BBC iPlayer doesn't want me to show the show, since I'm from outside the UK. I can't get it to work through a proxy, and it's also not on one of the "other" movie download sites.

Anybody any ideas? Otherwise I've got to wait until well after midnight next Monday to see the repeat "live".

Set the video then watch it on Tuesday?

G

Not surprising. In the UK we have to pay for the priveledge of watching TV and iPlayer.

So as a postscript to my earlier negative comments I met some other pilots last night and while we all had some teeth clenching moments while watching, we all agreed the event and aircraft themselves look like great fun. So maybe after all it will encourage even existing pilots to try microlights. None of us were keen on anything other than the three axis aircraft though - Call us traditional!

Well I've been sufficiently inspired to put my entry in for this year's - 21-23 June. I shall most likely enter in a Mainair Blade, and have put myself down for the "gold" (no electronic navaids) category. Not sure yet if I'm going to have a navigator or not.

Anybody else?

G

An enjoyable watch - had to take it with a pinch of salt however - Within the first minute of the program they mentioned that all microlights had notoriously unreliable engines, despite all of the engines in shot at the time having Rotax written on them. I thought they had a pretty good rep?

Either way, made me want to sign up and give it a go one day! Certainly looks like good fun :}

Good watch
 

I thought that the prog was really enjoyable. It portrayed the act of getting in the air as something which the ordinary guy could do and Im sure it will have fired many to have a second look at flying - surely that cant be a bad thing? It even has me considering changing code. Good for RMH, we need aviators like him! Hats off to the giy who persevered with his bad back and good job to the teenager who bonded with his dad - priceless!

Yep I've registered, also non-GPS.

Enjoyed the programme.
Frustrated by not been able to see how the winner did it.
For me flying is all about fun and adventure - and these guys were having some.

Great viewing. Not sure about having a fag in the hangar:p

Many moons ago, pre ppl, me and 'r kid once had a dual flight with the guys from Barton.

Fantastic hour, still talk about it now.

The guy with the shaggy beard was suitably restrained when he missed a turn point by 15 metres, and I think he was at 5,500' at the time.

Thanks. I was frustrated when I couldn't use iPlayer abroad and thought it had something to do with the licence.

The Repeat
 

The repeat on BBC HD is at 00:30 on 30/01/2012. So that's after midnight this coming Sunday.
Just a heads up so you don't miss it! ;)

Cape Wrath
 

The organisers drew a One Kilometer circle around the center (turning point) of Cape Wrath. Our intrepid aviator in fact missed the CENTER of the area by 15 meters. So he was One Kilometer and Fifteen meters from the turning point. Rules is rules !

I think that was just condensation in the camera lens.

The only bad thing that I found about the programme is that it's made me want to have a go in a microlight! Up until now, as a glider pilot (which really is as close as you get to flying like a bird), I've always thought of microlighting as a boring way of noisily drilling a hole through the sky. The programme caste the sport in an entirely different light. Whilst it showed some of the muppetry that exists in all forms of aviation, it also showed some of the more fun, albeit eccentric, characters too. Richard struck me as one of those people we characterise as "a bit odd" but who obviously has a wealth and depth of experince way beyond the majority of his compatriots. The Irish pair provided a lovely TV storyline - dad & lad bonding, etc. In fairness to the son, I don't think anything he said was unreasonabe or whingey. I'd always prefer a passenger to tell they're not happy rather than them staying quiet about it. Even happier with the second set of eyes calling out traffic! His Father showed a great deal of aviator maturity too by listening to his son's concerns and making sure they had a good time.

Great TV, fun programme. Now where do I find a micolight strip West of London?

Some comments, which I say as an ex-microlighter...
microlight guys are far friendlier than their bigger brothers. They will always help you out when you are stuck.
The British Microlight team consistently wins the World Championships. This suggests to me that they are a professional and competent bunch.
The BMAA is very professionally run.
And finally I would far rather pay my TV licence than watch the drivel that the commercial channels put out. Who pays for the adverts, at the end of the day?

Managed to watch it through a UK-based proxy. The rerun on Sunday night is on BBC HD, which is not available here.

Lovely show. Quite a few eyebrow raising issues but they've been mentioned before. What struck me most was the seatbacks they were using in that Thruster. Plain old pieces of foam, probably ripped out of a couch or something somewhere. No wonder the guy had a bad back.

Okay, now where can I learn to fly a weightshift microlight somewhere around here? It seems like an awful lot of fun to do.

Microlight Aero Team Matteam microlight display team

Watch the videos.

It looked fun to me - got an hour in a weight shift booked for next Friday :)

I watched it, and was uncomfortable with some of it, and liked other bits. Given that I am currently learning in a microlight, it didn't really match my experience of most of the people I have met so far.

So, to be more specific, yes, I wish they had chosen to follow the people who won, rather than the people they did. Of course its hard to work out who would win before the race started, but when you look at who were in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, its no surprise, so they should have followed one of them.

Regarding Anthony Woodward, I have read Propellerhead, and I thought he was entertaining, and nothing different from what I expected. I think they tried very hard to "big up" the irresponsible nature of their flying, but it was TV drama, rather than real. I never saw anything too crazy from them, and getting lost....well, its a mistake, rather than irresponsible.

I was also not too shocked by the Irish dad and boy. Again, they bigged up the drama of him being frightened, and the "stress" between them, but that's TV, and a huge pat on the dad's back for recognising day one that it was too much for his son, and making it a sightseeing and "father and son" time, rather than a race.

