Latest / Flyer Magazine / Mighty Microlights! (And the Cheap ‘n Cheerful) - The FLYER Show - 30th April 2026

Transcript

Mighty Microlights! (And the Cheap ‘n Cheerful) - The FLYER Show - 30th April 2026 · Flyer Magazine

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_03: This is the Flyer Show Podcast from the Flyer Team.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's your weekly dose of General Aviation News, Views, and Flying Chat.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: In this episode, we'll be talking all things microbe, well, in fact, all things 600kg microbe, really, plus there'll be the use of observations, digressions, opinions, and all sorts from the team.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Might even be some singing, you never know.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: So if you like airplanes, airfields, airspace, and that strange little world that surrounds them, you're in the right place.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: Hello and welcome to this week's Flight Show.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: My name's Ian Seeger.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'm MetX, and I'm Dave Calderwood.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: In this week's show, we'll be talking about the UK 600kg microbites, and you're in for a couple of surprises there, so uh look out for that towards the end of the show.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: Right, uh first things first, big big thanks to Sky Demon.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you very much for supporting us, Sky Demon, and here is this week's tip.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Rob from Sky Demon, and here's another top tip.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Gaffor are useful weather forecasts that are focused on a particular route or area and are designed to give a quick view of whether a flight through that route or area is go or no go based on cloud sealing and forward visibility.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: They're produced by weather authorities in the countries that use them.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Turn Gaffor on from the weather menu like this.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you should immediately see the bulletins appear as routes in Switzerland and Austria and some other neighbouring countries.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: The forecasts cover six hours and are depicted with three boxes covering two hours each.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Each box has a letter that describes the state of the route.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Open, difficult, marginal, and closed.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: A little black triangle here marks the current time, so you can see here that we're about halfway through this box.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, you can open the What's Here menu to see the forecast in detail, including the reference altitude for the route, which is usually the highest terrain elevation.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: In Germany, Gaffle bulletins are given for areas instead of routes, but they work just the same, except there is also a clear state, which means there's no cloud forecast at all.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: You can see the colours around the borders of each subdivided area and the forecast box in the middle.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: And again, you can open the What's Here menu to see the forecast in detail.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: When you go to the animate tool to see how the weather forecast changes over time, you'll see the Gaffer depictions change their colours as the little black triangle moves across the top of the forecast boxes.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can use a horizontal swipe down here, like this, to go backwards and forwards in time.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: For more information, check out our website www.skydeemon.era.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: So there you go, gay for roots.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: We're all at this time of the year starting to plan our trips throughout Europe and Gay Foro Roots, GA forecast effectively, look at areas.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: Different countries do it slightly differently, but as you will know now.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: But basically, uh good local forecast, specifically for general aviation.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_04: Talking of local forecasts, shall we see what Simon has in store for us?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: Let's do that.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hope that you're well this evening.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh right, we've got a real tricky weekend ahead of us.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a problem on Sunday, which I'll get to in just a second.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: But let's deal with the stuff that we know more about first of all.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is a weekend, you are really gonna have to be uh using the official forecasts very carefully.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look for the forecast you want to see by looking at various different apps.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be a pitfall of this weekend.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So be very, very aware of that.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is um Friday morning, and notice that we've got clear skies uh across many parts of central and eastern areas of Scotland and England.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: See this line of showers that's already in the west, that's gonna be quite thundery, bringing Mr.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Merck to the hills of uh parts of Wales, southwest England, and western parts of Scotland.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, through the course of the morning on Friday, that whole area kind of drifts its way northwards, and by the afternoon it's coming east into central southern Scotland, northern England, the Midlands.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get some real quite torrential dampours developing along that line as well.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: You see the yellow colours in there, those indicating those thundery bursts.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to the east, to the west of that, probably uh okay.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think eastern areas remain generally flyable, probably a 4,000-foot base, a 10,000-foot top, but you'll see those tops building during the day.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: For the west, quite murky behind that system.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So non to marginal VFR, and I think one of those thundery, misty days through the channel as well.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So be aware of things deteriorating through Friday.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, through the night on Friday into Saturday, we see that first area of thundery rain clearing eastwards.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then Saturday morning starts fairly misty for most of us.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: However, look at the area of rain down towards the southwest that's moving in across southern Wales, across southwest England, another area across Ireland.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: During the course of Saturday, that edges its way northwards and eastwards.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some torrential thunderstorms developing across parts of Scotland and parts of Ireland.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Also, another area of thundery rain getting into the Midlands, southern and southeastern parts of England, as well as the central and eastern areas of the Channel.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: In between, maybe some local flying to be found.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: It will be bumpy, it's going to be very thermic today.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Typical bases of thousand to three thousand feet, tops of 15 to perhaps as high as 25,000 feet.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And a similar story for southeastern parts of the country, one to three thousand foot bases, 15 to 25,000 foot tops.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: So a real sort of deterioration for some through Saturday afternoon.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: As I say though, lots of uncertainty over where exactly those showers are going to be.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then as we get through the overnight period into Sunday, showing signs of thundery rain still affecting the Southeast and East Anglia through Sunday morning, some more rain across Scotland.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: But treat this one really very, very cautiously because I suspect that that area of thundery rain that's across the east is actually going to be further west, will develop further west as well, and bring heavy and thundery showers through Sunday afternoon across much of the Midlands, East Anglia, Wales, and getting across uh parts of southern England as well, just about anywhere in that zone, seeing the potential for heavy and thundery showers through the afternoon.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Some further showers across Scotland and across northern and western parts of Ireland as well.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And to reiterate the uncertainty in the situation for the weekend, just confuse you even more.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is a different model.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is the GFS model showing Saturday at midday.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that area of rain.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Look, the heavy showers coming northwards, still rain in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then look at Sunday.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: We've got rain extending right the way through central areas of the country across into Ireland, forecast to move northwards into northern England during the course of the afternoon, heavy showers following to the South Scotland staying fair.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So lots and lots of uncertainty over that detail for Sunday.