One of the two most often questions I get about flying Trikes is, how hard are they to fly. The other is how high will it go. The answer to the first questions depends on the very same variables as learning to fly any other small aircraft. Namely, individual talent, how hard one works at it, and who is doing the training.
Over many years of teaching flying, I have seen people that seem to get it right away. I have seen people that are more cautious in their approach, and take a little longer to get from point a to point b. In the end, after about 20 hours of instruction, all seem to have about the same level of ability and knowledge. Some beat you there, and some you have to drag there, but they all seem to get there in about the same amount of time.
With trikes, students that are starting from scratch, and airplane pilots that are transitioning from their fixed wing three axes aircraft to weigh shift aircraft, usually have a little different learning curve.
Most fixed wing pilots will find it difficult to push the controls in the right direction at first. They also have a tendency to revert to that problem at some point during their training. However, they don’t have to learn things like traffic patterns, holding altitude, making level turns, looking for traffic and using checklists etc.
So in the end, a pilot transitioning from fixed wing aircraft to weight shift aircraft, will have an easier time and can generally transition in 5 to 10 hours depending on the person’s abilities.
A person starting from scratch can learn to fly weight shift aircraft as easily as learning to fly fixed wing aircraft. It will take the average person 10 to 15 hours to obtain enough skill and ability to fly solo in either.
By regulation, a pilot has to have 20 hours to qualify for a sport pilot’s license or 40 hours to qualify for a private pilot’s license. These are minimums and very few people get licensed with a minimum amount of hours required by the regulation.
Usually, people that go through approved training programs at full-time schools, have a better chance of obtaining a license with a minimum amount of training. However, the national average is substantially higher than the minimum amount of hours required.
As for the second question, how high will it go, that depends on the level of the license you have, for instance, a sport pilot is not allowed to fly above 10,000 feet, and all other pilots have restrictions on altitudes depending on airspace designations. And secondly, many aircraft of this type have a service ceiling (won’t go any higher for lack of performance of wing and motor) of around 10 to 15,000 feet.
So the answer is that Trikes are as easy to fly as anything else with the proper training. Without proper training they can kill you just as quick as any other airplane. It will just happen slower.
There is no substitution for proper training. Just because an aircraft looks simple, it does not mean any aircraft is so easy to fly that you can teach yourself to fly it. Trikes are no different.