Microlights.........Why?

[AlanB]

On Saturday after spending the day at the Kelso Angling Show (Very good by the way) Philip (NomadUK) and myself where driving through St Boswells. On the "green" was a microlight about to take off. We went into the petrol station to pay tax and get a drop of fuel into the bargain. While we where there a man came in and said that the microlight had just hit the hotel! As we left the tax station three fire appliances, two police cars and an ambulance where there along with a very mangled microlight.

3 hours later the police where still scouring the area looking for bits of microlight.

Someone should explain to this idiot who couldn't avoid a rather large and very static hotel that suicide is no longer illegal. If he insists on killing himself could he do it in a way that, 1 Costs us all less and 2 doesn't disturb others in this way and 3 doesn't damage other peoples property.

Which leads back to my original question. Microlights.....WHY?

Rant over.
Cheers,
Alan.

[Braveheart]

I'd rather fish a popper than go up in one of those death traps

[The Famous Grouse]

Why? Low cost, fun, low regulation.

To obtain a private pilot's license over here, you're looking at roughly $7,000 to $9,000. When you get your license, aircraft rental starts at about $100 per hour. Or if you want to own a light airplane, it will cost a bare minimum of $25,000 plus $10,000 per year in fees, storage, maintenance, insurance, and licensing. And then there's the cost of actually using the airplane, figure roughly 6 to 12 gallons of fuel per hour of flying at $4 per gallon.

That's a huge wad of cash just to go flying around the neighborhood, which is what most private pilots do anyway. To really go anywhere, you need an instrument rating. Believe me, I don't have one and you can NEVER fly when you want to without one. Add $10,000 plus a mandatory 10 flight hours of IFR time per year to keep your ticket current.

An ultralight costs $10,000, you can fly it for a day on 6 gallons of fuel. You can take off from any grass strip and you can hanger one in your garage. A total engine overhaul is $500 or less.

I've been up in a two seater once and it was fantastic fun. No radios, no air traffic control, no AGL minimums, just get in and fly. It's like going back to the 1930s. GPS? We don't need no stinkin GPS, just good old pilotage like God intended. And you don't need a license.

Of course, the old aviation maxium still applies.

Aviation in itself is not in inherently dangerous, but to an even greater degree than the sea it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity, or neglect.

Grouse

[Ben]

$4 a gallon? We have to pay around $10, why the wide difference?

[richardw]

alanb said:

...

Which leads back to my original question. Microlights.....WHY?...

Because it gives the flyer as much pleasure as we get from fishing?

Live and let live (or die) eh?

richard

[stella]

I used to fly with a friend of mine. Great fun. Wonderful views and a fine way of getting about. Then my mate was testing a new 3 axis microlight when it crashed and he got burnt to death.
Strangely enough, I've never been up in one since.

[The Famous Grouse]

sadoldgit said:

$4 a gallon? We have to pay around $10, why the wide difference?

Because yours is taxed about 75% more than ours?

Grouse

[texxa]

I have always wanted a microlite...imagine sticking your travel rod in the microlite and flying off to the river...no more A holes in caravans to contend with!!

[The Famous Grouse]

Sorry, texxa, but it's not going to happen that way. Not in the UK, at least.

With your highly changeable weather you'd spend so much time grounded or stuck at your destination and unable to get home, that it'd hardly be worthwhile.

I'd also imagine landing on the local cricket pitch wouldn't gain you many friends. Especially if there was a match on.

That was another issue I had with flying here. While, in theory, I could fly to any small airport I wanted to. In reality, of course, once you get there what do you do? Most small civil airports here don't have any access to ground transport and there are few (if any) taxi services in rural areas. So how do you get the last 10 miles to the river.

And up until about 5 ot 6 years ago, automated fuel stations weren't common so you had to be super careful about where you flew on weekends and during non-business hours or you could easily find yourself ready to take off for home on a Sunday and realize you're unable to refuel because the small FBOs are closed on Sunday.

Of course there's always a small float plane. I've talked to a guy on a lake I fish quite often who has his own Kitfox float plane tied to his dock. . . Nice little setup.

Grouse

["Squatter"]

Which leads back to my original question. Microlights.....WHY?

Hey Alan,

Yea, the guy spent £25 k on a machine that can fly at 100+ mph, another 3k to get a PPL-(M) license, taking a minimum of 35 hours flight training with a instructor at £90.00 an hour, then did another 10 hours solo flight at £50 per hour, wrote 5 exams (CAA) and completed a GFT to prove that he can actually fly.

He then may have enjoyed the sights like these..............





Or shared the pleasures with their families like this



Some times he may put the four piece rod and fly wallet in the back - fly over to the beach (Barmouth) land and have a little fish.


But like you say what the hell is the point anyway, Hes got to be an Idiot ...............................

[Gander]

I've got a friend who is a microlight pilot. I'll ask him why next time I see him (in a week or two). Unless of course he was the one down in Kelso.

I remember one thing he told me. He reckons Para-gliders are nuts!

[Willie Gunn]

So that is what is was, I came passed at about 8 30 at night on the way to the Tweed show, on the Sunday, noticed this flat looking thing on a tow rtruck trailer.......microlight ......explains all.

[MADCASTER]

think they would make good target practice ;D


MADCASTER

[MarkH]

I went up in a tandem microlight like the one in the photo above a few years ago. It was great fun but a bit hairy because it was a very windy day. Wouldn't mind having a go again, on a calmer day.

[Russ]

I seem to remember a column written by Steve Parton in which he described an angler who used a microlite to go fishing. His rod was loaded inside the wing's tubular frame and everything else needed was in his waistcoat. The microlite allowed him to get between home and reservoir over the traffic, and I have to say that has great appeal.

If I remember correctly the angler was Arthur Cove of "My Way With Trout" fame.

Of course, the column could have been in the April edition of the mag, and I've been caught.

Russ