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been to weather school already, then I know you'll already be making adjustments to your own forecasters.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you've not been, this is your chance.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: My next aviation weather school is going to be held on the Tuesday evenings of the 12th and 19th of May between 6:30pm and 9 pm.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Your chance to learn all about weather, spot weather windows five days in advance.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Apply your knowledge to build your confidence in forecasts, such as this one coming up this weekend.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And also I've just announced my next date as well after that one in June.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be on the Tuesday evenings of the 16th and 23rd of June.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Again, Aviation Weather School Part 1 because the May Calls only has uh a place left on it.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as that's full, we'll be on to those June dates.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh have uh a great weekend.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry to take up so much time, but as you saw, so much detail in there.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh thanks again for watching.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll catch you next week, guys.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Bit of rain-up popping, maybe?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: Who knows?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's it's yeah.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, who knows, who knows?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Right, time for some news, I think.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_04: And it's me first.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um talking about that little show Aero 2026.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's in the rear view mirror now.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but uh I I say little show, what a whopper that was.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: I've got awesome written on my rear view mirror.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: And obviously you can uh you uh you can watch our uh the best of Aero video to see what were some of our highlights from the show.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but uh news from the um the the people behind the show is that uh they're saying it was a record-setting show for them.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: 860 exhibitors from 50 countries, uh, and visitor numbers apparently were on on the up.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: Uh 37,000 visitors uh from 88 countries, up from uh twent 32,100 in 2025.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: So plus they had a had a whole lot of extra exhibitors that were of limited interest to us, or to me at least.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_04: There was a lot of jet stuff.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: Lots of jet stuff outside, and they had a whole hall dedicated to jet-like people.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: Which, like you say, and for us It wasn't called the slimy hall.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_04: For us, for us in the in the world of GA, probably less of an interest, but I guess they'd picked up a whole bunch of business from uh from the there being no e-base this year.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: So Yeah, I think I think they did.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: I think they did.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_03: Most of them didn't even box need boxes to look down on us.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: They just did that from the top of their Because they were born like that, frankly.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: From the top of their tall air stairs.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, uh in the in the few chances I've had to fly a jet, it's been amazing and I love it.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I wish I had enough money to have my own jet.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: But some of the people around it, man, they need to work on their personalities.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: Awful people.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: Lovely people.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them are great.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: Right, should we move on before we have to do that?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: We should move on.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I've got the next story.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: There are a couple of interesting things here.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: The first thing is this is the most interesting thing.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: The there's a new CAP 413 out that becomes effective on the first time.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, I've been waiting for Miku.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: So there's some phraseology that has changed around uh RMP approaches in into places that don't have full air traffic control.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: RP for people who don't know?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: Required basically a GPS approach.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, right.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, we've got a few airfields that are popping up with GPS approaches, some of which we're even allowed to use.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: But the UK being the UK and and having invented it, like to do it better than everybody else.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: Not really, we're just a bit crap at that, but we've got to invent all that stuff.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um so you know, you you book your GPS approach or your RMP approach into somewhere and they have to they have to sterilise the circuit and close it and and stuff like that.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: So this is all about but you can do it with an air ground place as well.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: So you make your phone you make your phone call, you make your radio call, having booked your PPR for your approach and you're within there's all sorts of stuff about the circuits not available in the airfields closed and stuff.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: So have a read of that if you're going in there.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: There's some other bits and pieces around runway surface condition reporting, which is like a bit boring.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um and some special user airspace stuff and some RMZ stuff as well.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: So just just go take a look.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's all sort of fairly well laid out and highlighted and just gives a little bit.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: They've still got conspicuity in the case.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna say the basics haven't changed, though.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: No, the basics haven't changed.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: And frankly, for you know, if you're flying in and out of Wadswick, uh you're not really gonna depending on where you're going to, when you take off, you're not gonna come across too much.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: And then the second CA story.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: What?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: Two in a week?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: Two in a week.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: Well, this is a curious one.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's been that whole story about the CA getting a bit the CA medical department getting a bit a bit funny on the Curisc stuff and and sending people off for exercise ECGs and people getting to spend 500 quid a year for another one and stuff like that.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I don't know whether that's gonna change or not.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: Certainly AOPA UK have been pushing quite hard uh for change.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: But the CA issued uh it was an email today saying over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna talk about that more and we're gonna announce some more stuff to make sure it's all proportionate across different licensing levels and stuff like that.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: Because at the moment they're kind of applying the same thing to someone with a PPL as they are with with a class one medical.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: So for pilots and air traffic controllers, that will probably all change in a couple of weeks.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um but we don't I don't know why they announced they're gonna do something in a couple of weeks.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's like in the next couple of weeks, we're gonna pick our noses and scratch our bums.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think when they when they first came out with this uh change to the class two medical which it was kind of under the radar, wasn't it?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: It they didn't explain.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't really an official change, was it?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: Because first they'll go, Well, we haven't changed it, we've just put some thoughts in there.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: But uh and we you know we aren't forcing people to do things.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: I bet you are.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: But they were.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: They were.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: They were telling the uh AMEs this is what you've got to do.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and the AMEs weren't particularly willing to go on the record and say that.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: No, no.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: Unsurprisingly.