The person who made me uncomfortable was RMH. I don't really care how experienced a pilot he is, how capable he is, or how idiosyncratic he is....what I care about is that he was held up as a leading light in the microlighting world, and then did some bl**dy stupid things, the main one of which was undoing his seatbelt whilst in flight. Being a student, I am happy to be corrected, but surely since the POH has seatbelt checks as one of the pre-flight checks, then taking it off 2500' up to turn around in your seat is illegal, no? It's certainly dangerous, and gives the wrong message, as far as I am concerned.

Anyhow, all the same, 2/3 aint bad, and I can't deny I enjoyed watching the dad and son get on.

Finally, to the person in London who was looking for somewhere, try Exodus Airsports, in St Albans. Not too far a journey, and the chief instructor there is the bloke who won the RBR. Friendly bunch too, and a good mix of both flexwing and 3axis pilots.

They have microlites at Enstone airdrome, 20 minutes by road from Oxford, in a northerly direction....

Hey, Ian. Did it not occur to you that RMH, having overflown Everset in a microlight and done lots of other amazing stuff, might know what he's about when he undoes his seatbelt in flight?

Do you wear a yellow jacket when you climb the stairs in your house, just in case you might otherwise collide with the wife as she comes down (but only if she too isn't so attired?)?

Amazingly, some of us who've been flying for several decades have learned that you survive by assessing the risk, and making your own descisions. Else it's best just to stay on the ground.

Yes, the latest RBR winner has got a very long way to go before even coming close to RMH. Because many of Richard's great flights were in machines powered by 2-stroke engines, before the advent of the much more powerful and reliable Rotax 912, I don't think anybody will match him.

Richard Meredith-Hardy, Microlight & Paramotor pilot CV

I saw the finish of the Grand Course he won in 1991, by completing 2015km in 3 days in an Air Creation Racer 447. The crowd at Blois Onzain loved this eccentric Englishman, fluent in French, modest about his achievement and generous in praise of his (French) machine.

From the video, RMH obviously still sorely misses his good Angelo d'Arrigo and thinks the accident he died in was totally avoidable.

Obituary: Angelo d'Arrigo | News | The Guardian

Just read d'Arrigo's obit there, never heard of him but thank God there are people like that in the world and how sad that he died the way he did. The sort of bloke you wish you had known.

Yes, not the sort of bloke who would worry about undoing his seat-belt at 5000' either.

Interested to hear the range of comments. Personally, as am ex 3axis microlight flyer, I was at annoyed by the references to the unreliable 'lawnmower' engines when in fact Rotax are some of the most reliable around and highly respected. Also by portraying microlights seemingly made from a few bits of scrap iron and string when this is simply not a fact - they made it look too 'gung ho' for me and I don't think it did the Microlight community any favours. If anyone is attracted to microlighting by the portrayal of unregulated and dodgy flying then a few lessons will bring them into reality. Yes, I knew people who flew aircraft less than legal, without radios and doing all sorts of things, but the majority are fliers with reliable equipment and a safe and serious attitude to flying. I did however enjoy the program as a bit of tele and I suppose I have to accept that all people who live in London are not like those in Eastenders:sad:

Hmm. The seatbelt thing cast my mind back to a couple of instances where I have been flying in smooth air then WALLOP from nowhere.

At least it is hard to actually fall out of most fixed wing aircraft.

D.O.

Lest anyone draw the wrong conclusion from this - its perfectly legal to fly aircraft without radios as long as flight is restricted to class G airspace and airfields that are non-radio.

H

The Wright Brothers never wore seatbelts. Alas, neither did Harriet Quimby.

Anybody see the last episode of Earth Flight on BBC1 last Thursday night?

Thought the French Guy who flew his flock of geese from London City Airport with his flexi wing microlight as mother bird was fantastic! Hate to think what could have happened if he dropped the very large camera over the London outskirts!

There is a lot of very positive coverage of Flexi wings at the moment in the media pitty the weather isn't better though to encourage more would be flyers through the flying school doors!

people who flew aircraft less than legal, without radios
Lest anyone draw the wrong conclusion from this - its perfectly legal to fly aircraft without radios as long as flight is restricted to class G airspace and airfields that are non-radio.

Sorry, that was typographical, I was not suggesting that it was illegal to fly without a radio.
I would add that I have always been of the opinion (being an opinionated bugger) that the days when flying without a radio was considered safe are long past.

Yes, I had an odd feeling the other day. I've had time off from gliding to do my PPL, night and IMC and now the thought of sitting in a glider just outside of controlled airspace and not listening to somebody on the radio seems kind of strange. Even though it hasn't bothered me for the last twenty odd years.

I suppose it's a bit like mobile phones, you managed quite well without them but now you feel half naked if you don't have it in your pocket.

I agree that aviation would be a duller place without amiable eccentrics like RMH but the inflight fuel transfer set my teeth on edge as he was probably contravening Article 137 of the ANO which is the catch-all about recklessly or negligently acting in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft.

Certainly not by me, nor a great many experienced pilots.

Flying through most parts of the UK, without a radio, is legal and safe. There are occasions where you need a radio - but equally it does not stop mountains and clouds flying into you, if the engine stops it doesn't help very much either, and it doesn't tell you where you are most of the time.

Yes, a radio (and its best friend, the transponder) are jolly convenient tools, and make life much easier. In a few times and places they become essential (on the other hand most airfields will accept non-radio traffic so long as they know you're coming). But essential for safety? - no, not really.

G