I never really noticed before just how much the Buckeye Industries powered parachute carriage looked like a trike carriage. Maybe you didn't either, but in your mind's eye, remove the prop guard and see if you don't agree. They aren't identical, of course, but the visual relationship is uncannily close considering the two aircraft types developed separately. What a perfect situation. Ralph Howard's family members and friends have built Buckeye from "nothing" to one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers, all in the '90s and without even using the entire decade! Whatever combination of talent, money, timing and luck was involved in this tale of success, the Howards want to keep it going strong. That won't be easy, but these Indiana Hoosiers may be up to the task. Take the momentum of a reported several hundred powered parachute units sold each of the last few years. Revise the hardware slightly to expand into the manufacture of trikes, and you have a potent mixture that could emerge as one of America's largest trike builders. To Sabre and Tukan and J&J and other worthy U.S. manufacturers, such a statement may seem too unfairly beneficial to Buckeye. A case in point, powered parachute maker Para-Ski International from Canada has already done the trike addition, and they've also got a float version and a ski version as well, so they're ahead in the convertibility race. But you can't ignore success. Buckeye is selling many aircraft. Whatever they do will be closely watched. Somewhat like Quicksilver in its heyday, Buckeye is clearly on a roll and might just continue its upward arc. Whatever happens next ought to be interesting. What'll You Have? Starting more than a year ago - at their own "homecoming" event, the Buckeye National Powered Parachute Fly-In in Argos, Indiana over the July 4th weekend - Buckeye debuted their first trike experiment, the Brat.1 The Brat was especially intriguing, as it offered a quick changeover effort to go from a powered parachute to a trike. At the time, the Buckeye folks were working with Cosmos importer (at the time) Ole Olson. A tireless enthusiast of the trike platform (he's a long-time hang glider pilot), Olson consulted Buckeye about the Brat and was instrumental in their use of the French La Mouette Topless hang glider wing on their carriage. (La Mouette once owned the Cosmos trademark. La Mouette's Thevenot brothers sold the powered trike business to brother-in-law Renaud Guy. A close relation continues, with Cosmos using and selling La Mouette wings.) A little more than a year later, Buckeye introduced a small fleet of trikes, but the deal had changed. In addition to the single-seat-only quick-switch Brat, there now is a whole line of trikes: 2-seaters, singles, smaller engines, bigger engines, and another important change. Buckeye left Cosmos and adapted Air Création wings (also from France). And even that may change. As of fall '98, Buckeye was holding discussions with APCO Aviation, in Israel. This middle eastern company already supplies Buckeye with parachute wings, and can do the same with trike wings. One result may be lower prices from Buckeye as the Israelis have proven adept at maintaining very low costs. Although many Americans will not recognize the APCO name, the company has enjoyed more than 2 decades of experience in the hang gliding and paragliding fields, qualifying them more than adequately to build either parachute or trike wings for Buckeye. Not So Fast Buckeye is showing strong commitment to building trikes to complement their powered parachute sales. They appear to be studying the machine closely. Perhaps this explains one significant alteration from the Brat. Although I never saw it performed, the Brat was said to possess the ability to switch from powered parachute to trike carriage in a short time. The goal seemed worthy, but the mechanisms didn't satisfy Buckeye's leadership. Buckeye trikes displayed at '98 summer's end dropped the quick-switch hardware for more conventional trike gear. According to Buckeye, the switchover now takes a couple hours and requires several different parts to be fitted. You notice the changes principally in two places: First is the elimination of the side-rigger supports for the parachute canopy. Instead, Buckeye fits a mast which connects the carriage to the trike wing. To perform this duty, the company has designed some beautiful parts which are confidence-inspiring through their exquisite machining. The other area for change drops the canopy footbars. Because the footbars gave way to pedals for ground steering, Buckeye can also delete the hand steering bar. It can be seen near the joystick-looking throttle on the powered parachute versions while the trike version uses only the stick throttle. As with most trikes, a foot throttle is also offered, and like others, the hand throttle overrides the foot throttle. A part of me was happy to bid good-bye to the nosewheel-steering "joystick." This