• 12:54
  unknown: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um So we'll see.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: Give it a couple of weeks, we'll find out.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Next story's mine.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: Next story.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: Dave, it's you.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: There's a flight school at Blackbush called Air First.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's run by uh a m um mother and daughter couple called Emma and Christabel Munford.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Emma and one of the instructors at this flight school, they're planning a an attempt at the record number of airfields you can fly to in 24 hours.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they're aiming for 130 airfields.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the whole thing is uh in aid of some charities, and there's a GoFundMe link, which we can put up in the in the comments.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: Henry.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the three the ch the three charities, they fund three aviation museums on airfields.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: They are Kent Battle of Britain Museum, the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's where just Jane, the Lancaster is.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: East Kirkby.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: And there's also Stone Marie's Great War Aerodrome.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Now, Emma said the charities we're supporting don't just preserve old aircraft, they preserve stories, sacrifice, and history that must never be forgotten.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds like a very good cause.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: I hope hopefully they're gonna make a dawn to dusk entry out of it as well.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: That seems like a very dawn to dust thing to do.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_04: Is it dawn to dust?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_04: Because if they're doing twenty uh in twenty-four hours, they're gonna be at night, aren't they?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_04: I guess.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you've been reading your dawn to dust regulations there.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's it's I don't like to be a lawbreaker.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_04: I like I'd like to be above the law at all times.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Above it doesn't apply to you, you mean.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's over two days in June.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not one day.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: In that case, yeah.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: That'll be one to watch out for.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_04: Well, there you go.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_04: Ed.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_04: Uh just me.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: And that's to say that uh don't forget it's Pop and Microlite Trade Fair coming up this weekend.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um and uh there's some exciting new aircraft to look forward to, with including the debut of the uh Ellipse Spirit, uh with the ink still wet on its um UK approval.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_04: So um and a whole bunch of other stuff coming up.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_04: And obviously we'll be there.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_04: So do say hi and um yeah, we'll be looking to see uh see what's new and exciting besides the ellipse.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: We'll be there.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'll be I'm I'm only planning on being there Saturday.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Same here.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: Same here.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll see you there Saturday.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: We we may even have some lanyards.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: I think we'll definitely have some lanyards.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: So there you go.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Come see us, say hello.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: Buy us a cup of tea.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: No, I didn't really mean buy us a cup of tea.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: We can buy our own tea.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks very much.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Club news, Dave.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Club news.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the uh competition time again.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is this is uh uncontroversial one, I think.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: So the landing fees, the free landing fees for May uh are up on the website already.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: They are Causeway in Ireland, Perth in Scotland, Felthor in Norfolk, and Jersey.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Now, Jersey, there's a special condition.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: Where's Jersey?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Jersey is in the Channel Islands.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's a special condition with the Jersey one.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's just the first five uh visitors with a flyer voucher.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: So what you have to do is you have to call the Aero Club, uh, the numbers on the voucher, yeah.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: And see whether you're one of the first five to call them and get your first five.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, frankly, if not, and you're gonna fly to Jersey anyway, you get some get some low-cost fuel, you get a bigger discount if you're a member of AOP, another five percent off that.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: We're worth going anyway.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um but if you can get it free, why not?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: There may be some more coming in future, I think.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, that's right.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: And last night you did a webinar with uh Nigel Webb.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: On flying to the Channel Islands.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, uh Nigel's talking, or Nigel spoke about uh what it's like to fly to in in and around the Channel Islands and all the various little mini foibles that that exist to make sure you don't fall foul of them.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: They're not difficult, and it's well worth doing.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_04: Best tip that came out of that?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Gar.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Get your gar sorted.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: Get your gar in line.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_03: Get your gar sorted.
• 16:41
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: I would say.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so it's been nearly five years since uh the 600 kg microlight category landed in the UK.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: And it's fair to say that it's brought some excitement uh to the market.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and with popping microlyte tray fair just around the corner.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_04: We thought we'd take a look at what are the what what the top UK 600 kg microlight choices have been.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_04: So um and first of all, I'd like to say a big thank you to Rob Mott and his team at the British Microlight Aircraft Association, uh, because they took a deep delve into all their data uh to help us out with this.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_04: So thanks, guys.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: I think the thing that surprised me when we were prepping for this whole subject was how just how many are there and approved, really.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's surprised it's it's a big number.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: It is.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_04: And and with some exciting looking stuff in the future too.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_04: So should we get into it?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_04: So um since August 2021, there's been 23 new aircraft um added to what's available in the UK.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_04: And it's a pretty diverse list.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so of the 23, uh, there's the Sky Ranger, Eurofox, uh three varieties of Icarus, uh C42, the Sportstar, Exodus Delta Jet 500, TL3000 Sirius, uh, the Pipestrel Virus SW127.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_04: That's got a complex name, hasn't it?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_04: Cool.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Flight Design CTLS, WT9 Dynamic, um, a couple of versions of that.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_04: Quick GTR, TL2000 Sting, uh Pipestral Alpha, uh Shark, 600, uh the Shark 600 for the UK market, uh, TL Stream, WT9 Dynamic LSM with retracts, uh A32 Vixen from Aeropract, the Sky Leader 400, Bobcat 600, Skyleader 600, and obviously the latest one, like we mentioned uh in the news, the Ellipse Spirit with fixed gear.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_04: So um yeah.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we've picked one each out of that list, haven't we, to talk about it?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: We have.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: We have.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: What's yours Ian?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: I I I went for something I flew ages ago, actually, which is the SportsStar 600 kilogram.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: I've flown it a couple of times now.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I flown the first first one up when I was uh visiting uh Nigel Beale years and years ago.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I I it's you kind of imagine the vector sport star, but like a Eurostar, but but a bigger one.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Or not actually a bigger one, a more solid one.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: They put the they gave it a a more rounded composite cabin top.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of like inflated it a bit.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: It was nice, it was comfortable, it flew really well, felt really sorted.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: And it was really, really I that was for me, that was a bit of a a bit of a eye opener, should we say.