Ok, this is how it works in France
Ordinary Aircraft get F-GEKO or whatever. That's a real one, you can look it up. Or F-Hxxx now that they have run out of F-Gxxx
Homebuilt get F-Wxxx until the test program is complete. Then it's F-Pxxx
Gliders get F-Cxxx
Gendarmes and customs get F-ZBxx or F-MJxx (might be the other way round, but you get the picture.)
Historic or collection you get F-AZxx even if it's a glider.
There are others.
Microlights are completely different. They get the department number plus letters (two or three) For example 22IS. Under the wing and on the fuselage. Unless there isn't a wing, (autogyro or helicopter) or indeed a fuselage as such (powered parachute, weightshift) They keep this number even if they move house, on sale or the owner changing department.
Now this is where it gets silly. If you want a radio in your microlights you can put one in, but it is identified to YOU not the machine. That would be F-Jxxx. One radio can be used in more than one machine, and each machine can have more than one radio...You need to declare all this, showing how the installation is done. This is the callsign you use, not the 22IS or whatever. You aren't allowed to put the radio id on the outside. But people do.
Confused? Never mind. Thats just the way it is.

Hi PC,
I beg to differ. The regulation says under the wing or, if this is impossible, on the fuselage.How do you reconcile that with this

I quite agree with the first point, but see no issue in the second: the "immatriculation" is the "registration", 22IS in the example. It does go with the airframe. @PC rightly states that F-J(ghi) is the callsign, not the registration. That the callsign goes with the owner of the radio license is new to me. But the idea has some merit, as many microlight pilots use a handheld radio that they carry from one plane to another.

Et pour la petite histoire: at one time there was an idea to have something similar in Belgium, but it never really worked out. I recall being puzzled by seeing OQ-(a-z)(a-z)(a-z) on a microlight, I vaguely remember it was a scarlet red Rans S5 single seater.

Patowalker, I expect you are right about where the registration goes on a microlight. It's peripheral, though. I was trying to explain the difference between the aircraft registration and radio call sign. Never mind.
I only fly them, and this was from memory. Feel free to nit-pick. Quoting in French on an English speaking forum would be more useful if you added a (correct) translation.

Jan,
Let me add to your confusion. I have fixed the second link in my previous post and you will see that the decree refers to radio installations in aircraft, which is why it uses the generic 'registration'. There are no registration marks on a French microlight, only identification marks. That is why they have an ID card instead of a certificate of registration.

The callsign is attached to a single aircraft. If that decree didn't convince you, search for images of ULM radio licences online. I was refused an LSA for my Chaser,28FY, because the ICOM handheld was sourced in the UK, instead of France. I obtained a certificate from ICOM Japan stating the my radio was idententical to the FR model, but the DGAC wouldn't budge.

I remember F59GD; it was a much improved version having larger wheels and a Rotax 582 engine. Bill lent it to the Halton operation (by now named the 'Ridge Runners') for a couple of weeks but I never got to fly it as the weather was too bad for a while.

Anyway the upshot of the visit from HQ Air Cadets (thinking back now I believe one of them was actually from CFS) was that although the aircraft flew well, they were unable to commit public finds to support us due to the Rotax engines not being certified aircraft engines. We were allowed to fly cadets provided their parents gave consent via a special 'blood chit' which was derived from a template contained in AP1919 however so the cadets could record the flights in their log books..

Chevvron,
I wonder if the 4 stroke 2 cylinder engine you remember was an HKS. Cyclone was the importer and I know they fitted it to the AX2000, which succeeded the AX3.

No I'm pretty certain it was a Rotax 508 now; it was a vertical twin like the 503 and I think the HKS was a flat twin wasn't it? It was early/mid '90s; '93 or '94.

Yes, the HKS is a flat twin. It never caught on in microlights. Must have been better than the Cuyuna 430 in my Eagle though. How time flies!

Me too. I think I have a brochure from the time somewhere that advertised the Rotax 508 as an option on the AX-3.

I found this US website that mention the evaluation by the RAF.

The photo shows GMYFI, the first one delivered to the Ridge Runners at Halton. As I said, Ultralair were sent a photo of a Tucano when they asked what colour scheme was required and embarassingly when it turned up we found they had copied it a little too faithfully by adding the roundels and fin flashes!
I am not aware of any evaluation by Boscombe Down which would have not have been done by ETPS but by one of the evaluation sections, however many RAF pilots visiting Halton for various reasons were given the chance to have a go.

Angus Fleming bought the Chevvron 2-32 with a 45 hp Hirth 2 - stroke flat 4 to Halton to demonstrate. Knowing he'd considered the Mid West single rotor engine of the same power output I asked him about it and he said it was OK, but with an EGT sometimes exceeding 1,000 deg C it wasn't a good proposition.