ground-steering control fooled me when I had my first experience flying the Buckeye Eagle powered parachute.2 You push forward (with your left hand) for right turns and pull aft for left turns. It isn't intuitive, and I didn't immediately do well. By comparison, the push-left-go-right trike foot-steering in use by most trike manufacturers seems equally puzzling, at least to airplane pilots. Wrong or Wright? In fact, some experts argue that the "wrong way" steering of trikes is actually quite intuitive. One aeronautical engineer told me that trike steering is actually "right way" steering. He compared the action to the efforts used when skiing or when riding a bicycle. Indeed, this appears logical. An ultralight pilot in England concurred, saying, "Yes, it was always push-left-go-right until you Americans rigged your airplanes for so-called 'right way' steering. Ever since then, we've all been stuck with it." I noticed a little twinkle in his eye, perhaps revealing some of that dry British humor - but he reinforced the aero engineer. Regardless of which way you think is the "correct" way, the Buckeye trike stays with trike tradition and uses the push-left-go-right method. I prefer it to the powered parachute method, and it really doesn't matter much on landings. Most experienced trike pilots advise you to lock both feet evenly on the steering pedals. (You can hardly call them "rudder pedals" as trikes have no rudder.) When any trike lands, it puts down its main gear well before the nosewheel and you have no need to ground steer until speed has slowed greatly. At that time, the "wrong way" steering is far less a problem. Still, even some very experienced pilots have steered incorrectly while still at higher speeds. The results can be most undesirable with an ineptly steered trike capable of going head over heels like a kayak doing an "endo." Most pilots will want to avoid landings like this. All the above suggests a couple observations: First, those legions of powered parachute pilots who may want to change their Buckeye into a trike need some training with the new steering devices (both on the ground and in the air!). Second, 3-axis pilots drawn to the convertible Buckeye will need instruction on weight-shift control, as well as the "wrong way" ground steering. It confirms an old saying of mine: All the instruction you can afford is worth it. That said, I hasten to add that Buckeye's wonderful attention to a high state of finish as well as their legendary strength will make a bad situation (created by pilot error) somewhat better. My first attempt to solo the Buckeye powered parachute proved that. After I got behind the machine, I "drove" the carriage in and out of two ditches alongside the runway. The sturdily-built carriage made my clumsiness into a nonevent (thank goodness!). After checking it out carefully - and with me finally paying proper attention to my instructor - I soloed successfully without so much as a hiccup. Top and Bottom Buckeye's trike line mimics every other trike maker with whom I'm familiar. They sell the aircraft as two distinct parts. The Buckeye trike carriages are identical to their powered parachute carriage excepting only the exchange hardware needed to convert from powered parachute to trike. So, I flew their Eagle carriage which is their single-seat model powered by the 40-hp Rotax 447. In the photos, you can also see their Dream Machine, a 65-hp Rotax 582-powered 2-seater. To either one of these carriages, you may add some choice of parachute wings. More to the point of their new trike line, you can also swap trike wings. An Eagle carriage with the Air Création Fun wing combines to be the Fun Eagle (staying with Air Création's convention of placing the wing name before the carriage name). On the heavier 2-seat model, Buckeye offers Air Création's XP-15 wing, so that configuration could be called the XP-15 Dream Machine. Air Création, as well as other manufacturers of trike wings, has several choices, and one specification is particularly important to safety. You must use a wing with the right amount of wing area and which has been tested to a certain limit/ultimate load. Overloading a smaller wing with a heavier trike carriage is asking for a problem sooner or later. Buckeye has chosen their wings well, but you might also consider Air Création's XP-11 wing on the single-seat Eagle carriage. The newer XP-11 is a smaller wing area version of the XP-15 (Air Création also makes an even larger XP-17). Buckeye literature only proposes the Fun 18 size for the Eagle carriage. In all cases, the number is metric for the approximate square-meter area of the wing. The XP-11 has 118 square feet, the XP-15 has 161 square feet, and the XP-18 has 194 square feet. But remember, the single-surface Fun trike wing needs more area to do essentially the same work as the smaller double-surface XP wings. While the above sizes relate to the Air Création trike wing line, Buckeye may leave Air Création as