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: It hasn't been a massive commercial success, I think.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_04: No, well, it it was for a while, but then I think changes in UK agent and things like that, it's kind of dropped off the map a little bit.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_04: But I d I I do generally genuinely think this the Eurostar and the Sports Star fantastic sport airplane for the UK.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think so too.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you know, to be to be blunt about it, the Eurostar is probably a little bit small and light for me personally.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um not being a jockey at the moment.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um but the sports star was I just thought it was I thought it was lovely.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Dave.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, I chose the Flight Design CTLS, um, which I I've actually had quite a bit of time flying.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: I was lucky enough to go to uh an event in the States where the uh Flight Design Owners Club had a meeting in a place called Page in Arizona, and we flew all around that area, the Canyon country, and landed at Bryce Canyon and places like that.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: And uh the airplane was absolutely fabulous.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: It was very easy to fly.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: I hadn't flown one before, so it was straight in.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: And it was very easy to fly.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh loved beautifully finished, wonderfully finished, carbon fibre fuselage.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it had a guy.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: This one, when I always flew, had a Garmin glass cockpit.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: The interesting thing about the CT, it's a cantilever wing, no strut.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: So really brilliant views out the side.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: And we did we did a bit of formation flying for the camera chute, and it's really easy with the camera chute.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: For the with the camera ship, for a chute, photo shoot, sorry.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um but no, it's it's a really nice aircraft and it's it's apparently it's got a claimed maximum cruise of 130 knots.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Don't think we ever did that, to be honest.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: But uh flight design, I have to say, over the years have not uh uh have been known for their claims, which have been enthusiastically high.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well sometimes.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: They have, yes, and I think um I think the new owners, the Chinese company called Shangong, um, they're they're they're sort of getting a bit more gritty, they're getting a bit more to the point and sticking to sticking to the facts.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: When we said 180 knots on three centi litres of fuel a year, we may have got that slightly wrong.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: It was in a wind tunnel.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, the the latest version of the CT is uh which it was relaunched at uh Aero.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, flight design have had a tough few years because they were based in Ukraine, they've had to move the whole factory because it was right on the front line in Ukraine.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they had to move the whole factory and people to Germany to restart production.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: So they have had a very, very tough time.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: But they were really Launched the CT at Aero, calling it the CTSG, the SG standing for Shangong.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty much the same aircraft.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's got the Rotex 912 IS engine.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's got a dyn-on uh full glass cockpit.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's got a parachute as well.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that was coming in at quite a hefty price, I think.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's gonna be around£180,000.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: Is that um uh that's is that a UK market aeroplane though?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, at the moment it's still Europe.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: So it it it's it's not a straight LS.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: It'll have to go through the BMA approval again, but uh uh the CTLS LS is actually in production at the moment.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_04: Right, okay.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um and I picked the uh I went for the uh for the the newest UK type, that's the Ellipse Spirit.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's 100 horse rotax, uh 135-not cruise.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: You all have s if you all have seen it, you'll have recognized it because it's got that very lovely elliptical wing uh and elliptical tail.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: So uh I'm looking forward to seeing it uh uh popular.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I really want to have a good look at it.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: Some of the pictures from some of the angles, it looks a little bit strange.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: The wings don't, the wings are gorgeous from any angle.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it looks a little bit strange, but I want to see it in the flesh.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, yeah.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um I did it was hidden away, it was beh it was on a standard aero, but it was behind someone else's sand, so it wasn't obvious.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_04: Uh with a 916 in it, which makes it a really hot ship.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: Everything had a 916 in it, even the sandwiches.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_04: I know, yeah, yeah.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_04: So uh 570 uh nautical mile range and price from 134,000 euros plus that.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_04: So not bad.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well that's a really good price, actually.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: I know.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_04: I know as we'll find out, you know, lots of these things are all about it's you you've got your base price and then you've got your price with options and different things.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's interesting because I mean, you know, we we frequently get feedback from from readers and viewers paying, oh my god, it's all about the really expensive stuff, and these are ultralight aircraft that were built for basic stuff, um, you know.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: Now they're like three, four hundred thousand in some cases.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um and I I think that's I think that's a fair point, but I think you have to remember that uh uh certainly over the last five or six years, everything's got really expensive.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_04: You think you go out to buy an average car now, an average family car is what 30 or 40,000 pounds now?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean stuff's stuff is really expensive, but it does there there's also you can still get the lower cost stuff.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: And and the fact that you know no one no one ever said there shouldn't if someone wants to bring out an ultralight that's at 700,000 euro and someone wants to buy it, then hey, fill your boots.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um doesn't mean to say that everything's at that price.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_04: So that I think there is one at seven hundred eighty.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I think I think people will be surprised, because actually in the top five uh the 600 kg microlites in the UK, actually it's not about the headline grabbing hot chips.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's about the real the real solid.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_04: So what are the top five then had?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so uh top five are the Sky Ranger, uh the Eurofox, the Icarus C42 Charlie, um, the Exodus Delta Jet 500, Stingray, and the TL3000 Sirius 600.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: That's an interesting and wide range of aircraft there.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_04: I yeah.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_04: I obviously you got um you got uh some conventional kind of structure airplanes in the Sky Rangers, steel tube and and fabric.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_04: You've got um Eurofox as well, Icarus uh C42 is tube and fabric.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_04: You've got the Exodus Delta Comp.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: Tube and Composite, yeah.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Delta Jet's a flex wing.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: So that's really good to see.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_04: And then you've got a fully composite aircraft in the Sirius.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: And all of them have a wing.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, that's a that's an interesting comment, yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think that may be because you know most people who buy a new aircraft are probably getting on a bit more than you know, a youngster.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: And we find it harder to get in and out of uh low-wing aircraft.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: True.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: True.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um so I think Ian, you did some uh you've you've been looking into the Sky Ranger, haven't you?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: I took a look took a look at the Sky Ranger.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: The Sky Ranger in in various guises, the the Ninja and the Swift and stuff like that, has been around for quite a while.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's something like 1600 of that kind of thing that have been sold over.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_03: Real popular aircraft.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: Real popular aircraft.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_03: It comes from Flylight, uh, the who now own the own the rights and they're based at Cybell.