The Ultralight Experience

The closest trike instructor was 4 hours from home and I just couldn't live with that. Plan "B" was formed when I located experienced, full-time trike instruction in Florida.

JK and I prefixed the trike training with five days in Florida spent on some Disney, some golf and two days at Sun 'N Fun surveying virtually every trike being marketed in the USA. On the last day of Sun 'N Fun I put my honey on a flight home and checked into a cheapo (but cool) motel on Flagler Beach to start flying.

Although I approached it with a "one day at a time" attitude, the training was consistently excellent and I ended up staying for thirteen days. I was fully immersed in trikes, flying every morning and evening under just about all possible conditions, including rain (oops). And if anyone ever tells you that a trike can't land in crosswinds, don't believe 'em.

So it was definitely a sort of "boot camp", but also two of the best weeks I ever had. I went home feeling like a new man. And, I bought a trike.


	Flagler County Airport is a heaven for trike instruction. With three 5,000' runways, all you have to do is stay clear of the "active" and the rest of the airport is yours. It also gets big bonus points for being only 5 miles from the beach.
	The trainer was a Windlass 503 - South African made with about 700 flying. She can handle all your beatings during training, but once you get to solo you discover a pure sweetheart flyin' machine.
	Stephen Roe and Mike Devenish - more than masters of the trike, they're outstanding teachers, honorable men, fun guys.
	Once you get to flying solo, you can taxi out for an early morning flight, climb through light ground fog, fly into the sunrise and in minutes you're at the beach, flying low and fast over the surf and waving at people engaged in the exciting sport of fishing.
	The day before I returned home I got to fly this Aquilla 582 - the young, beautiful sister to the Windlass. I went "over the moon" for this trike and that night, with 28 hours in my logbook (and a great tan), I ordered one just like it.