I design and market light aircraft(Paraventure 210 motorized paraglider and the Powerglide Lite trike).
I also have a Airborne Edge with a Mountineer Mentor 220 wing and a Polaris flying
RIB...I have gone thru two wings and a J&J seawing trike frame within 2 years time due to
salt related degradation when operating near the ocean(J&J are junk to start with and fly like a brick)!
I know that the Airborne is made with Moly as opposed to Aluiminum for the frame but it still wont hold up as well as stainless,which is why Polaris is made of stainless...
I started a Hangliding
school in
Guam in 1991 and within 1 years time all wings had to be scraped, even with daily maintenance! For my Airborne trike and wing I have resorted to
oil filled tubing and this seems to keep the oxidation to a minimum but the
salt in the air is a constant problem and I don't fly it on pontoons!
The Polaris is better suited for ops on the
water IMO than any other LSA out there that I have seen. I think the Airborne line of products is the best all around trike out there,but I would talk to the guys at Airborne about a wing that was built with a seawater
environment in mind if it is to stay on the
boat most of the time. We had to fresh
water wash our wings every day and they were still oxidizing before our eyes. I keep my wing at the
mast when it is used a lot and when not I reduce it to the short pack and keep it hanging from the top of the
cabin trunk below. I have also converted the forward
cabin into a small machine shop where I can do a complete final fab. of both the light trike and the Paraventure 210.
I have a true,aircraft assembly plant in a 32 foot sailboat! All
parts and initial fab. are done at my land based shop but I can store and assemble(final) on the
boat ..I can store 4 complete paramotors and one lite trike in the forward vee berth(4 Solo 210
single cyl. 14.6 hp engines and 1 Rotax or Kawasaki twin cyl 40-50 hp
engine.
My trike frames are designed to fold down into a very compact size and weigh less than 200lbs complete ready to fly with the Solo and a 2.58/1 reduction,a little more with the bigger
engine..