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Now, when you see one, if you're used to general aviation aircraft or sneak composite things or something like Cirrus or something, you look at it and you go, that looks a little bit square and a little bit basic.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: And and it is.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think the beauty is in it in its function.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not an ugly airplane, yeah, but it's not a stunningly beautiful airplane.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: It does look super practical.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: Interestingly enough, the the Ninja, the Swift one has fabric rather than composite fuselage.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: And this is kind of composite covering, not composite structure.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh kind of stuff.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: And and is on average about 5k less than the ninja.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um they've got huge payloads because they're very little empty weights.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: Some of the empty weights start at sort of 300, 330 kilos for a kind of kitted out one, and that's on the 600 kilogram stuff.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: So you've got a ton of a ton of payload in there, um, a useful load, I should say.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and when you look at some of the other aircraft, one of my favourite aircraft from last year, for example, the G70 Enduro from Grippo from Grupo, when we were looking at that, that's got an empty load of like 380 kilos.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: So if you've got a 600 in there, you already started to eat significantly in to that.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um but also the pricing, they're kind of six.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: If you want the basic stripped out version, which to be fair, not many people do, because you at least want a radio and a transponder and a few bits and pieces like that, you're paying 65,000, including VAT.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: Including that.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: Fly away price.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: Which that is like and that's with the 80 horsepower.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: All of these are available with either the 80 horsepower or the 100 horsepower.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, right.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, 65 including that is a pretty low price for a flyaway aircraft.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's stunning for something brand new.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and and even even when you load that to its if if you go for the ninja with with lots of kit and stuff like that that you can get in there, you're probably only talking in the 90s.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh 90,000, only 90,000.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but that that again includes that.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: So that's that's a pretty good functional aircraft.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, you don't you might not have ninety grand.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people don't, including me.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um but but a group of five or six people, and you're starting to sort of sort of a really good basic They certainly get snapped up on A4s, they don't they don't hang around on A4s.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely not.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_04: Do you have to, if you want one, do you have to wait around a particularly long time?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it it it depends, but not not an outrageously long time.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: And if you want to build one yourself, you can for build BMAA kit, and that's like about 8,000 cheaper than those previous prices I spoke to you about.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't think they're you know they're kind of self-jig infused larges.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think they're I don't think they're outrageously.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's not like building an RB3.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: I did see Paul at um at Air Rush and he was saying that the uh the Sky Ranger was made in U is made in Ukraine and they've had some issues as well.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: But the uh last year the factory was bombed and it they didn't have any new aircraft really for a while.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: But now they've re-established, they've spread the factory over several sites, and uh shall I tell the Russians that?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: And and they've uh they're now back into production, so we're starting to get new aircraft coming through again.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um also on the list uh the Eurofox, uh another one of these um aircraft that came out of the uh the kind of looks like a kit fox kind of thing, but um has proved to be brilliantly popular with the UK market.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh prices for those start around 95k at the bottom, and that gets you the 80 horsepower 912 powered version and goes all the way up to 150k uh for a hundred for the 915 IS version, which also has a tow tow hook and has been popular with the um the various riding clubs.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um the UK agent, uh which is um uh Roger Cornwell, says the Rotex 912 IS is the most popular engine choice amongst buyers in the UK and um and is the most popular engine choice in the 170-strong fleet now.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_04: So quite a remarkable number of those.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: 170.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:16
  unknown: Yeah.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um They've done well.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um he says um uh options inside.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of pilots go for autopilot, which is quite surprising.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um EFIS panels are very popular.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh and also he just says we offer quite a lot of specific colours, you know, so people have options to to paint it how they want it.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_03: Do you remember the Eurofox we saw here that was bought in that that that had like probably the world's simplest, most beautiful panel?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: Was it two Garmin G3Xs?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_03: Two Garmin G3Xs.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: And that was it.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it may I can't even remember if it had an autopilot in that one.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_03: It had an autopilot, yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_03: But it was just super simple.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Super lovely.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_04: Very, very nice.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was very nice.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um apparently split between nose wheel and tailwheel um is around about 50-50.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_04: So um and if you want one, around about seven months lead time.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_04: So but I I know I've done a little tiny bit of flying in a Eurofox, and I th it's it's a perfectly lovely aeroplane.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_04: So and nicely finished.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: Who's it now?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm you, I think.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: Me, Chris.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_03: Again.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, sorry.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh another one that you another aircraft that you'd have seen flying around quite a lot is the C42.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_03: That kind of comes in in various different guys.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: There's an A, B, a C, and a C S.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um the the A the C42 doesn't it's taken advantage of the 600 kilogram ruling to increase its max all-lap mass, but to 540 rather than 600.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it's got a pretty good empty weight sort of range, depending on what you go for, and bear in mind that all of the models are available with 80 or 100 horsepower versions of the RowTax.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: And they go from around 270 uh empty weight up to about 280, 283 empty weight.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: So there's still quite a lot of uh headroom there to get a whole load of stuff in.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: And in terms of cost, you're probably looking somewhere between ninety, ninety-three grand up to 125,000, in again, including that, depending on you know which engine you choose, how you decide to equip it, which version of it you get to so they're kind of a a really popular kind of aircraft.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_03: They're now uh brought into the UK by TLAC, um the light aircraft company who are over at Little Snoring in Norfolk.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um you see those all over the place.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_04: I get I I would imagine there must be quite a lot of uh loyalty for that aeroplane type because it's so popular in flight schools, isn't it?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: I I think the whole flight school thing, you know, if you if you come into aviation through your flight well inevitably through a flight school, yeah, then you know you've kind of that the that aircraft that you learn to fly on has got a little special place in your heart somewhere.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes that wears off.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: But generally, you know, it's not a bad first aircraft to have um to get into that.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: No, I remember flying an icust out of out of old serum.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_03: And uh it was just an old serum had airplanes.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well yeah, that's right.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it was very lovely airplane to fly again, very easy to fly, very safe.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: I've never been too sure about the throttle in the middle of your legs thing.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: You get used to it very quickly.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: There is a bit of hand changing going with the throttle, which probably looks pretty awful to talk.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: The throttle between your legs and the uh uh stick over here and and stick there, but you have to you have to do a bit of hand swapping.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: And the flaps flaps are up in the ceiling?
