Loss of Control in a trike

Larry Mednick's latest overview of spiral and spiral recovery. Situations not addressed before with common mistakes made that can spell disaster.

[allthecommonsense]

I have no idea how this ended up in my recommendations since I don't fly these things... but I can fully appreciate the quality work here!

[bradrose]

I am a long time fixed wing ultralight (since 1980) & GA pilot (since 1986) and I took a demo flight / intro lesson with Larry Mednick a few years back in his Revo Trike. I have had much interest in learning to fly trikes for quite a long time and had watched many instructional videos & read much material on the subject. Also, I’d spent a lot of time “in my brain” thinking about & visualizing the differences and convincing myself I could make the transition very easily. Wrong! I’m 100% convinced that I’d have killed myself on that first flight had Larry not been in the back seat! We did a lot of the stuff shown in this video, and it is NOT intuitive for a fixed wing guy, at all. Go some training!!
Thanks Larry for a FUN and enlightening flight!

[phaedradg]

I can see why a fixed wing pilot, trained to push the stick forward on impending stall, would in this case push the bar away from himself, thus making the situation worse. Very informative, thank you.

[bigglesace]

As a former microlight/ultralight instructor on both 3 axis and weightshift, it was obvious when converting people from one to another that correct training, supervision and practise is essential. To a 3 axis guy, weightshift control isn't natural, no matter how prepared you are. For example, there are ways to describe roll inputs - to roll left, pull left wing down. It's helpful to also compare steering a car by holding the bottom of the steering wheel. Pitch control is the killer because 3 axis instinct is harder to overcome, until you get the idea that you're actually flying the wing, not using elevator.

[whiskeytango]

I was a hang glider pilot, and I visualized the bar as fixed and that it was my body that moved as the "stick". That visualization made the controls very natural, I just moved my body where I wanted to go.

[TheFalconJetDriver]

This is a very good video for anyone looking into weight shifting flying. I have been a fixed wing pilot for 50 years flying LSA’s a few hours to the B777 and bunch of corporate jets in the middle. What I learned I would never ever think about get under that wing with out an instructor. This is a Totally different way to fly. 😀🛫

[Ryosuke-lqtb]

Thanks Larry, Educational content I have ever seen. Here in Japan there is no mandatory training to exit spiral dive with a weightshift aircraft. It's very informative👍

[OPNURISYDER]

Thanks for posting, Larry. Videos like this can save lives, maybe my own!!

[BrilliantDesignOnline]

As a super experienced HG pilot, the first time I flew a trike, was by myself with no instruction (1990ish) from our local city airport. What got me, was the unexpected trike cage swing forward (Kosmos-Fuji-Robin 440); Rather than just let it happen, I pitch inputted into the control bar, which took the small wing bank and amplified it into a unexpected 30+ degree right turn which aimed me at the hangars. I pulled back in to allow the ability to crank in some left bank, even though I was low, which got the wings level and then pitched back up into a climb. Takeoffs after that, I was prepared, and when the cage swung forward, I just let the wing maintain its current pitch attitude and there was no problem.
I am actually convinced that trikes are one of the safest aircraft now. Later flying a Seair (look up seair ultralight), I found it cool to fly down close to the water in ground effect and drag only the rudder in the water (hung down about a foot) because the trike frame was normally at a pitch up attitude. BTW, I have hundreds of hours in trikes, and thousands of hours in HG's, not to mention PG, FW and RW.

[sixstringedthing]

As a non-flyer but also a keen aviation nerd who'd love to leave the ground solo some day, I'd always looked at things like trikes and other microlight designs with something of a wary eye. It's quite remarkable to see how stable and recoverable they can be when correctly flown by a knowledgable and practised operator, even when deliberately or accidentally put into a very extreme attitude which seems to be asking for a big oof. I'm suddenly a lot keener to investigate the process of learning to get airborne in something like this.
Great video, thanks for the upload. New subscriber here, cheers!

[PaulRubino]

Very informative. I don't fly or anything but this is what you call good content.

[electronicsandewastescrapp]

I will unlikely I will ever come close to flying one of these but I *will* "never forget: High hand to the hip" ...it has a nice flow to it.

[scruffytech]

Larry, excellent and informative video. See you at Trikefest!

[Jawst]

I started flying when I was 14 and aerodynamics seems incredibly intuitive. it really does amaze me that people fly without fully understanding basic flight characteristics

[silastrike]

Great pilot Larry, beautiful video, which shows extremely important situations for trike pilots who have been flying for a long time and do not know their machines.
Great tips that will save many lives, congratulations on the great initiative 👋👋👋👋👋👋

[paulhomsy]

A lot more than meets the eye. Great description !!

[mikesingleton]

Nice videos Larry. It's been a while since we talked in the early days of Revo's, glad to see you still at it!!

[tomcoryell]

Thanks Larry! No doubt you are saving lives.

[GlideYNRG]

Hopefully going for my first flight in a Trike in a few days, this has been a great presentation. This will be an interesting experience getting the grey matter around this with only 20 solo hours in gliders.

[paolocaldarale]

Another very interesting video. Thanks Larry for sharing with us 👍👍👍