Microlight rating on PPL(A)
 

Dumb question time, but I just don't know...

What is required to fly a (3-axis) microlight, if one holds a (JAR) PPL(A) SEP? Not that I'm about to convert, but it may be an option for the future.

Asking, after seeing Genghis' picture of the Easy Raider. Tempting...

Thanks
RR

Nothing - just 'differences training'!

Thanks BEagle. Good to know, puts them into the (longer term) picture, to get costs down. If they (uLights) are really cheaper to run/own, as opposed to renting spammers.

I don't know why I abuse the planes I fly by calling them spam, as a.) I've never eaten spam, and b.) never flown anything else; but everyone else does, so I'll join in the with the crowd. Pathetic, I know...

RR

Actually, proper Spam isn't bad at all. Sliced thinly and eaten between slices of buttered bread with a very small hint of Heinz tomato ketchup and toasted only on the outside (the bread, that is), it kept many of us alive at the starvation-diet public schools of the 1960s!

But Spam fritters - pass. I have no idea, thankfully.

Spam fritters are delicious, classic camping food. Slice the spam about ½" thick, coat in a batter with lots of salt and pepper in it, and fry. Unlike BEagle, I was a grammar school boy, and these used to be served for lunch occasionally.

By the way, although Beagle's correct, you'd be well advised also to read up on micro-meteorology (weather as it affects very low wing loading aeroplanes), microlight air-law (air-law is it affects permits to fly), and 2-stroke engines. Brian Cosgrove's "Microlight Pilot's handbook" is generally reckoned to be the best book covering the lot.

G

You should also bear in mind that hours in a ML can not count towards your SEP licence renewal.

At worst you would have to do the revalidation by test though.

FD

Spam fritters for lunch? Luxury - we used to have scraps of liver with boiled tarpaulin cabbage:yuk: . Followed by 'stodge'!

Chris Finnigan's book on Microlighting is a good read; I'm certainly not an authority on such aircraft, but what Genghis says is very sage counsel!

Beagle

Lasors Section F6

The Microlight rating is not a JAR Classification.
Since July 2002 the route to a microlight rating has been via the NPPL

In the light of your apparently conflicting advice could you point me at the relevant section of either LASORS or other document that says that only differences training is required on a JAR licence.

I think Spam is along the lines of "Potted Meat Food Product" which I came across in the States once. Its main ingredient was: "Partly de-fatted fatty pork tissue"....Yum:D

Useless information -

"SPAM" is the meat product - note the use of uppercase.
Spam is the rubbish that goes out over the 'net.
"SPAM" does not actually mean anything but was a name introduced after the original manufacturers lost out to other canned meat products in an effort to boost their sales.

BEagle wrote:
Hah, you had lunch! You were lucky!

;)

FD

Battered Spam
 

I wonder if spam (the meat thingy) is anything like corned beef (except one is pork, I know...). I went to school in Souf Efrikka, and wasn't given lunch (but then the school day did end nice and early, 2pm if I recall correctly). However... in the army (SA again!), they did serve up half a tin of corned beef, still in tin-shape, covered in batter and deep fried. Disgusting. I like corned beef, but cold, on white bread, or in a hash. Not deep fried.

LASORS seems to have a different opinion (section F1.1):

The NPPL web site suggests that at most you would need to do the microlight oral exam and flight test but I haven't found anything that specifically says how you go about getting a microlight rating on your JAR-PPL.

Hmm...

Mark

jgs43 & mark147,

You certainly can have a microlight rating added to your JAR-FCL.

I have mine in front of me now and it has two ratings on it - the IMC and "Microlight Aeroplanes (landplanes)". All date from this year, well after the introduction of the NPPL.

If you do a search here you should find some earlier discussion on the subject. The CAA only seem to have clarified the position this year which may be why LASORS seems a little misleading.

Now, back to the Spam recipes...

LASORS 2003 is incorrect. The CAA confirm that you do not need any additional qualification other than differences training in order to fly a Microlight aircraft on a JAR-FCL SEP Class Rating.

You can either believe me or ask the CAA themselves. But it was confirmed again this very afternoon.

The NPPL is however, a different matter. A new AIC (3/04) will soon be released regularising the incorrectly formulated requirements in the current ANO; however, all will be sorted in a second AIC after the NPPL Policy and Steering Group have agreed the requirements; we'll try to do that by the end of the year so that the correct ANO requirements will be in law by mid-04. Of that the CAA is as certain as they possibly can be.

Beagle

Thanks for the confirmation - already know about the NPPL through the BGA.

Just hope that EASA does not create another similar scenario in respect of requirements for licensing, ratings, etc. when it eventually gets round to these items.