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: But it's apart from that, it's extremely easy to climb.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Very nice.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_03: They've got a really good reputation and and great great performance for that kind of thing.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: But I've gone for something completely different.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: I've gone for the Exodus Delta Jet 500 Stingray.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: That that although that's in the 600 category, it's it's actually gone for a max take-off weight of 499 kilograms.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's it's a flex wing, obviously, and it's so good, it won the 2024 World Bike Ranch Championship.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, first time in the hands of Rob Grimwood, who's one of the people behind Exodus uh airsports.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um he won the that that world championship with his son Will.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: The uh the 500 Stingray has a yeah, the maximum takeoff weight, 499 payload of 230 kilograms.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: So even even with that lower weight, um, that's allow that's a good enough, they say, for two crew weighing a total, say, of 100 kilograms each.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's you know, in a flex swing, you're wearing a bit of bulky gear as well.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you might be a bit heavier, and up to one hour fuel.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_04: So couple of engine options for that, or yes, yeah.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: There's the uh the BMW engine, yeah, um, which is a twin.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's that's the most popular one apparently.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_02: And that comes in at an incredible£43,500 pounds.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's got a lead time of eight to ten weeks.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_04: That's not too long to wait.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I guess that's probably one of the reasons why it's been as successful as it has.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: The other option is uh a Rotex uh 912.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: Which I haven't got a price for, I'm afraid.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_04: But which just leaves out of those five, it leaves the TL serious.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um so that I we were talking about it earlier before we started recording.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_04: It's a bit like someone, it's like honey, I shrunk the 182, isn't it?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's um it's like a like a tiny through some warm rain that was too hot.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like a tiny little 182.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: But it's it's all composite, it's made by uh TL TL Ultralite.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um starts at£113,912, very specific, uh plus VAT.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um that's get gets you an aeroplane delivered from the factory, um uh just uh uh ready to fly from the factory, painted in white, um not delivered from the factory, that's extra.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um and 100 horsepower Rotex 912 ULS, uh fixed pitch prop uh and uh radio transponder and uh Canadia instruments.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you tip uh kind of common upgrades for that.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_04: Uh there's a uh variable pitch prop, which costs you four and a half grand if you want to upgrade.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_04: Garmin products apparently very popular.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um single screen, nine and a half grand, dual screen, 14,000 pounds.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_04: And autopilot as well.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_04: I n I d I guess when micro lighting started, the idea of an autopilot in a micro light would have been completely um completely alien, but it's a really popular thing now.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean you've got more clearly you can tour around the world in something in a in a flex wing if you want with a two-stroke, but a lot of the bigger, the more exp the heavier m ultralights are capable of of easy long distance touring.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I think you know, if you're gonna go fly six hours a day, yeah, then an autopilot can be a useful addition to your and and now, thanks to thanks to Garmin and a whole load of other people, yeah.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: The autopilots are are cheaper and lighter.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: A lot easier.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know, before it would have cost that much to put one in some aircraft.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, anyway, five grand gets you an autopilot in your TL Sirius.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: That's a bargain.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Peter Ronfell, who's the uh uh part of the team of the UK agents, says uh four to five months if you fancy a TL Sirius.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_04: So fair enough.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um so I guess uh question is uh what's in the pipeline?
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_04: And this is quite interesting because uh coming up in 2026 and into 2027, uh BMAA have got another 17 aircraft.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_04: Wow that they're so it's gonna be 40.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's it's quite surprising.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_04: So um um I'll kick off.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_04: I so uh well in that list, uh so coming up in those two years, you've got the um Stomp SV4RS, uh the JMB VL3, I think a lot of people are waiting for that.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh WT9 Dynamic 916 with fixed gear.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh there's also a retractable gear version of the same aeroplane, the ALTO NG, um which I think we'll see at Popham.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, but more on a more official basis.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um Aeropract A22 Foxbat factory built, um the Shark 600 Turbo, Turbo Shark Turbo.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the uh retractable gear version of the Ellipse Spirit, um uh the Skyleader 600 uh GTR, because the the 600 is now is new at Aero, wasn't it?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_03: We'll find out more about that hopefully on Saturday.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_04: Saturday, yeah.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Grupo Enduro uh G70, uh Gruppo Trail 600, uh and the Grupo G70 Maestro, which kind of went a bit under the radar, but that's the new trainer version of the G70.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_04: That was at Aero Yes.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that just gone, wasn't it?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: Requested by a a German chap a German uh flight school, apparently.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: But they were gonna make more of them.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um the ICP Savannah SR tail dragger, we saw that at Aero.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um that's been more than likely brushed by the ugly stick.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's beautiful.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_04: The ICP Ventura factory built, um, and then uh bringing up the rears, the C the CT2K, um CTSW, both 472 KGs without their parachute, and the SLA 80100 executive, also in the 472 weight category.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um and uh Rob sent me a note.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_04: He said as a direct result of Aero 2026, BMAA is working with at least five other new companies to potentially bring um five new types to market.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_03: So um they are they are absolutely kilogram thing has has really taken the whole micro vaccine thro across ultralight micro vaccine across Europe and and given it a really big boost.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's probably some owners and pilots of uh you know certificated aircraft, things like your 182, for instance, yeah, would probably be looking at microrights now because I I am.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: Actively.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um moderately actively, I should say.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well they tick the boxes for a lot of people, don't they?
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: No, they're great.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_04: Any of those on the on the the coming in the future list that you you like the look of?
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, me, I I think last year the the Groppo G70 Juro, the Tail Dragon version, was my aircraft of the show.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I still think it looks great.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: I think we saw it this year with the 916.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_03: Everything, like I said, had the 916 this year.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um it it just looks good.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I guess we'll have to find out what its kind of performance is like.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um and it is a it has got a fairly high uh empty weight, which kind of reduces the Because the 600 kg types have a maximum maximum empty weight with 380 kg.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_03: So by the time you've added a few bits and pieces in from the basic stuff, you could end up with a 400 kilo.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: So you'd only have 200 kilo payload.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_03: So you stick a couple of people, some fuel, and some baggage in there, and you're starting.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_03: You know, inevitably, wherever you set the bar in terms of certification, people are gonna push right up against it, and in real life, people are gonna push right up against it and a little bit beyond it.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_03: And that's that's what drove the whole thing in the first place.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's why we've got 600 kg after 450, isn't it?
