A WING AND A PRAYER
Its just over a year since I first flew in a microlight and a couple of people at Stoke airfield suggested I write a few words about my experiences. I tried to keep it brief, but failed miserably.
I hope you enjoy my story.
Pete Croney
Since the advent of microlights, I have always wanted to fly one. The thing that attracted me to them is the simplicity of their design and sensation of freedom that they give. I have flown in a few GA aircraft (Cessna and Piper type aircraft) and enjoyed this, but it always felt a bit like driving. Comfy seats, a steering wheel, windows and even a heater. I drive a lot and fast cars are what I play with at work, so a different kind of rush was required.
In March 2002, my wife bought me a Red Letter flying experience in microlights for my birthday. I tied the flight in to our annual long weekend in Padstowe, as Moorlands Microlight School in Davidstowe were one of the listed sites for the experience. To be honest, walks along fantastic beaches, drives along challenging Cornish roads and the finest cuisine that Rick Stein could muster were all wasted on me, as I spent the first two days checking the weather, gazing at the skies and wondering just what it would be like to see the world from 3000 feet. CFI, Steve Tallamy, said that Saturday looked best and that's when we agreed meet up. Moorlands is based an old WW2 airfield whose runways are now showing their age but are perfect for the short take off and landing distances required of a microlight.
My life signed away, I zipped myself into a grow bag and let Steve strap me into the back of a Mainair Blade 582. Now there is something I should point out at this stage. I have a paralysing fear of heights!! Off we taxied to the runway in use and then stopped for controls, instruments and engine power checks. The aircraft was fine and Steve applied the power. In no time at all, we were hurtling down the runway and before I realised what was happening, we were airborne. Steve set the cruise throttle (these aircraft have a hand "cruise" throttle as well as a foot throttle) and we maintained a comfortable climb towards the north Cornish coast. Our first point of interest was King Arthur's Island at Tintagel, somewhere that I had visited the day before. To see this from the air was truly magical. We then set off along the coast for the beautiful harbour at Padstowe. On the way there, Steve had allowed me to steer the aircraft. From the back seat, this was done by using two D shaped bars attached to the control frame. The weather was perfect in that we had clear blue skies and small fluffy clouds at our flight level. Steve encouraged me to steer over, under and around these. As we neared Padstowe, the cloud became thicker so Steve said we would descend and fly below it. I wasn't ready for what followed as he put us into a spiral dive that saw us corkscrew towards the ground. The G force pressing me down into my seat was incredible. With the tide at halfway, Padstowe harbour was a water colour painting of blues and golds, the shades of each merging between channels and sandbanks. We then headed back along our route and in to land at Davidstowe.
Pure and simple, I was hooked.
Living in central Essex, the BMAA web site revealed no schools near me and the two closest option were in Cambs or Kent. I mailed one in Cambs and a helpful instructor called Deepak suggested I come up for a lesson. Upon arrival, I found that Deepak trains in fixed wing microlights (also called 3 axis microlights). Whilst I hankered for the rush I had experienced in Cornwall Deepak explained the advantages of 3 axis machines and, after a short briefing, we went for a flight. The main advantages of these aircraft are their superior weather handling ability and their additional comfort. They are small "proper" aircraft with a cockpit and stick and pedal controls. But due to their light weight, they are still a microlight. We ran through the effects of the controls and as soon as we had cleared the ground Deepak told me I had control. Climbing out over the plains of Cambridgeshire was very relaxing but my attention was suddenly focused on something moving to our left. I look across and saw a RAF Jaguar about 500m away, cruising at our height, in a parallel track. The pilot looked across and gave me a wave. Although he was probably travelling at 10 times our speed, I hope he saw me wave back. As I had told Deepak of my desire to fly flexwing microlights, our flight took us from his Chatteris base to Sutton Meadow, a flex wing club and school approx 10 miles away. The controls of the aircraft were very easy to use and Deepak only control back in the last part of our descent onto the large grass runway. We stopped for a quick coffee and chat with Dave Garrison, who I later found out had been influential in the sport since the pioneering days of microlight aviation.
