Buy or Sell Microlight Aircraft

For Sale

Flexwing ZU-CIX :: Asking Price: Make an offer

I believe you know this Trike, which can be made to fly so slow and predictably, that my favourite party trick was to land on the Light Flight taxi way. This is/was not a show off or reckless stunt, it is in fact well within the capabilities of the aircraft - although I was asked by Geoff to refrain from this, when in the company of any new/student pilots, for fear that they will attempt to emulate the act with a heavier Trike.

The Trike chassis/frame, was new when I acquired it, first registered in Feb 2001 and with all it's hours having been in my ownership. It is made of welded mild steel - more like the frames of all tubular frame light aircraft and this  makes it as strong as the proverbial brick kakhuisie. It also eliminates all those nasty jointing structures found on most microlights and therefore has just about zero risk and/or maintenance requirement on the chassis/frame.

The wing; unlike the chassis, I acquired second hand and it has a few patches, its a bit faded with age, but a wing is a wing and they all handle pretty much the same. Details on this wing are: it was built by Solo Wings, as rather a rare wing for single seaters only. It took me a long time to find it, as I had the complete chassis, new, ready to fly and then could not locate a wing to suit, until I sourced this current wing. Prior to operating the wing, I sent it back to Solo Wings, who stripped it, did a thorough inspection and replaced a part or two, wherever they deemed necessary. A later Airworthiness Directive had me sending it back again, in order to have the wing comply with this CAA AD for dual tangs on the spreader bar cables. Of course at this time they did the necessary inspections of all other parts and made the requisite log book entries. The wing has very light, easy and perfectly predictable handling. If you were to ever want to bring this whole Trike up to an 'as new' standard, all you'd need do is replace the wing fabric - not that I'm saying it needs it, this would merely make it 'new' throughout.

Engine; is a Rotax 447 single carb, single ignition, which is only 5hp less than the R503, providing a power to weight delivery, which makes it fly like (or better than) an Aquilla with a 582. The engine has only 10hrs more than the airframe @ 90hrs TT and the airframe is 80hrs. The previous owner thought he'd save money by fitting this engine on a 2 seat Trike based inland and it was just not powerful enough and replaced after 10hrs with a 503. At our elevations and being on a single seater, this 447 fly's as described above. 

History; Her furthest journey ever was from home base at Camperdown, joining the coast at Ballito and then on as far as Cape Vidal - half way up the St.Lucia wetlands and back home. The accurately kept log book will of course reveal all, in terms of flights and maintenance history.

Overall; where all the other single seat Trikes are slow and flimsy, this wee Trike has a comparatively huge speed envelope, whereby it can fly with the Aquillas on a fly-away and yet as said above, it is slow enough to land on the L.Flt taxiway. Its light enough on handling that I once flew it on pure body steer from Emoyeni to Cato Airfield and it is also light of weight at 96kgs versus an Aquilla at 180kgs making it very easy to single handedly load/unload from a trailer and so on. Its also light enough that when a SE once forced the paragliders off the slopes at Ngomankhulu, I went there and ridge soared the wee Bug up and down the ridge. It has a 90Lt. capacity seat/tank combination and based on it's consumption, will out fly (range) any other Trike in KZN.

Instrumentation consists only of a Brauniger Moto - their top range vario/alti with a host of functions and geared for measuring engine temp and rpm. The radio was a handheld Icom, powered off an auxiliary battery, which I unfortunately no longer have, but this is the simplest problem to solve. 
Accessories; Their is a proper Triking helmet & headset, which I will no longer need, the usual full wing bag, baton bag and packing pads & straps. Trike cover. Purpose made Pannier bags for long distance tripping, a very neat permanent (though detachable) bag (10Lt size) for everyday flight. A spare exhaust/silencer (used but good) and a small collection of Trike spares/bits and pieces.

I know that there is a dearth of Trikes available in the market, due to numerous airfield closures, which has driven prices down. Nevertheless I am flying in my Cheetah, which is long ago paid off i.e. I have no pressure and I am in no hurry e.g. needing to sell, in order to fund the next aircraft. Therefore only genuine offers will be considered.