Saturday the 21st February 2009 was a big day for Flying Unlimited and it’s development team. Our new trike the nDiza XL flew it’s maiden flight at Grasslands  near Centurion.
After 8 weeks of development and many hours of frustration we have managed to fly our creation. The nDiza XL is so far ahead of any other light trike we have produced in the past or even flown. IT is comfort at its best, utilizing our own suspension system (Reverse bungee), a Paragliding harness as your seat and one of the smoothest single cylinder large two stroke motors we have flown. The mini 3 motor from Simonini has surprised us with it’s noise level and smooth running motor. The starter is very powerful and has no trouble swinging the motor into life.
This is our first true concept Trike Flying Unlimited has developed. The Ndiza frame was used and a larger diameter frame was used to accommodate the heaver and larger prop. But the main changes are the Motor and our Suspension system.
Setting up the trike to start using its New choke system would have been perfect if we had attached the cable. So I have to activate it manually and then make sure the sleeve was secured. (This is why I Test fly everything first before a client takes delivery). The connection to the wing was straightforward and all was working out well. I warmed up the motor and then was ready for the first flight. The wing came up slowly because I was a little to gentle on the foot throttle and only once I punched the power did she settle above me. I ran the trike for a short while on the ground and then lifted off staying only meters above the ground and saw the rpm was running into the red for the motor. The prop was too fine. I did three low level circuits and then landed really softly and the suspension did what it was designed to do . I really did not know when I was truly on the ground before the nose dropped and made contact with the ground. What an awesome feeling. The video also shows the suspension working well. We removed the prop and the manufacturer took it with him to reset it to a coarser pitch.
Sunday afternoon we were once again at the field and attached the prop once again and run it until I was happy to actually fly it once again. The reality was the weather caught up to us so could not fly again but will try later in this week again.

Follow up: 30/4/2009

The nDiza XL is worth every cent spent on her. We have now imported a Helix prop for the motor and are getting an additional 20KG of thrust. We now push 80kg of thrust at 4500ft asl. This is the equivalent to 100kg of thrust at sea level. Now this trike comes alive It has a huge climb rate and really flies well. The Mini 2 Plus motor we all know has a maximum thrust of 82kg of thrust at Sea level and only 65kg of thust at 4500ft ASL so this improvement is awsome. The mini 3 motor now being used is a single cylinder motor so has a bit of a thumping feel due to it's size but the vibration is not uncomfortable though. This wouls be a great light weight tandem trike for the future. Keep watching for our new nDiza Compact model. We have 2 in production with a new motor. If all goes well  we will have 2 Compact trikes flying at the world Championships and 1 Tandem  PF2 unit. So keep your ears and eyes open for these new products. 

Orders are now really coming in well for the new nDiza trikes and we have just invested in a CNC tube bender to assist in the speed of production. All is looking good even in these times of economical resession for DMB and Flying unlimited. The sky is still blue and inviting.