Have not found the brochure but did come across the following article from the Microlight Flying magazine from Nov/Dec 1992 (Whistles in the Wires):


"Bill sees it through

After something like two years- and it must have seemed far longer- Bill Sherlock of Cyclone Airsports has finally got the French-designed AX-3 side-by-side two-seater through Section S. He thus joins Mainair in the elite club of manufacturers who produce both fixed-wing and flexwing aircraft.

Bill has kept a typically low profile while the work has been proceeding, mainly because he preferred to proceed in easy- and affordable- stages.

The finished aircraft is very similar to the machine demonstrated at Popham in March 1991, except that the four-stroke has been replaced by a Rotax 582. It will return eventually, as an option. The price, however, has increased markedly and at £14,808 including VAT is nowhere near the £9000 Bill originally aimed at.

Although regarded as a French design nowadays, the AX-3 is actually a heavily developed version of the Weedhopper designed by American John Chotia in the very early days of microlighting. The American model was significant in that it was the first microlight to boast a purpose-designed engine, rather than the chainsaw/snowmobile/you-name -it units pressed into service by other manufacturers. The Chotia engine, however, was a dreadful power plant which did the aircraft no favours at all, and it was not until the design rights crossed the Atlantic that the aircraft's true potential could be realised."


The reference to the Rotax 582 is strange since my (G-MYHG), and most of the early AX3s in the UK, were powered by the Rotax 503. And that is still the case if you look at G-INFO! I thought the first AX3 that I came across with a 582 was G-MYER (that Hugh Know flew from Shetland to Norway etc.) but note that it is now classed as an AX2000. There is also at least one AX2000 still registered with a HKS but sure that it was the four stroke 508 in the AX3 because the same issue of Microlight Flying lists the other Cyclone Airsports product of the time, the Chaser, with a 508 option (instead of the 377 or 447).

The Nov/Dec 1992 issue of Microlight Flying also had an advert from AirBourne Aviation (Paula and Mac Smith at Popham), with a picture of the AX3:

"It's HERE...... NOW! The Cyclone AX3

It's roomy, it's fully enclosed but you can remove the doors for summer, it's an economical cruiser and it's so easy to handle even in extreme turbulence and strong crosswinds. It's an absolute dream, and if it's good enough for the RAF to fly it on a expedition to Gibraltar....... well!

Come and fly it at Popham"

The aircraft was actually flown to Barcelona from Halton; there was never any intention of going on to Gibraltar as the flight was to celebrate the Olympics in Barcelona.
There were articles in Microlight Flying and (I think) 'Pilot' magazine about it.

Pilot Magazine October 1995 had a feature on the AX3 - it mentions Air Vice Marshall Merriman (one time head of ETPS) flying the machine and of the trip to Barcelona.

A photo of yellow coloured 59EE at Cranfield in 1990 can be seen at:

ABPic.co.uk/pictures/view/1532969 (copy and paste to browser address bar)

G-MYFI (Cyclone Airsports Ltd) had serial number: CA 002 - does anyone know what the UK production run was?

According to the Pilot Magazine article, Marc Mathot claimed to have sold 5000 AX3's before Ultralair's 1994 liquidation - including a float equipped fleet to the Mauritian police. (5000 ? a misprint?)

Memory a bit hazy but I remember Commandant Air Cadets flying 'FI at Halton just after it was delivered and I believe that was AVM Merriman; RAF postings often only lasted for 2 years and AOC/Commandant Air Cadets was usually on his last 'tour' before retiring in those days.
I was supposed to fly the slot that he took but was sidelined because he wanted his 'go' in it!

Thanks, Collapsed. So it's pretty conclusive that the registration was only 59EE, although you cannot actually see the whole tail in the picture.

Cannot answer your production run question but I note that G-MYER, that I mentioned earlier, was CA 001.

For the record, I have confirmed from my log book that I only did about 400 hours in AX3s, mostly in G-MYHG. This included using the shortest field I have ever got in and out of at a farm near Dumfries (less than 100 metres) to get away from the cows in the main field. Because of the negative angle of attack on the ground, it could also fly in pretty windy conditions for a microlight. On one of those windy days, it was flown from Montrose to Strathaven (only 84nm direct) but had to stop three times for fuel! Nevertheless, it was a great little trainer.

It handled crosswinds very well compared to some aircraft.
One day at Halton, we were getting 310/20kt gusting 25 - 28 so I taxied out to runway 28. This grass runway was quite wide so I lined up diagonally so I could take off pretty much into wind - I'd had a 'moment' on an earlier flight when one wing lifted prematurely due to a gust, so I gently started opening the throttle and thought 'this is smoother than I expected'. The reason for this was that I was already airborne in about 50ft on just over half throttle so I opened up fully and climbed away!