Alltrikes

Ferry Flight... I just love the old Quasar. NOT. The forecast said it was going to 5 to 10kts from the north. I just wish the met guys could get it right once. It was 20kts at 900 feet and 30kts at 2000 feet. So you now know what altitude I was flying at. Oh did I mention I was in a 2 stroke Quasar...This half hour delivery flight should have been easy. Instead it took an hour and a half of being pushed around and watching Cows going faster than me. The owner keeps telling me that the wind is always blowing down his strip. Not today, it was 90 degrees off. Lucky me. The landing was easy and yes I did inpress the natives. I taxied up to the hangar only to find out that the Quasar would not fit inside. Lucky new owner. That's his problem. My flight back to Yarrawonga was 35mins in a Victor. I love ferry flights.

Lol

Just a Funny...
Last Wednesday a passenger in a taxi heading for Salford station leaned over
to ask the driver a question and gently tapped him on the shoulder to get
his attention.

The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up
over the curb and stopped just inches from a large plate window.

For a few moments everything was silent in the cab. Then, the shaking
driver said "Are you OK? I'm so sorry, but you scared the daylights out of
me."

The badly shaken passenger apologized to the driver and said, "I didn't
realize that a mere tap on the shoulder would startle someone so badly."

The driver replied, "No, no, I'm the one who is sorry, it's entirely my
fault. Today is my very first day driving a cab. I've been driving a
hearse for 25 years."

Hi Ken, you are correct it is the Maryland State flag. Not many people know the names of flag these days.

Are you talking about the Maryland flag?

Who knows the flag that is flying above the XT-912 antenna fitting photo in Trike Stuff. I know, I trained a student from that State and that's why I have that flag. I wonder who knows... Let me know.

Hi YFT, It went well. I flew in the Mooney down to Henry's (150 mph ground speed). Then we went over on paper what we wanted views we wanted to accomplish, and what we thought was safe, and each other's limitations. I flew henry's trike while he filmed from the back. We took various shots of the Mooney speeding past us against the beach. Then we flew some tight circles with the Mooney on the outside- their dog in the mooney then threw up and their co-pilot got a little queasy too, and poor Henry who was looking through the viewfinder had a hard time too. The drivers felt fine !! ;) Once the dog puked, we went back to clean up. I think we got some good shots. It was a good experience, and the puppy was happy on the ground. Henry is going to give the footage to our Mooney friends, but I bet he'll share some with us here.

Hay XCTriker, how did the air-to-air go from the Tanarg to the Moonie? Hope you post a photo or two.

That's hilarious! So you gonna flight check the guy, or what?

That's a great letter YFT! Funnier than the joke of the day for sure.

142 , not bad for being only 2.5 months old ! You can check anytime under the "More" menu above --> Members. Lots of stuff in the "More" menu.
So, all 142 are fresh members and we're gaining about 50+ per month.

How many members does Alltrikes have now?

mate that letter was brilliant, I nearly wet myself laughing, we be the sadistic sense of humour I guess :)

The letter I received...
Letter from an Australian Cattle Station Pilot

G'day Mate,

I am writing to you because I need your help to get me bloody pilot's licence back. You keep telling me you got all the right contacts. Well now's your chance to make something happen for me because, mate, I'm bloody desperate. But first, I'd better tell you what happened during my last flight review with the Civil Aviation of Australia Examiner.

On the phone, Ron (that's the CAA d*#"head), seemed a reasonable sort of a bloke. He politely reminded me of the need to do a flight review every two years. He even offered to drive out, have a look over my property and let me operate from my own strip. Naturally I agreed to that.

Anyway, Ron turned up last Wednesday. First up, he said he was a bit surprised to see the plane on a small strip outside my homestead, because the "ALA"(Authorized Landing Area), is about a mile away. I explained that because this strip was so close to the homestead, it was more convenient than the "ALA" and, despite the power lines crossing about midway down the strip, it's really not a problem to land and take-off, because at the halfway point down the strip you're usually still on the ground.

For some reason, Ron seemed nervous. So, although I had done the pre-flight inspection only four days earlier, I decided to do it all over again. Because the prick was watching me carefully, I walked around the plane three times instead of my usual two!

My effort was rewarded because the colour finally returned to Ron's cheeks. In fact, they went a bright red. In view of Ron's obviously better mood, I told him I was going to combine the test flight with some farm work as I had to deliver three "poddy calves" from the home paddock to the main herd. After a bit of a chase, I finally caught the calves and threw them into the back of the ol' Cessna 172. We climbed aboard but Ron started getting onto me about weight and balance calculations and all that crap. Of course I knew that sort of thing was a waste of time because calves like to move around a bit particularly when they see themselves 100 metres off the ground! So, as you know, it's bloody pointless trying to secure! However, I did tell Ron that he shouldn't worry as I always keep the trim wheel set on neutral to ensure we remain pretty stable at all stages throughout the flight.