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_03: It kind of just shifted the shifted the the line to the right a bit, didn't it?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_03: And that's kind of what's happening.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: But I I mean I I'm trying to find out how much they'll likely be when they're in the UK.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I can't find that price at the moment.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: But they're kind of you know, you can buy used G70 in G Ros for 130,000, 140,000 at the moment.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_03: So it's gonna be more than that.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: Only a year ago, is it?
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure it's I'm not sure it qualifies as statistically uh valid for for a market survey, but yeah.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_04: Dave, what did uh what took your eye on that list?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think the uh the direct fly Alto NG, uh this is the Alto has been around for a while.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: This NG is a new generation version.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: This is aimed at the same 600 kilogram category, but it's like a normal bikerite uh aircraft.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: In other words, it's not aiming to be a hot ship.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's a straightforward, you know, an alternative if you like.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's like an everyman low-wing metal.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a if you like, it's an alternative to the Evector Eurostar.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's in the same vein, straightforward, normal aeroplane, yeah, quite quite decent size, quite big.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and uh the price, uh I took again.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: This is talking to um Paul at uh Flylight.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: Flylight is one of two companies that make up Direct Fly UK, the other one being Exodus Air Sports.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be uh around about 120K, including VAT.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: Which is a that seems like a great value.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: Including VAT, yeah.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it possibly will appeal also to the flying schools because uh it's a nice big it's a bit bigger than say the the uh Icarus C42, for instance.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_04: And it did look it's I had uh looked at it pop on last year, looked at the one on the direct fly and direct fly stand this year, and it looked pretty robust.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, it looks pretty good.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think I think we should sorry, before I we forgot you, Ed.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um yeah, well I I I I'm quite infatuated with the the the 600 kg stomp, the SV4RS, um which we saw we saw the UK version of that at Aero, um brilliantly painted up in some British markings, and there's a whole great story about that, which if you watch our put our Aero video, you'll find out about.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um but that's 154,000 euros plus um plus that, but but for for full scale fantastic looking nostalgia, 70 65 to 70 knots cruise, and um yeah, you can get one 10 to 12 months.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_03: So and that's uh that's a stomp a real one cost, I wonder.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's probably I think you could probably get a s a real stom for less, but it brings and of course it's the real stom is twice the weight um of the of the microwite stomp.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_04: And it brings with Is it a Renault engine which you know maybe brings some recalcitrance you know in terms of uh you turn up and will it realize I think I think people like the like the romance of the biplane, but I'm sure for a lot of people the idea of having a brand new Rotex powered version.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's a beautiful looking aeroplane.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: And uh for Markston for doing uh for doing a this version, I think.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think one of the other things that is important, I'm gonna I'm gonna mention this, I know it wasn't part of the part of the script, as it were.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_03: Not that we've got to be.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_03: He's going off piste, everybody.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_03: Because yeah, I I I know that we will get comments from this about people going, oh, it's all bloody expensive.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_03: And it and it is.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_03: There are some aircraft out there that are frighteningly expensive.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_03: But I took a look through a little counter through AFORS.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and you can still get into either three-axis or flex ring micro lights for really low cost.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they're they they they're used and they're not in their first flush of youth, but they're still perfectly safe and and fully uh approved and everything.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, this this stuff from two and a half up to ten K that that's not outrageously difficult to find.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's not like, oh my god, that's a rare find.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_03: Do you remember when old Bob found that one for two and a half K?
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's a whole ton of fine.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: So you can do it, uh, and you can particularly do it if you share one as well.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_03: You can do even more.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it's uh I think it we we need to kind of try and introduce more we always need more people in aviation.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: And this is a good way of doing it.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I think you know, people who get into aviation in order to stay into aviation, I've said this before, I'll say it again, need to own, after a while, some kind of share or aircraft of of their own.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and this is this is a great way of doing it.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_04: And I think but you do need you you need the aspirational stuff and you need the you need the you need the ability for people to look at the m look into the world and go, what can I buy?
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_04: You know, what's brand new?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_04: And they need to see a range, and yes, they uh there's you think we've covered everything from the m everything in a price bracket from 60k what to uh I Turbo Sharks was that gonna be 350,000?
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think by the TurboShark, by the time you've got it in the UK with a decent fit out, it's gonna be 400k.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_03: I mean the carbon cob, last last year, 2025, there was a whole big thing about the carbon.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_04: I introductory but it was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and I'm sure it's not that.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's north of three hundred at the moment.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, amazing stuff coming out.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's great, the more the merrier, as long as there's stuff that people can afford and can get into.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, because cause today's three hundred grand carbon crab is is is a used carbon cob in the future that can be shared by people.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly that.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_03: No one no one builds used aircraft.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_04: So um, yeah, so ex exciting times.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh have you got a favorite 600 kg uh micro light?
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh anything uh you you wish that you had in your hanger, tell us in the comments.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_04: But uh exciting times, I think.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_04: Right for a quick what caught my eye?
