Flying

Crushed dreams and the NPPL (M)

I’ve wanted to fly since the age of 5 and when I turned 16 I went to Shoreham Airport for a trial lesson. I loved it. When I enquired about the licence costs I was knocked back as the training for a Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL) required a minimum of 47 hours and multiple ground exams - it was way over my budget, so I had to stop dreaming of the sky.

28 years later, I was reading though a magazine and there was an article about a small aircraft called a CFM Shadow.

Designed in England by David Cook, the Shadow looked fantastic - a bit like the small jet in the James Bond film Octopussy. It flew wonderfully and was cheap to buy, but more importantly it was suitable for holders of the new NPPL (M) licence.

Not having a clue what that meant I started doing some investigating.

I found out that you could get the new National Private Pilots licence (NPPL) with a microlight rating in just 20 hours and five simpler ground exams. Not only was that less than half the hours required by the ‘PPL’ but the lessons were cheaper as well. It worked out that the new NPPL (M) would cost one third of the price of PPL.

Holy smokes I could afford it!

But what was that ‘microlight’ stuff all about? I thought they were those hand glider things? I needed to do some more digging.

Put simply a ‘microlight’ is a class of aircraft that has a maximum of 2 seats, weighs less than 600kg, and it can’t be flown in bad weather or at night. But to be honest its not very often I wake up in the middle of the night in a storm and think ”I wish I could go flying”. The little Cessna I flew when I was 16 from Shoreham did 125mph and you needed the full 47 hour PPL license to fly it, but a modern Microlight (some do 200 mph) only require 20 hours tuition.

Where do I sign ?

My training begins

I wanted to have a go in a CFM Shadow and found an instructor called Keith Mitchell that was doing NPPL (M) training in one (G-MZKH) at a place called Deanland near the village of Ripe. It turns out that Deanland used to be an RAF base and the first Spitfires that took off on D-Day came from there. Although the CFM Shadow was the original deciding factor to go with Keith, once he started training me the aircraft became irrelevant - I just wanted to fly.

So when Keith sold the Shadow part way through my training I did not have a problem at all. I actually preferred flying his new Jabiru powered Thruster Sprint (G-CBIP). Ok it did look pig ugly but it was a lovely thing to fly. I did my first solo and passed my test in it a few hours later.

20 years have passed since that first flight with Keith in his shadow , and during that time I’ve flown thousands of miles all around the UK and France and even had some aerobatic training.

In 2010 I had to give up flying due to changes in my personal life. I sold my aircraft and let my licences expire.

Hooked… again

13 years later I was casually talking to Keith about the 20th anniversary of that first flight and he suggested that I should go for a joy ride for old time sake with him. How could I say no.

We took off from good old Deanland and Keith let me take control. I ended up flying it to and landing it in Sandown on the isle of white. The moment the wheels touched the ground that was it, I was hooked…. again.

I needed to get back in the air and then I would need another Aircraft. This is going to be costly

The first challenge will be explaining this to my wife.

The return of the aviator

Having not flown for 13 years, I was worried about how much I could remember so I contacted Luke at Flight Sport Aviation (which is run by the always helpful and charming Shellie), and he helped to brush away the cobwebs and brought me up to re-validation level in just 5 hours.

I passed my original flying test on the 17th of April at 9am, and exactly 18 years later, on the 17th of April at 9am I took to the sky to do it all again.

Thanks to truly excellent examiner Tom Hay (who removed 90% of my exam nerves), I had a really enjoyable flight. We got back to the club house and he stood there stern faced and said “well…………… (the pause seemed like an age) done!”.

I’d highly recommend them, as they are a great bunch.

Buy you own Aircraft?

Once you've got your license, where do you go? Basically there’s 4 ways to get in the air once you have passed.