Our flight back was a bit more turbulent as the full glare of the mid afternoon sun sent thermals rising from the fields below us. All the way, the aircraft felt stable and safe, in my novice hands. I bombarded Deepak with questions culminating in "what happens if the engine stops?". "I'll show you" said Deepak, in a calm reassuring way. Clearing our approach to Chatteris on the radio, he shut the engine down to idle. Fear gripped me and it went very quiet. We were quite some distance from the runway and we weren't even heading towards it. Instead, we were flying parallel to its direction. A couple of glances at Deepak, with bulging eyes, forced an explanation. We were flying "in circuit". This is a safety procedure done by every aircraft on virtually every landing. By flying alongside the runway, the pilot can see the windsock, so can gauge the strength and direction of the wind, he can also see any potentially dangerous aircraft or vehicle movements on the ground and can then assess whether it is safe to go in, or whether to go around again.
I had thought that we would never make the landing with the prop now gently idling around in front of us. I was wrong by a long way and we came in with plenty of remaining altitude, which was converted into landing speed once all was seen to be safe.
Decisions, decisions. Flexwing or 3 axis?
They say that junkies are often hooked by their first hit. Well I was hooked on this flying lark and I was hooked on flexwings.
Back to the BMAA website and I found Medway Microlights listed as being just across the Thames in Kent. I rang them up and spoke to Chief Flying Instructor, Chris Childs, who suggested I come across so we could discuss the syllabus and what was involved. I rang Chris back a couple of days before my appointment and said I had decided I wanted to actually start the course and could my first visit be a lesson. On arriving at Stoke Airfield, I decided to take advantage of the school's bulk booking discount and
handed over a big wad of fifty pound notes. As with other forms of adult entertainment, once the fee has been agreed and paid, the fun really begins. Chris armed me with a Pilot's Logbook, a printed copy of the syllabus and a medical form for my doctor to sign. We then spent a few hours discussing how flexwings work and why they are able to fly. We also went over the legal issues of being a pilot and flying an aircraft. Next it was out to the hangar and a run over the various parts of the aircraft. I am technically compos mentis so this part was quite straight forward. Chris' ability to explain even complicated things in simple terms made everything easy to remember. We also ran through what is routinely checked, most of which is common sense when your life depends on a machine. Next was the best bit, a flight. Chris is never rushed so there was plenty of time for a coffee and, as I would be sitting in the front seat, 4 Benson & Hedges!!
Suited up, strapped in and pre flight checks done, we taxied to the start of the runway. "Feed the power in over a few seconds and off you go" said Chris. It was the scariest thing I had ever done. We charged down the runway as the big 4 stroke engine roared behind us. "Up you go" said Chris and I pushed the control bar forward. We lifted away from the safety of the ground at an incredible rate and I felt Chris steady our rate of climb to something that ensured the coffee stayed in our bellies.
You may remember that I mentioned being scared of heights. One of my reasons for wanting to fly was to hopefully overcome this totally irrational fear. At about 300 feet, I was struggling to comprehend why I had put myself in such a stupid situation. There I was, sitting in a little fibreglass buggy, with a hang glider sail above me and an over grown lawnmower engine behind me. What had I been thinking? Fortunately
Chris came over the intercoms again and told me to reduce power slightly and follow the railway line that was gently meandering below me. With something to think about, the fear vanished and it has never returned. I now love the feeling of climbing into the sky, under my own control and going where I decide. It's a wonderful feeling.
That first lesson had been on the 29th August 2002 and my second lesson was the following day. Some unseasonable weather delayed my return after lesson two but lesson 4 was the best yet. We were doing some advanced handling techniques and practice for this is flying along the sea wall on the north shore of Grain. A quick check showed that no one was walking along the wall, which gave us a 5 mile twisting line for me to follow. My remit was to keep the wall below the aircraft at all times, judging my turns to allow for the drift of the wind and maintaining a fixed height. That fixed height was only 200 feet. What a rush!! This is probably the closest you can get in Civvie Street to a sortie over the deserts of Iraq. The wall twists and turns as it follows small bays and beaches, some requiring a gentle turn, some requiring a 2 G inducing roll with the aircraft taking on near sideways attitudes. The exercise completed, you do it again, even faster and at 100 feet!!!! I still enjoy flying the wall and often take friends along there, just for the craic. I had booked a double lesson for this day so after a coffee and more B&H we did the introduction to flying The Circuit.
The approach and the landing is the hardest thing to perfect and something every pilot always gets a buzz from when a perfect one is completed. By lesson 6, I was landing without any input corrections from Chris and it was all coming together nicely.
