You might remember that a short time ago I asked the question, whether or not it is possible to learn to fly a microlight over the telephone? Well here is the definitive answer………
Being currently in the process of revalidating my Private Pilots License on microlights it has been brought home to me how unnecessarily complex has become this learning process. What with a large number of ground exams, seemingly endless dual lessons before the mighty first solo, and further flying before enduring the final GFT etc. I of course admit that in this day and age of political correctness, that this is all necessary and enables us all to fly relatively safely and legally.
However, my first flight on a trike was in the summer of 1980 and consisted of sitting in it being shown how to use the throttle and told “off you go” by my own personal instructor, Len Gabriels the designer and maker of this new fangled contraption. And by hell that was all I needed and the experience was fabulous.
I know you say how lucky was I that nothing went wrong and yes you might be correct. However very soon after this my first flight, I was asked by a now very well known pilot, PFA inspector and all round good egg, who flies with the DANMAC club and whom I probably shouldn’t reveal his name, but I will call Dave Sm..h telephoned me to ask how to fly one of these new sort of flying machines. So over the telephone I gave him his one and only microlight lesson and it went along the lines of…….
“How do you do it then?”
“Really easy Dave, all you do is make sure your front wheel is pointing straight ahead, give it full throttle, after a short time push the bar out as far as it will go and wait. When you take off pull the bar back in a bit and climb away on full throttle.
Fly around a bit and when you want to land close the throttle, lose height and line up with the runway, make sure the front wheel is still pointing straight ahead and when you are almost touching the ground push the bar out gradually and flare onto the ground. Job done.”
“Thanks John that’s brilliant” said Dave and went out and did just that. No problems.
Ah, the good old days, no red tape then, just go and fly your mighty 160cc or Lens 210cc engined aircraft wherever you want – pure freedom, magic.
johnclarkeflyingadventures 