What'd it take to get YOU up in a microlight
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: what U.S. calls ´old Europe´
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What'd it take to get YOU up in a microlight
My first try of a microlight was in the mid 80´s in a Skywalker. Looked really flimsy, but the pilot convinced me, that it is solid as a rock. The nose gear broke while we taxied to the runway... Did not try microlight again for many, many years.
Had a look at several crashed microlights over the years, and was totally scared of the design details. I do not want my life to depend on a aluminium tube spar with a hole at the most loaded location, just to attach a wing strut with a bolt from home depot and two millimeters of free play... Or a control system where an M6 rod end is loaded in bending in the threaded section, or foam ribs in an integral wing tank, or an integras fuel tank which also acts as the firewall and has the engine mount boltet right through it, or conical main bolts fixed by nuts welded to a threaded rod...
After a friend wanted to buy a microlight and asked me for advice I took a really close look at the Impulse in the factory. Looked like real solid aircraft design, maybe except for the integral wing tank using the foam sandwich spar web as tank boundary. Ha a ride on it (on the one with the 6 cylinder Jabiru) and it was FUN. Anyway, it is more a weapon than an aircraft. It is so easy (and so much fun) to exceed several limits. It takes just one finger on the stick to exceed 4g! It takes not even full throttle to exceed VNE in level flight. It does not take much sink to exceed VNE at idle. It takes just one finger on the stick to stall. It does not take much nose down attitude to exceed VFE at any flap setting at idle... If you have a lot of self discipline, and never make mistakes, flying such aircraft is the second most fun you can have in life. Knowing that I am not perfect, I keep my fingers from such a beast.
My friend finally bought a different type of microlight, and crashed fatally after a handfull of hours. I lost two more friends to the same type (out of 5 fatalities total within 2 years and 10 aircraft built...). So unless I have seen the design in detail, and know how the aircraft was flight tested, I just say no.
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Norfolk U.K.
Age: 68
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volume, I guess those of us used to the stringent standards of U.K. BCAR "Section S" type approval, and the PFA's (sorry LAA) refusal to accept many new designs will probably stop complaining after reading your post!
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Oxford
Age: 45
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vertigo!
as so many others have said - just an invitation! I'd be frightened to solo one though, because of fear of the control reversal problem hammering me vertically into the runway threshold when I instinctively attempt to flare...
I did some weightshift flying a couple of years ago, and it was brilliant. The performance and visibility is quite stunning. One of my favourite moments was 2500ft over Oxfordshire, preparing to descend, and carried out the behind/below lookout check: lean over the edge of the tricycle fairing, have a good look, the Cotwolds slipping by right under my head... whooooaaa... there goes the vertigo! Never happened to me in an aeroplane before. Lovely!
Do it!
I did some weightshift flying a couple of years ago, and it was brilliant. The performance and visibility is quite stunning. One of my favourite moments was 2500ft over Oxfordshire, preparing to descend, and carried out the behind/below lookout check: lean over the edge of the tricycle fairing, have a good look, the Cotwolds slipping by right under my head... whooooaaa... there goes the vertigo! Never happened to me in an aeroplane before. Lovely!
Do it!
