Microlighters

Flying in the rain with trikes is not a good idea. Especially in South Africa where most of the aircraft do not have fairings, and the instruments pods, intercoms, radio's and headsets are not waterproof, you will be doing a bit of damage to your electronics.

It stings the hell out of any exposed body parts as well, and make viz a nightmare (your goggles then often fogs up)

Different fabrics on the wing can also affect the safety of flying in the rain or with a wet wing.

The Dacron leading edges absorb water, and although they get slightly heavier, are not dangerous to fly when wet. (Dacron is typically on Windlass leading edges)

Many of the newer generation wings have trilam though. It looks like plastic with a square weave visible underneath. Water droplets form beads on top of this fabric, and seriously alter the aerodynamics of the wing. You will have a heavier wing (slugish in the turn), and a much higher stall speed. This means that you should not do steep turns with a wet trilam wing, as you risk stalling the inner wing, and you must fly faster than normal to stay safe. The stall break is wicked, it drops a wing radically, and nose-pitch characteristics are also exagerated. You will loose a lot of height in a stall recovery and difficulty flying in turbulence.

If your trilam wing is wet, wipe it down before your flight, and if you are caught in the rain, be aware of the possible problems.

Trilam is typically on the Aeros wings.

I know the first concern with a wet wing is the water spoiling the airfoil! This causes your stall speed to increase. Secondly the water absorbed by the wing, makes the wing much heavier.

Those two factors combined increase stall speed even more!!

So when this hapens before take-off, make sure you are not "over loaded" and you have a long runway since you need more airspeed than normal to get in the air!!

Otherwise, STAY ON THE GROUND!!

Fairy Flycatcher wrote: The stall break is wicked, it drops a wing radically, and nose-bitch characteristics are also exagerated.

Sorry.. Could not resist .. in other words, wet trilam will bitch-slap the pilot if he/she is not carefull

RichardParsons wrote:

Fairy Flycatcher wrote: The stall break is wicked, it drops a wing radically, and nose-bitch characteristics are also exagerated.

Sorry.. Could not resist .. in other words, wet trilan wil bitch-slap the pilot if he/she is not carefull

That was very funny. Thanks for picking it up... fixed now :D :D . Freudian fingers :D

FLying in rain a definate no no. You can take the heavy wing and all of that out of the equation. All you need to do is to feel lite drizzel hitting your face at 55miles per hour and you won't ever get caught in that situation again.

I have also heard of cases in fixed wing aircraft where the interior of the wing takes on water though a hole or crack thus making the aircraft unstable. Additionally if it has been raining the wet grass/mud/water on the runway will increase the rolling resistance resulting in a much longer takeoff.

If your goggles mist up you will be tempted to remove them. Major mistake. I have done this on a bike and your eyes can take so much rain and then they start to burn and you are blinded. Nothing can help except for stopping and wiping them out with something dry. I fortunately was going very slowly and managed to feel my way to the side of the road completely blind. You can't do this in the air, and you don't have a towel at hand either.

Additionally, as your airfilter takes on water it constricts the airflow making the plane run richer. Eventually the engine will stop

In short, DONT FLY IN THE RAIN unless you can't help it and then just enough to get to safety

I have seen a Microlight Pilot pick up engine problems after doing touch and goes straight after the rain. He was lucky nothing bad happened that day. No spats on the wheels, through up the water blocking the airfilters.