on the main frame. It had to be super strong and super light. I was looking for a trike that was both easy to transport and easy to set up, so I followed the modified KISS principle, keep it simple and small. The main frame is an overbuilt single masted trust that is super strong, has only one moving part, and weighs a mere 20 pounds. After five years of setting up, flying, braking down and transporting the original frame I built, it is still in perfect flying shape.

    

            Comfort was one of my design priorities so I spent a lot of time on the seat design. The final product is a well padded wooden frame seat that is integrated into the main frame of the trike and fully adjustable. This design is far superior to any cloth or plastic seat, both in comfort and crash protection.

 

            Once the trike body was all put together, it was time for the first test tows. These happened in the spring of 2000 at Morning Side Flight Park. As far as I know, no one has done any extensive testing on un-powered soaring trikes, so I had no previous knowledge to fall back on. I worked out tow points by towing behind an ATV with 100’ of tow line. This rig allowed me to reach take off speed at a very smooth and steady rate. Take off can be achieved at 18 mph and at that speed, I was able to follow the ATV the whole length of the runway flying 2 ft off the ground (this could be a great training technique for trike pilots).

 

            Once tow points were figured out, it was time to tow up behind the dragon fly. All the work that went into getting it correct behind the ATV paid off and it meant that no changes or adjustments had to be made to the set up. It actually made towing a pleasant experience and it was a lot simpler than using a dolly.

 

            The next several summers saw the addition of a small motor for self launching with a quick disconnect mount system so the trike could be converted from a powered unit to an un-powered unit in minutes. The addition of a partially enclosed pod with a skin that zips up to the waist made it comfortable to fly well into the cold season, and the addition of an extension bar made it very comfortable to soar power off, without the need to push all the way out to your finger tips to get close to stall and that magic minimum sink speed.

 

            By 2004, the trike had been tow launched, roll launched from the cliff at Mont St-Pierre in Québec and the short ramp at Morningside, soared with the power unit attached, and even used as a blow cart with a traction kite!

 

            In the winter of 2004, I worked on getting 2 units up and running so I could head down to Florida in the spring of ’05 for a little personal flying and get some real feedback from the flying community on whether I should proceed with the project as an actual business venture. I had several pilots including Rob Kells and Steve Pearson from Wills Wing make their first ever un-powered trike tows from behind the tugs at Wallaby Ranch. The response I got was overwhelming:. By the end of my stay, the little Trikosoarus™ had impressed every pilot that flew it, even the guy who tried to crash it. Fortunately, neither he nor the trike was injured.

 

            It’s now spring of 2006, and I’ve been flying the Trikosoarus for 6 years now. A fun day of flying goes like this: get up early and get to the airport for some glassy smooth morning air to do a little low and slow flying. Then, motor on over across the Connecticut River to the flight park, maybe snag a few thermals and shut off the engine on the way, land and pop off the motor, clip on the tow line and up we go behind the dragonfly for some afternoon hang gliding. When things die out, I come back down, pop on the motor and sky out to do some evening smoothies and catch the sun set as I fly back to my home airport.

 

            The challenge of designing and building the Trikosoarus™ has certainly been a fun filled project for me but it doesn’t come close to what I experience when I’m up playing around in the sky, in lawn chair comfort at my leisure.   No more hurting for a week after a flight, and I get as much air time as I want. And who knows, maybe I can help other aging pilots get it up once again. Their air time that is.

 

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See you in the sky!!!