Anyway, I started the engine and cleverly minimized the warm-up time by tramping hard on the brakes and gunning her to 2,500 RPM. I then discovered that Ron has very acute hearing even though he was wearing a bloody headset! Through all that noise he detected a metallic rattle and demanded I account for it. Actually, it began about a month ago and was caused by a screwdriver that fell down a hole in the floor and lodged in the fuel selector mechanism; the selector can't be moved now, but it doesn't matter because it's jammed on "All tanks," so I suppose that's okay.

However, as Ron was obviously a nit-picker, I blamed the noise on vibration from a stainless steel thermos flask which I keep in a beaut little possie between the windshield and the magnetic compass. My explanation seemed to relax Ron because he slumped back in the seat and kept looking up at the cockpit roof. I released the brakes to taxi out but, unfortunately, the plane gave a leap and spun to the right. "Hell", I thought, “not the starboard wheel chock again."

The bump jolted Ron back to full alertness! He looked around just in time to see a rock thrown by the prop-wash disappear completely through the windscreen of his brand new Commodore. "Now I'm really in trouble," I thought!

While Ron was busy ranting about his car, I ignored his requirement that we taxi to the "ALA" and instead took off under the power lines. Ron didn't say a word, at least not until the engine started coughing right at the lift off point, and then he bloody screamed his head off - "Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!"

"Now take it easy Ron," I told him firmly. "That often happens on take-off and there is a good reason for it." I explained patiently that I usually run the plane on standard MOGAS, but one day I accidentally put in a gallon or two of kerosene. To compensate for the low octane of the kerosene, I siphoned in a few gallons of super MOGAS and shook the wings up and down a few times to mix it up. Since then, the engine has been coughing a bit but in general it works just fine, if you know how to coax it properly.

Anyway, at this stage Ron seemed to lose all interest in my test flight. He pulled out some rosary beads, closed his eyes and became lost in prayer; I didn't think anyone was a Catholic these days. I selected some nice music on the HF radio to help him relax. Meanwhile, I climbed to my normal cruising altitude of 3,000 metres. I don't normally put in a flight plan or get the weather because, as you know, getting FAX access out here is a bloody joke and the weather is always "8/8 blue" anyway! But, since I had that near miss with a Saab 340, I might have to change me thinking on that!

Anyhow, on levelling out, I noticed some wild camels heading into my improved pasture. I hate bloody camels and always carry a loaded 303 rifle clipped inside the door of the Cessna just in case I see any of the bastards.

We were too high to hit them but, as a matter of principle, I decided to have a go through the open window. Mate, when I pulled the bloody rifle out, the effect on Ron, was bloody electric! As I fired the first shot, his neck lengthened by about 15 centimetres and his eyes bulged like a rabbit with Myxomatosis; he really looked as if he had been jabbed with an electric cattle prod on full power! In fact, Ron's reaction was so distracting that I lost concentration for a second and the next shot went straight through the port tyre! Ron was a bit upset about the shooting (probably one of those pinko animal lovers I guess) so I decided not to tell him about our little problem with the tyre.

Shortly afterwards, I located the main herd and decided to do my fighter pilot trick. Ron had gone back to praying when, in one smooth sequence, I pulled on full flaps, cut the power and started a sideslip from 3,000 metres down to 100 metres at 130 knots indicated (the last time I looked anyway) and the little needle rushed up to the red area on me ASI. What a buzz, mate! About half way through the descent, I looked back in the cabin to see the calves gracefully suspended in mid-air and mooing like crazy. I was going to comment to Ron on this unusual sight but he looked a bit green and had rolled himself into the fetal position and was screaming' his bloody head off. Mate, talk about being in a bloody zoo! You should've been there, it was so bloody funny!

At about 100 metres, I levelled out, but for some reason we kept sinking. When we reached 20 metres, I applied full power but nothing happened. No noise, no nothing! Then, luckily, I heard me instructor's voice in me head saying "carb heat, carb heat." So I pulled carb heat on and that helped quite a lot, with the engine finally regaining full power. Whew, that was really close, let me tell you!

Then mate, you'll never guess what happened next! As luck would have it, at that height we flew into a massive dust cloud caused by the cattle and suddenly we went I.F. bloody R, mate! You would have been really proud of me as I didn't panic once, not once, but I did make a mental note to consider an instrument rating as soon as me gyro is repaired (something I've been meaning to do for a while now). Suddenly, Ron's elongated neck and bulging eyes reappeared. His mouth opened very wide, but no sound emerged. "Take it easy," I told him, "we'll be out of this in a minute." Sure enough, about a minute later we emerged, still straight and level and still at 20 metres.