Rent. You can rent an aircraft from £160 per hour. Now that might should expensive, but you only pay for the time you are using it. If you fly to an airfield thats 30 mins away, and stop for over a hour for lunch then fly back, you only pay for the hour. Theres no insurance, hangarage or maintenance to think about, not even the price of fuel as its included.
Share. The majority of aircraft are owed by a group. This way you share the costs of the maintenance, insurance and hangarage. Share prices depends on the price of the aircraft and how many people are in the group but its normal £5K upwards plus a monthly fee to cover the costs. Is a cheep way to get in the air with the only negative being that your allocated time to have the aircraft may fall during bad weather so you wont be able to use it as often as you want.
Purchase. Microlight classified aircraft range from £5K to £150K second hand and £50K to £250K new. You should look to pay around £10K for basic aircraft to help you get experience and somewhere between £25-£75K for a nice one with good equipment and performance. It’s strange but aircraft do not go up or down in value unless it’s something special like a Spitfire. If you purchase an aircraft today for £30K, you will probably sell it in 10 years time for £30K. Strange but true.
Build your own. Theres a lot of kit aircraft out there that can be assembled at ‘home’. Every step of the way the construction needs to be signed off by an inspector for safety reasons. Kits are not cheep and you will be spending thousands of hours working on the project. If this floats your boat, organisations like the Light Aircraft Association can help with guidance.

My aircraft history

G-MYGH - Rans S6 ESD 503

The first aircraft I purchased was old Rans S6 ESD that had been refurbished by Dave Almay at Skycraft for the pricey sum of £13K. It had a small 40lt fuel tank and was powered by a tiny 500cc pull start Rotax 503 two-stroke engine It was so underpowered I had to use the curvature of the earth for it to climb. The Rans was made from simple steel tubes and covered with a nylon tent type material which was literally laced together with string. You could look down and see the ground when you were flying along through the laces.

The aircraft was damaged in a storm whilst parked on the ground and was written off by the insurance company. Needing another aircraft to do my charity flight (see flyer magazine below).

G-BZNH - Rans S6 ES 582

I found my next aircraft on line just in time. This was another Rans S6, but unlike the last one, this was the newer ES model with twin 30lt fuel tanks and a more powerful 600cc engine.

It was privately owned in good condition and cost £16K The Rans was still powered by a Rotax two stroke, but the ES had the larger and more powerful ‘582 Bluetop’ version, it even had an electric start - Wow.

G-SIMP - Jabiru UL-450

My next aircraft was in a different league to everything I’d flown so far. This was a second hand Australian Jabiru UL-450 in great condition and it set me back £28K This all composite beauty was powered by a 2.2lt engine and inside its heated cabin it was all leather, carpet, switches and dials - it was amazing.

Jabiru’s have a reputation for iffy handling due to its small ailerons and floaty wings, but you get use to it after a while and its got to be the bang for bucks best aircraft money can buy.

It’s also very economic and would use just 12lt of petrol per hour. To put that into perspective I could fly from Brighton to Abbeville (France) and back for less than £30 That’s cheaper to run than a Tesla.

G-LESF - Jabiru UL-450

After getting re-validated on my licence I called the bank, signed on the dotted line and ordered another Jabiru UL-450. This one has been custom made to my specifications by the UK Jabiru agent (SkyCraft). I specced the aircraft, designed the dashboard (we call it a panel) layout, chosen the instruments , all of the equipment, and designed the colour scheme for it myself.

It has an extended height rudder, wing tips (to help slow speed and economy), the latest specification undercarriage, an Italian GT propeller, blue leather seats and carpet, a cabin heater for the winter, 2 x Sat navs (one for redundancy) a Sky echo ADSB device that shows up other aircraft on the Sat nav screen and if any of them come close it will announce it into your headphones. I’ve also fitted a device that reads out your speed when you are taking off or landing to tell you if you are too fast or slow.

G-LESF has got strobe lights, landing lights and a two stage electric (and traditional) carb heating system to stop the carburettor from icing up in the cold damp air. Of course what vehicle would be complete with out at least 4 built-in USB and USBC fast charging ports for all the gadgets we carry around with us now days.

So, if you see a small little aircraft in the distance, cruising along the south coast, it’s probably my wife and me on our way to get lunch somewhere.

G-LESF: Collection Day

More than just flying

Flying for me isn’t just about having fun. Over the years I’ve used it as a way to help raise over £40,000 for charity - See the article in Flyer magazine below.

Flying on TV

A few years ago, my flying pals and myself were in a TV program called Scrapheap Challenge - we were team ‘Plane Crazy' and I was the Captain. If you watch the clip below you can see me flying my Jabiru UL-450.

Vehicles

Cape Town