they did Cosmos. It won't matter if they select APCO or another supplier, since all makers offer different sizes and shapes of wings. Imagine the versatility you could have if all you needed to do was swap wings around on your 3-axis airplane. Of course, you cannot (except very rarely), but on trikes like the new Buckeye such a choice is expected, not unusual. Hand Controls Most trikes these days offer both hand and foot throttles. Since you should take off and land with both hands on the control bar, and since the control bar moves relative to the engine, European designers first began putting the throttle on the foot steering bar (which doesn't move relative to the engine). This freed up your hands to manipulate the control bar, but it isn't always optimal. Humans can move their hands with more accuracy than their feet; we tend not to train our feet for precise movements. Combined with an aviation heritage of hand throttles, a foot throttle seems strange to conventionally trained pilots (despite the use of foot throttles in autos). Buckeye chose to make their powered parachute throttles act like joysticks. At least, that's how I see it, because it moves aft to increase power and altitude - like stick back will aim a 3-axis airplane upward. Trouble is, most American pilots with conventional training (like me) consider Buckeye's throttle backward. (This also managed to get me in trouble on my powered parachute flight because when I let the machine get ahead of me, I instinctively moved the throttle back. My reaction was to get rid of the power and slow things down; instead my instincts worsened things by unintentionally increasing power.) You'll get used to it, like the particularities of any new plane you start flying. Yet as one old-time flight school owner told me, "I don't want to have to get used to it." (For the record, some other powered parachute makers use "right way" throttles.) Other than the nonstandard hand controls, trying to criticize the Buckeye isn't easy. This is a well-considered aircraft that boasts a very sturdy undercarriage that can absorb some serious abuse. Flight Controls Of course, the Buckeye trike is a trike. Once it lifts off the ground, the undercarriage behaves like most other trikes. Buckeye does have comfortable seats and the foot pedals hold your feet securely. They look more conventional than the foot "pedals" on the Buckeye powered parachute footbar. Despite these details, to a great extent trikes fly as their wings dictate, not as their carriages dictate. Buckeye attached the Air Création Fun wing for the Buckeye single-place aircraft I flew. They used the larger Fun 18 for the 2-place. The Fun wing is a single-surface airfoil, with its crossbar exposed to the airstream (instead of enclosed inside the sail as in a double-surface wing). While creating more drag than the fully enclosed double-surface XP series of wings, the Fun counters with much easier handling. Unless I've got a reason to race along, I vastly prefer single-surface wings. If you love cross-country jaunts, the XP series will suit you better. However, it is much stiffer in roll than the Fun. Since I never travel far by trike, I prefer single-surface wings to get the better handling. (Note: Some double-surface trike wings like the Topless hang glider wing on the Samba trike3 offer crisp handling through higher wing loading and a slightly different airfoil. More heavily loaded wings generally require more advanced pilot skills.) The beauty of trikes is you can have both. You might buy the Fun wing for pleasant flying days when you only stray a few miles from home base. Then, when you and your buddies go for a 100-mile cross-country, you could bolt on the XP wing and go places faster. Regardless of the wing description, however, the weight of the trike carriage has some effect on handling. In my experience, the very lightest trikes can use double-surface wings and generally still handle well. Heavier trikes - which usually means the 2-seaters - suffer somewhat simply because you must move more weight around. Let me explain. Unlike 3-axis machines, on the weight-shift system you move your weight (and the weight of the carriage) to load the wing asymmetrically. Adding this weight to the nose speeds you up. Adding the weight to the right side banks you to the right. The more weight you add at a further displacement, the more response you get, but you must first displace the weight from its trim hang point. The greater the weight which must be displaced, the greater the muscular effort. If the wing is also a highly stable wing (good for cross-country flights), then it will provide considerable resistance to change, so you must continue displacing the weight for a longer time, which eventually proves tiring. Buckeye's very tough carriage has a little more weight than a trike-flying-only carriage might. For this reason, the Fun Eagle has somewhat more ponderous handling than a lighter trike with an identical