Then came the knock back. It was a perfect day. Too perfect. By now, all of my flying had been done in far from perfect conditions. It was normally windy and often the wind was a cross wind to the runway, more often than not with a fair amount of turbulence thrown in for luck. Today, the air was like silk. I am sure that Golf Mike Romeo would have flown itself if it could have been any better. And that was my problem. With a greatly reduced workload from the conditions, I was hopeless. I was landing too long, too short, too slow, too fast, going up at the point I should have been holding off just above the runway (called ballooning) and generally reacting, rather than acting. I was rubbish. We cut the lesson short and I went back to work sulking. Lesson 9 was only a couple of days away and some reassuring phone calls from Chris restored my confidence, resulting in an hour of perfect landings.
For lesson 10, on the 10th of the 10th, strangely enough, we switched to the school "hack". For some time, I had eyed this machine, lurking at the back of the hangar, with much distrust. It was a lot older than the £20k machine I was training in, with a tiny two stroke engine and no brakes. The trike (the name for the bit you sit in) was smaller and I seriously doubted that it would ever get Chris and I off the ground. When Chris asked me to fuel it up and "DI" it (do the Daily Inspection), I think I checked every nut, bolt and washer three times.
My fears were totally unfounded as Golf Yankee Romeo was a great aircraft. What it lacked in big four stroke engine, it made up for in lack of weight. The climb out was not quite so outrageous as our previous steed, but still very respectable and the wing was the same as I was used to on G-YR. Off we went doing yet more circuits and landings, but now with some practiced engine failures thrown in. Over the next few weeks I built up quite an affinity with Yankee Romeo and it always did just what I asked of it.
More engine failure practices, away from the airfield, followed in November and then came the day. It started like any other lesson, doing circuits and then some more circuits. When Chris asked me to pull over and turn the engine off I thought "He probably needs a piss". "Go on then, you're going solo. I'll go and book you out" he said as he climbed out of the aircraft. Gulp. I had wanted the day to come, but somehow the stark reality of it was still daunting. I was completely ready, mentally and physically except for one thing. No one told me just how much the removal of 85kg of instructor would affect the climb rate. I taxied down to the start of runway 06 and this should have told me. The runway felt a lot bumpier and longer. I filed both thoughts away with any other fears and swung around ready for take off. Power on and away I rolled. Boy did I roll. In fact I was airborne in about a third of the normal distance. And that's when you find out about the climb rate. The climb rate, one up, is insane. So much so that I thought I would loop if I didn't do something about it. So I pulled the bar in. Then I pulled it in some more. Within seconds it was tight into my belly and I was still climbing at a mad rate. It was like getting out of a 737 and getting into a Tornado. All of the responses were instant and I loved the way the aircraft did what I wanted. It felt as though it did things as I thought about them. I did the downwind circuit checks and lined up for the landing. I then found out the second thing that solo students aren't told. The aircraft doesn't want to come down, one up. Quite a steep angle has to be selected to get the air speed correct for landing and the angle needs constant adjustment to ensure it is sufficient all the way down. This is true of any landing, but much more so when the aircraft is so light. A gentle kiss of the runway meant that I owed the clubhouse a case of Stella. With just 13 hours flying time in my logbook, I was had now flown an aircraft on my own.
Every pilot I have asked says that their first solo was the most memorable thing they have done in an aircraft and I agree.
The weather conditions in late November were less than ideal, but more solo circuit sessions followed and then a lesson with Chris in the back to polish up on stalling procedures. The 16th December saw another milestone. Flying out of circuit. I had been working my way through the written exams that are required for my PPL and Air Law was needed before I was allowed to fly away. The exam went fine, but the weather didn't. More coffee and cigarettes were consumed, along with frequent checks of the low cloud. Eventually we decided that it was legal for me to fly away from the air field and Yankee Romeo was fuelled and DI'd.
Your first flight out of circuit is like playing truant from school. It feels so wrong. You a are away from familiar surroundings, alone but somehow so free that its difficult to describe the sensation. It is a very enjoyable sensation, though. The ability to say "Hmm, I think I'll have a look over there" is something that few people experience.
