A Bird's Eye View of Northeastern Washinton State Via Triking
Trike landing. (Spokane Regional CVB)By Roy A. Barnes
When Denny Reed of Backcountry Aerosports www.trikeschool.com of Cheney, Washington was first introduced to a trike, his reaction was quite negative. He refused to set foot in what he deemed a “flying weedeater.” But as time has passed, Reed has become one of the Light Sport and Ultralight Aircrafts’ best human friends, taking willing flyers like myself up, up, and away in his $60,000 motorized and natural flying machine that has a 7:1 glide ratio. It reaches speeds of 40-60 mph, and has a 34-foot wingspan and 10-foot fuselage, plus a range of 270 miles. The experimental aircraft can be transported in a pick up and set up in 40 minutes.
I’ve flown many times in airplanes, including classic biplanes, but this trike experience would be quite unique for me. I made myself vulnerable to feel a sense of freedom on a beautiful northeastern Washington evening, from a spot roughly 25 minutes drive from downtown Spokane. After watching an orientation video, I was put inside the passenger seat and a helmet and microphone were fitted on me so I could communicate with the pilot of 9-plus years, who’s logged thousands of miles in this FAA and DOT-registered flying machine.
Denny Reed with Trike. (Backcountry Aerosports)The take off was right beside his home, where a flat airstrip is situated. Trikes like his Air Creation Tanarg need 250 feet to take off and winds of 20 mph or less for passenger comfort. As the machine sped up, I closed my eyes since I’m still a fraidy cat about heights, but once air bound and with the wind blowing in my face, I opened my eyes and got views of deer grazing on the rolling hills, tree havens, and farmland anywhere from 6 feet to 120 feet above the ground, the lower altitude so passengers can literally smell the flowers! When Denny is cruising through the air, the feeling I had was one of amazement and wonder. I’ll never forget logging some frequent flyer miles in a “flying weedeater.”
Reed never imagined being where he’s at with trikes, but because he’s a practical man, he’d come to appreciate the safety of these flying machines after seeing the potential in the “motorcycle in the sky” aspect of trike flying. Reed found that acquiring comprehensive information on such issues surrounding performance specs and safety statistics was hard to come by until he found an Arizona training facility that he deemed “a blast – a truly life-changing experience”, and which he runs in the winter.
Roy Barnes in Trike. The veteran pilot emphasized, “I fly trikes because they’re safe - not because I’m on a budget. In respect to safety, a trike has more “Plan-B’s” than any other aircraft in the sky; i.e., it’s a glider, inherently stable, easy to fly, simple to maintain, emergency parachute that saves the entire plane, lands slow (30 mph – most people crash other things going faster than that), short take-off and landing distances (which opens up many landing zones), portable, and the wing can be detached if you just want/need to drive it somewhere.”
Trike flying. (Spokane Regional CVB)Reed even lets those who are serious about training to fly a trike do a homestay on his property for four to five days (up to a week), with a cost of $3,000. Training can be done in the morning and evening hours (so telecommute time for work or other tasks is possible). He doesn’t want to burst the dreams of those who want to take up trike flying, but he’s realistic about costs, commenting, “Single-seat trikes start about $8,000 and go up to about $16,000. Dual-seat trikes start about $16,000 and go up to $35,000. Fully-loaded, expedition-quality trikes like we utilize in our commercial fleet are $40,000 to $70,000. Regardless of which aircraft a person buys, about $2,000 of gear (VHF radio, GPS, helmets and headsets, heated flight suits) is a round number to budget for creature-comforts. It might sound expensive at first. It did to me, too. But upon close examination by your average adventure junkie, it’s still a reasonable amount of money for a brand new airplane custom-built from titanium, carbon fiber and other exotic materials by a company that remembers your first name.”
For more information on trike flying, contact Denny Reed at 509/990-5060 or via his website here www.trikeschool.com
Disclosure: I attended a press trip sponsored by the Spokane Regional CVB, but what I write is my own impressions and without scrutiny or vetting by the sponsor.
Roy A. Barnes is frequent contributor to In Flight USA and writes from southeastern Wyoming.
