Highest Altitude/Level in a trike?

[Taildracula]

xx

[vernon11]

Bottom line: The height of the tailwind detemines my altitude !

Seems a good way to do it!! You know of anywhere else other than weathersa where one can find wind info at the different levels?? Dont wanna sound like a cheapskate not wanting to pay the R250/mo for weather, but that to me is almost half an hour of flying!! Better spent in the sky thanks

Here at the coast, my highest was 4200ft. Did not enjoy it one bit.

Did you find that it was windy or bumpy, being the reason or just slow scenery?? See i've never been higher than 1000ft in the trike, so wouldnt know... I'd have to give it a bash though to see what its like!!

At 4200 in the trike, was smooth as it was very lumpy lower down. Up there it was hells cold, as it was not the warmest of days. At 8000ft in the Sav, it was very smooth. We went that high to get away from the head wind, looking for a tail wind. No wind at all. Remember, 8000ft/4200ft here is agl/asl. Up in TVL it is a lot less.

[justin.schoeman]

i think when u start feeling drowsy (head spinnging), drunk, u have reached ur limit.

Be carful of this one... Many pilots have died thinking that they would be able to feel and identify the effects of oxygen deprivation before it affected them too badly.

If you are going over 12000', be safe, and use O2.

[Dobbs]

I thought that I would see how high I could get to in my 503 Windlass some years ago. I fly out of Empangeni, so our altimeters very rarely go above 1500 ft

For my first attempt I did not have a GPS, but no need to as I was not going far, just high, or so I was hoping. After getting to 7500 ft the plane would just not go any higher. I was somewhat dissapointed and put it down to maybe needing an engine overhaul.

Anyway, some months later, I thought that I would try again, this time, for some reason I had my GPS and the plane rushed through 7500 ft and kept climbing, much to my surprise. It took me a while to cross referenmce my GPS height with the altimter, and when I did, the altimeter was still at 7500 and the GPS at 8300 and climbing

So I have no idea how high I went at my first attempt, but when I got to 10 000 ft on my second attempt, it was cold, and a long way down and no familiar scenery there, so that is as high as I have gone in my Windlass

I went up to 13 500 in my Bushbaby, but again, too high for my liking.

[Asterix]

Last year in May Blue Max and I flew down to Ezulwini on the western shore of Lake St. Lucia. When we took of at Vryheid on our last leg, things were bumpy but with a very clear inversion layer visible at higher altitude - so we climbed steadily.

At around 8000 ft we cleared the inversion, and things became so smooth we flew hands of with a groundspeed averaging 65kts. We spent the whole leg between 8000 and 9000 ft As we cleared the mountaineous area just east of Nongoma, we decided that it is so lekker up here that we stayed there until we reached the coast.

This is very very lekker - the groundlevel being about 300ft, it means you are sitting about 3 km's up in the air. The views were breathtaking!
Overhead the Ezulwini runway we started to spiral down, maintaining revs at about 3000 rpm to keep the engines warm - took us about 30 minutes to get on the ground! Was a great experience!

I often wonder, from 9000 ft agl in a trike, assuming little or no wind with a groundspeed of lets say 50 mph bar neutral - how far would you be able to glide under no power?

When I am on my dad's farm again with perfect quiet conditions I am gonna see how high Geel Kerneels is willing to go!

[Tjoek]

Did a trip in '98 in my Aquilla to Okavango Delta. I went up to 11'000 ft over central Botswana to get the best ground speed on route to Maun. Sat there for around 2hrs.

These days I am more of a low flyer. Prefer turbulance over that feeling of exposure up there.

[Bundy]

That sounds awesome Asterix!

If we assume a glide ratio of 5:1, in no wind conditions my calculations give me a distance travelled of around 8.5miles if you started your descent from 9000ft AGL. Time should be approx 10min 45 sec for the descent? Hope I got the maths right?.. did a little vector diagram ha ha.

We await your report!

[Beefmaster]

Upper winds 34 knots at the moment at 6500ft

Was at Rhino all day today on radio course, hell that wind blew us away!! Never got so cold in my life!!

we found a tailwind at around 13000ft and headed for Groblersdal. We flew over a never-ending mountain range and it was cold and the earth is round(proof from that view).

Wow thats high!! 13000ft is quite a bit AGL at Groblersdal! I agree, hats off to the Aquillas and Windlass. I go solo in a few hours and will be flying the Windlass. Looking forward to the 503 a bit too, plan to include Groblersdal in my cross country. Also wanna stick nice and high over Loskop mountains!!

At 4200 in the trike, was smooth

This being the main reason I'm curious about the altitude. I can think with a nice tailwind at high level, should make for some fast and smooth flying!

when I got to 10 000 ft on my second attempt, it was cold, and a long way down and no familiar scenery there

Well trike wise you were almost in orbit!! Would be interesting to mount a thermometer on the trike and measure just how cold that is with wind chill and all!!
Eish!

3 km's up in the air. The views were breathtaking!

I can imagine!! You see the way I see it is that FL100 isnt too high to enjoy the view

I went up to 11'000 ft over central Botswana to get the best ground speed on route to Maun

Wow, been to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Bots, and what a stunning (read: flat) place! Loved it, would love to do a flight up there as soon as I can! I admire you guys that take such long cross country's in the trikes. Gives beginners like me some confidence!

Keep em coming guys! I'm enjoying this thread

[coastwise]

11000 ft at the coast, cold enough to freeze the brass balls off a monkey. No carb icing problems and trike was still climbing at 300 ft/min. I fly a Raptor 582 from Port Alfred.

[Big-D]

I once went up to 10 000ft with Demon in his GT450 - I was wearing shorts and plakkies with no gloves as it was summer afternoon flight - EISH!! Was 28degrees on the ground but seriously cold at 10 000ft - Good fun

D

[AlanM]

If I'm not mistaken, Mike Blyth holds the South African Altitude record, maybe someone has more details

[nicow]

We flew a few years ago from Tzaneen airshow back to Potties higher than 15 000 feet in our trikes.
On my way back from Hazyview in September 2010 I climbed to 12000 feet back to Potties.

[Playboy]

On the way back from the Zwartkops Fly-in, I was at 7800' with a pax!! Heeee Haaaaa

[bryan]

hi Guys
To compare apples to apples talk AGL. I have been at 6000ft at the coast and its fairly high
Regards
Bryan

[bobthebuilder]

Been to 12000 in a glider. (6000 agl) smoothest flight ever.