wing. Speaking of the trim hang point, Buckeye needed to move the hang point on the Fun Eagle. It took too much aft movement (body aft, that is, accomplished by pushing the trike's control bar forward) for too long a time to break ground on takeoff roll. Perfectly set up trikes want to leap from the ground, oftentimes so abruptly they puzzle experienced aviators. The Eagle rolled and rolled, partly a product of my relatively short arms but partly because the carriage was attached too far forward on the wing. Shift aft one bolt hole a half-inch or so (already provided by Air Création) and the wing will not require so much bar pressure for takeoff. Commensurately though, it will require more pull-in to sustain a higher cruising speed. Sweet Spot These are things Buckeye probably has all worked out by now. In my experience, every wing has a "sweet spot" where trike carriage attachment works harmoniously with the wing's center of pressure. Once located, you may rarely move the hang point. Air Création's keel comes with several adjustments which allow you to hang fore or aft a bit. For example, if you wanted to fly a longer cross-country you could hang a position forward which will help sustain a higher cruise speed for a longer time by adding your weight more forward. The pendulum stability of a trike is responsive to such changes, so this will help, but with the requirement for more push-out on landing, exactly as I found the Buckeye test trike. The electronic instrument package Buckeye promotes is a fine Electronic Flight Instruments (EFI) deck. It offers digital altimeter, digital tach, hourmeter, elapsed flight timer, rate of climb and descent, plus dual exhaust gas temperature and cylinder head temperature, with water temperature as needed. They charge a little over $800 for the comprehensive deck, but offer it as part of the asking price for the trike aircraft. I prefer analog presentation of engine speed, as I find it quicker to see a needle position than a number I must read, then interpret. But I'm nit-picking because overall the instrument offered a lot of information and was easily read. The Fun Eagle is no speedster. Buckeye's brochure states cruise speed to be 34 to 46 mph, with maximum speed at 65 mph. These figures jive with my expectation for the Fun wing. "Minimum flying speed" is listed as 29 mph, showing a narrow speed envelope. All single-surface trike wings are not alike. North Wing Design's Mustang trike wing on Raisner Aircraft Depot's Antares trike zoomed readily past 65 mph, yet stalled in the lower 20s. Comparisons aside, Air Création has earned a marvelous reputation for high-quality machinery. You can trust that sort of experience. In-flight, with mirror mounted low on the gear leg, you can see your remaining fuel supply pretty clearly in the seat-back tank. To transform the Buckeye powered parachute into a trike, you'll remove the three tubes per side that are used to support the canopy when the Buckeye is a powered parachute. You must also delete the foot-steering footbar for the canopy and replace it with a set of hardware that installs foot pedals linked to the nosewheel in the conventional trike way (producing push-left-go-right steering). Prices and Options When the Eagle 503 is a powered parachute, it retails for $9,570, a reasonable price for a complete single-place Part 103-compliant aircraft. When the Fun Eagle 447 is a trike, it sells for $12,379, a difference of $2,800. If Buckeye moves to use the Israeli-made APCO trike wing, that difference might get smaller. If you buy the Eagle 503 powered parachute and then elect to add the trike package (comprised of wing and hardware for the swap), you'll have to kick in $6,500 more ($8,500 more to convert a 2-place powered parachute to trike). You'll have invested a squeak over $16,000. And you'll have two rather distinctive aircraft. That's not bad, folks. This may still sound expensive to some ultralight buyers. It is only a single-seater after all, and $16,000! Keep in mind this is very well built machine. Look at one up close and see if you don't agree with me. And it's well-equipped. That digital instrument is close to a thousand by itself, and Buckeye includes it in their price. Plus, of course, you'll have two wings to fly. Buckeye's trike entry will benefit more from the company's strong business in powered parachutes than from innovative designing. However, the machine is well-executed and has been well thought out to make it the best it can be while still serving two aircraft types. With its convertibility, it should interest anyone who flies a powered parachute and can interest trike enthusiasts as well. Notes: 1 See "Buckeye Powered Parachute National Fly-In - In the Works, the Buckeye Brat," August '97 UF! 2 See "Pilot's Report: Why Did the Powered Parachute Cross the Road? - Flying a Buckeye Powered Parachute," August '95 UF! 3 See "Pilot's Report: Doin' the Samba - Fun Flying in a Minimalist Trike," April '98 UF!