From David Capaldi (taken from David's Yahoo ULT group comment):

From: "daviddena1997" <Dcapal@a...>
Date: Mon Aug 16, 2004 8:35 am
Subject: Tampabay Aerosport


I am a new Trike pilot, having soloed a week ago. I've been flying
other types of aircraft for the last 10 years, so I am not a newcomer
to aviation. My day job involves flying a Boeing 717 for a major
airline, so I know all about the value of training and the importance
of having a good instructor.

All of my Trike flying has been undertaken at Tampabay Aerosport
with BFIs Abid Farooqui and Robert Hicks and I feel I must write a
few lines to mention how professional they both are. My first few
flights were with Robert, a very patient and dedicated instructor,
who gave me a solid foundation for the principles of weight shift
control. I then changed over to Abid for the last few flights before
soloing. Abid showed me things that I'd never experienced before.
For example, in 6000 hours of flying, I'd never landed with an engine
intentionally shut down. Having done that with Abid, I feel much
more confident in my ability to handle a real engine out situation.
He also demonstrated over and over the importance of landing /
approaching hot (sadly reinforced by the recent crash in Texas).

I would strongly recommend Rob, Abid and their company to anyone
considering Trike training or purchase. The Klass Cruise (Geo) is a
fantastic aircraft, very solidly built and extremely capable and
reliable. I have ordered a new Trike from them and am eagerly
awaiting its arrival.

David Capaldi

From Chris Blake:

I recently took a trip to Tampabay Aerosport to take trike lessons
and check out the Klass Trike. I choose Tampabay Aerosport to do this
for 3 reasons. I was impressed with what I saw on the website as far as
the lesson plan and the reasonable cost for instruction, I wanted to
check out the Klass Trike because it appeared to be very high quality and
had the option of a 4 stroke geo engine and I wanted to get the hell
out of New England in March to enjoy Florida Weather.
The only thing I was even slightly disappointed in was that the weather
was less than perfect but I don't think I will complain too much to the
guy who controls that. For a few weeks prior to my trip Abid sent me
questions on trike flying (5 questions per day) along with the right answers and personal
explanations. This was extremly helpful in helping me know what I needed
to study for my written test. I had some hang gliding experiance prior
to this and Rob was able to quickly determine the things that would be
different with the trike and work on those. He has a calm demeanor and
allows you to try things. He is there to back you up if get in trouble
but is not overly quick to take the controls which allows the student
the learning process. We had low ceilings and moderate conditions on one
of the days so we were limited to practicing hops on the runway. The
conditions were a little past my abilty but I felt comfortable practicing
with Rob there to coach and take over if it became too much.


I have been in several trikes and have a background in aircraft
maintainence and manufacture and was very impressed with the Klass trike and
the X-14 wing. The fit and finish of all the airframe and trike
components was top notch. It was very stable and quiet in flight.

Both Rob and Abid are very detailed in their preflight and maint. and teach their
students to be the same way. I would definitely recommend TBAS to anyone
interested in learning to fly trikes.

Sincerly,

Chris Blake

From Thomas Longfellow:

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to thank Rob & Abid at Tampabay Aerosport for a great
weekend of trike training. We were able to get in a lot of flying.
Rob and Abid (IMO) are great guys and wonderful instructors. I was
lucky enough to be there while they were preparing for Fun-n-Sun. I
got to see a lot of different trikes and meet some wonderful people.

The Klass trike was comfortable for me (275 lbs) and preformed well.
Check it out at Sun-n-Fun. Not trying to sound like a commercial,
just letting everyone know about the great learning experiance I had
down there.

Great Guys!! Check them out.

Looking forward to more training.

I hope to meet some of you at Sun-n-Fun

Tom

From Byron Selmon:

In early 2004 I made two trips from the frozen N.E. USA down to the sunny Tampa Florida area for trike training with Tampabay Aerosport. I had purchased an Airborne EdgeX trike of my own and was frustrated by weather and a lack of active local BFIs limiting my ability to obtain training in my own area of NJ. I did extensive research on the Internet, checking out costs and locations for training nationwide. I chose Tampabay Aerosport after very careful consideration of a number of factors, including weather, travel and training costs, and my impressions of Rob and Abid from numerous email correspondence.

All of my experience during my two weekends of trike training completely supported my decision to go to Tampabay Aerosport. Their prices were some of the most competitive that I found anywhere, the weather around Tampa Bay Executive airport allowed me to get in some flying every day I was there, and the costs of getting to and from Tampa were entirely reasonable as compared to other parts of the country. There are also plenty of good local accomodations near the airport at reasonable prices. All in all its a great location for trike flying.

Rob and Abid's training program is very professionally done. They provided me with a good hardbound training manual that they produce, and in the almost two months between my two weekend visits kept up a constant email exchange with thought provoking training questions to keep the mental training fresh and ongoing between visits. I received thorough instruction in both written and hands-on training in all aspects of powered weight-shift trike flying including flight characteristics, preflight inspection, weather related issues, takeoffs and landings, emergency situations and even off-airport landings without power. Flying from the Tampa Bay Executive airport gave me plenty of experience in radio communications and sharing the traffic pattern with different types of aircraft. I became quite comfortable, for example, in entering, departing, and flying patterns while keeping track of other ultralights, general aviation aircraft, and airport operations. This is very valuable experience for someone who intends to sometimes fly cross countries to different airports and doesnt want to feel limited to just small unoccupied grass strips.

Having both Rob and Abid involved in my training was a great help as well. Rob is a terrifically positive and supportive hands on flight instructor, and it was a great benefit being in radio contact with Abid on the ground as he could offer observations and critiques during my numerous touch-and-go experiences and yes, even the odd go-around. The wind conditions there gave me the opportunity to experience everything from silk smooth mornings up to moderate turbulence during the mid-day thermal activity, back to smooth evening air. I am now comfortable with crosswinds up to reasonable limits and am no longer a white knuckle trike flyer at the first sign of a few little bumps. They are easy to handle after some instruction and experience, and Tampabay Aerosport provided both.

The training equipment is first rate and well maintained. I was very impressed with the Klass trike and X-14 wing. It is a very solid feeling trike on the ground and in the air, and the Geo engine is a joy to operate after the noise and vibration of the typical trike 2-stroke. There are obviously a lot of other benefits to the Geo engine, including reliability and of course maintenance costs. The thought of being able to obtain same day parts at the nearest automotive store is very attractive after buying and waiting for parts mail order for my own Rotax. The Klass is also a very comfortable tandem trike to fly, and easily accomodated my six foot two, 240 lbs.

All in all, I was more than happy with my experience with Tampabay Aerosport and would highly recommend them to any new trike pilots anywhere in the country. Anyone wanting more information is welcome to email me and can obtain my Internet address from either Rob or Abid.
Byron Selman