Admittedly, I was surprised to notice that we were upside down, and I kept thinking to myself, "I hope Ron didn't notice that I had forgotten to set the QNH when we were taxiing." This minor tribulation forced me to fly to a nearby valley in which I had to do a half roll to get upright again.

By now the main herd had divided into two groups leaving a narrow strip between them. "Ah," I thought, "there's an omen. We'll land right there." Knowing that the tyre problem demanded a slow approach, I flew a couple of steep turns with full flap. Soon, the stall warning horn was blaring so loud in me ear that I cut its circuit breaker to shut it up. but by then I knew we were slow enough anyway. I turned steeply onto a 20 metre final and put her down with a real thud. Strangely enough, I had always thought you could only ground loop in a tail dragger but, as usual, I was proved wrong again!

Halfway through our third loop, Ron at last recovered his sense of humour. Talk about laugh. I've never seen the likes of it. He couldn't stop. We finally rolled to a halt and I released the calves who bolted out of the aircraft like there was no tomorrow.

I then began picking clumps of dry grass. Between gut wrenching fits of laughter, Ron asked what I was doing. I explained that we had to stuff the port tyre with grass so we could fly back to the homestead. It was then that Ron really lost the plot and started running away from the aircraft. Can you believe it? I saw him running off into the distance, arms flailing in the air and still shrieking with laughter. I later heard that he had been confined to a psychiatric institution - poor bugger!

Anyhow mate, that's enough about Ron. The problem is I got this letter from CASA withdrawing, as they put it, my privileges to fly, until I have undergone a complete pilot training course again and undertaken another flight proficiency test.

Now, I admit that I made a mistake in taxiing over the wheel chock and not setting the QNH using strip elevation, but I can't see what else I did that was a so bloody bad that they have to withdraw me flamin' license. Can you?

Ralph H. Bell
Mud Creek Station

Come on everyone... We need a Photo of your airfield. Go to Photos and look for the "YOUR AIRPORT" album, and stick a photo of your airfield in it... It can be from the air or on the ground, its only one photo and give a us a little information about it.

Ahoj Jozinko, I really like your cloud shots and in answer to your questions. The lever on the right is just what TCTriker said. Its the hand throttle. My dark visor on my helmet cuts out all the UV light. I can see clearly one the darkest of nights or I can just put the Clear visor down. The helmet was my military one and Anne my wife has one the same. Dovidenia.

Ahoj Peter, thank you! :)

Hi Jozinko, your Cloud shots are great. I will get some shot of cloubs when we get some.

The YFT Tanarg B13 turned twenty...hours, that is.... this morning. All the flying it has done so far has been in less than smooth air. The TB13, as it is now known, has led two formation flights, and flown in a fifty knot wind, all being virtually effortless. Anne has now been on three flights and is now enjoying the roominess of the rear seat a lot more!

TB13 thumbs up shot was taken off a video Peter shot from the cockpit this morning, and for most of the flight he had his hands in his lap. This shows the stability of TB13. The weather this morning was 10kts from the North with quite a few bumps, but TB13 flew like it was on rails. We had been told that the new wing would take about fifty hours to bed in, and by twenty hours it has become a very sweet wing.

Peter, you picking on me lol. No floats as yet, but it will be a few days before the airstrip is suitable for takeoff. It is a bit soaked. And you're right, no pax for Jagsy. Haha.
We are all good and safe, but there is going to be a long recovery period for the area and beyond. Flooding is peeking tonight and tomorrow in adjacent towns of Maryborough and Bundaberg. Very sad!

There is a high probability that Crayonbox has put floats on his aircraft, as, from the latest news reports, Hervey Bay has been flooded. We hope Jagsy can swim, because he hasn't got an aircraft yet. Oh! Just realised that Crayonbox hasn't got his passenger endorsement yet! Bummer...
All jokes aside, we hope you and yours are either unaffected, or coping in the difficult circumstances you face at this time. All the best YFT.

Thanks everyone for your comments on our new Tanarg, it is really appreciated. After fitting all the avionics and testing everything, we are nearly ready for its first test flight, followed by many, many, many, many more!

I am going to post it in the "Joke of the Day" with your name as the contributor.

YFT, that was so funny...I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard. Thanks for posting that...I needed that.

Hilarious-- I laughed my ass-- I mean Arse--- off. Hm, so waht I'e found out today about Oz is that there are Hot women, but that's because everything is "bloody hot" there