After a month's break, for Christmas and bad weather, my experience building resumed and I flew with Chris for some revision for my General Flying Test. This is a skills test that allows you to get your license from the CAA. The revision went well and I booked in with Shaun Garrison, Dave's son, at Sutton Meadow. At the time my Instructor Chris Childs was not an examiner, but he now is.
The GFT was harder than I expected. My revision and mock test had been fine, but they had been done in a familiar aircraft, at a familiar airfield and with a familiar person in the back. This was all different, in fact every single aspect was different. The area was flat and had few glaring visual reference points, Shaun was bigger than Chris and I was conscious of my back doing serious damage to his wedding tackle, plus the aircraft was quite different in its turn and glide. It didn't go too bad, but I only got a partial pass. The circuit flown at Sutton Meadow is quite distant from the actual strip and in early Feb, the farmer was busy ploughing every potential forced landing site off the face of his farm. With each circuit, my options were reducing and eventually nerves started getting the better of me. I made a couple of stupid, but unforgivable, mistakes and we called it a day. I returned to Sutton Meadow a week later for some experience of the local area with Shaun and my confidence quickly returned, even if the options for an emergency landing had not. Within 40 minutes, it was done and I got the hallowed piece of paper in my hand.
A couple of weeks later, I did what many student pilots do at this stage, I went and bought an aircraft. I found a Pegasus Q462 for a very reasonable price, albeit up in Yorkshire. The aircraft had been used for less than 200 hours and the owner was giving up as a result the severe trauma that he received every time he mentioned flying to his wife. The deal was done and Golf Mike Victor "Charlie Mike" was trailered back to Essex.
Whilst I had passed the skills test, my training was not over. To be a fully qualified microlight pilot, you need 25 hours of instruction, including at least 10 hours of solo flying. I had 17 hours with my instructor, but had only done 4 hours solo. I also had to do my cross country navigation flights. Qualifying cross country flights have to be at least 40 nautical miles in total, including a landing at another airfield. You also have to fly a different route back and you need to go to two different airfields. As Chris was teaching in Spain until mid April, I was grounded. The frustration was immense. Medway School go to Spain to escape the worst of the British winter but this year we were having a near heatwave through March and April. Spain, on the other hand, was wet and windy. Not only did I have my own aircraft and had passed my GFT, I was resigned to staring at the skies with my feet firmly on the ground. The takings of my local pub soared through that period.
The 12th April arrived. Charlie Mike and I went down to Stoke. Assembling an aircraft from bits does wonders for your attention to detail. Its Mechano for grown ups and its important that its done right. Fortunately, I used to windsurf professionally and rigging a microlight wing is very similar to rigging a windsurf sail. Either way, you quickly pick up the procedure and its not difficult. Our first flight was to Headcorn, which I did with Chris in the back, so I knew what to expect. This is a busy airfield as it is the main parachute jump site for the southeast and is also a refuelling stop for many aircraft on their way to the continent. The flight all went well, as did my return on my own to get the signature in my logbook. With a flight to the lovely field at Maypole done soon after my paperwork went off to the CAA. This is a case of waiting, then waiting some more. Eventually it arrived. It's a bit of a disappointment as the NPPL looks like its been knocked out on a cheap word processor. The enjoyment that having this license gives you cannot be underestimated though.
Since getting my full wings, I have taken all of my friends for flights around Essex and Kent and have flown for a weekend in the Isle of Wight with my wife. Oh and 400 other microlights were there with us!!
I fly at pretty much every opportunity and its great to get an hour in after work, on a nice evening. At the weekends, there often "fly-ins" to other airfields and I've made lots of new friends that I regularly meet at these events. The club atmosphere at Stoke is very good and Chris Childs, Chris Draper (owner of Medway Microlights and of the flying school), his wife Karen and all of the club members have become very good friends. In fact the monthly club meets at the Fenn Bell pub have become unmissable due to the liberal amounts of mutual mickey taking as the previous months exploits are recounted.
Charlie Mike is proving to be a great aircraft and hasn't missed a beat. I've tidied up a few things and have just treated him to a new prop, the old one having suffered a few stone chips. In August, we are flying to France with 140 other microlights, to celebrate 100 years of aviation. Just don't tell Charlie Mike that there's 22 miles of water to cross!!
I still hanker for a big Raven, like the one I started training, but I suppose I will have to see what Santa brings!! |