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_04: Ian, what caught your eye?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_03: What caught my eye was was this.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's not an aeroplane at all.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's a little display called a FlySky.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_03: It comes from a company called FlyData.io.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: Oh FlyData.io.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's a little Bluetooth straight Wi-Fi receiver, and you can you can basically link it with your Sky Echo or your SafeSky or other bits and pieces through Garmin, the Garmin GDL uh protocol.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and you can it's just a little portal, it sort of clips in and out, got a 10-hour battery, and it saves you looking at stuff on your phone all the time, you know.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a traffic display.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's traffic display.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's not doing any sensing at all, it's just doing displaying from equipment that's out there.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um because you know, you don't you know I fly quite a lot with my phone.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes I want to take a picture of my phone, and sometimes I want to look up something else on my phone.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_03: But this is a really good I just thought you can buy them online, 324 euros.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um I've got one coming that I to to to test.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um but I just thought that was that was a nice because that you know the Fridge Haven was full of people doing all sorts of different flavours of EC.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_03: This is not a flavour of EC, this is just a display.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_03: So if your your EC flavour puts out a GDL I can't remember whether it's GDL not whatever the number is there.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um someone will remind me, someone will put it in the comments, I'm sure.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_03: If it puts that, which is the standard protocol, then you can pick it up with that via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and clip it in.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_03: That look that little clip on the back goes on your panel.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_03: Clip, clip, there you go.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_03: Move it between.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's just a really nice little nice little thing I saw.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Dave, what caught your eye?
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: What caught my eye just came up on one of the social media channels.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's this.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a let me describe this for people listening to the podcast.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's a little uh round silvery blob with a copy at the front and a twin boom at the back.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's all obviously made of polished aluminium, very highly polished aluminium, but the impressive thing is it's powered by a jet.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: And this is the CPA S200 mini-jet.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's a French idea, and the French do come up with some wacky ideas, and sometimes they make it into production.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, this one wasn't, didn't get into production.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's dated back to 1952.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's powered by something called a TurboMecca Palace turbojet.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a lot of power, 330 pounds of thrust.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think I think a Dyson hairdryer has more thrust than that now.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_02: There were seven built, but there are only two survivors.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um one in the US, one in France, apparently.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I yeah, I think that is that you know how you look at stuff and you go, I know that's from a long time ago, but you know, if that was on the flight line, I'd still think that was very, very cool.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'd buy I well, I say I'd buy one, I probably wouldn't buy one, but I I would I think it's a very cool looking engine.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_03: The view, the view out of it looks tremendous.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it does.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_04: And I think there is still there was I know the one in the States I think got re-engined with a more powerful engine, which is probably a good idea, um, and has been for sale in the past.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well the guy who found it was an aircraft broker.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_02: It probably took someone like that uh to to recognise what it is.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, he's actually said, he found another engine.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh if you listen to the podcast, I'd say it's kind of like Edgely Optica Meets Cessna 337.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_03: Meets vampire.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_03: Meets vampire, yeah.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's it's it's got a lot of vampire about it.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's just not built out of Balsawood.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_04: No, I I love that.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's um that's really cool.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I want one of those.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_04: Just to play with.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_04: I think we have to we have to that's one good use of social media this week, I feel.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_04: That that that's brought that into our life.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_04: And that just leaves me, uh, and I came across an advert for the last Beach Stagger Wing.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_04: And yes, look at this beauty.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's the last G17S.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um it was from 1946 when Beach went put a new engine cowling, windscreen exhaust, bigger tail surfaces for the last of the line stagger wing.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um what's amazing is that this was$29,000 when it came out.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_04: The Bonanza, which was also going on the market at the same time, was just$7,000.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and you realise that$29,000 back then was is equivalent to nearly half a million dollars now.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_04: So um sadly, this isn't half a million dollars to buy.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_04: How much is it?
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_04: It's$775,000.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_04: You cancelled your Spirit SE1.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_04: I have not cancelled it, no, bought this instead.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, no, I think this is yeah, there'sn't this is completely on the unobtainable spectrum.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_04: But um isn't this magnificent?
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just 20 of these fact the G17 is the ultimate last of the line.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_04: And just 20 were made.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_04: This one was kept by Walter Beach for a time.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I think.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_04: They came off the line and he had it.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um 450 horsepower property went the R90 R985, 175 knot cruise.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's I quite you know what?
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_04: That would be.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's got I I would say, because normally you have questions about the tail surfaces of a stagger wing, and this they changed the they put a bigger fin on it, and I think that actually makes things look a bit more in proportion.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's so fast that the front of it looks like it comes from the future and the back of it looks like it comes from 1925.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, I think I I've come to terms with it, because you're sitting in the front, you're not looking back.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_03: Just when you walk away, just be careful not to glance back at the wrong bit.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_04: But uh yeah, I would love this.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_04: If you fancy it, it's got 260 hours on it since it had a restoration in 2001, and it's on the Platinum Fighters website amongst lots of lovely other things.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_04: We'll put a link in the description.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_04: So events then.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so this weekend, obviously, it's the Micro Lite Trade Fair at Popham over the Saturday and Sunday.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_02: Also on the Saturday, there's a fly in at Enstone on the north side.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_02: Looking a bit further ahead, the uh on Saturday, the 16th of May, there's the 50th anniversary flying at Carnarvon.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_02: And on Friday, the 22nd of May, there's the international celebration of chipmunks at Wolverhampton, also known as Hate Me Green.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: For Michael Right and others, uh, there's on the 23rd to the 25th of May, Spanfield is back at Sandown.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_02: And there is just one little thing.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, be really busy.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: There is just one little thing I've got to admit.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_02: That is on the newsletter I wrote on Tuesday, I made a mistake.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I put in that Pete White, who's the organiser of all the events at Cornwall Flying Club, including Lundy Sunday, he's in need of a lift to go to Londie Island uh before the event to set it up.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I said it was on the 5th of August.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: It isn't.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, they brought it forward this year, then.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_02: They brought it forward.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's the 5th of July.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: So Pete would like a lift, his regular aircraft is out of action.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: So he would like a lift on the 4th of July to London because he needs to be there to set it all up.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, sorry, Pete.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, Pete.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_03: But if you want to give him a lift on the 5th of August, that'll probably be fine as well.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: Don't go to London on the 5th of August.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thinking of the Lundy Sunday flight.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_03: And if you do, blame Dave.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_03: Right, okay, is that it?
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_03: Are we done?
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_03: We're done.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_03: So huge thanks to you team.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_03: Huge thanks to everybody else out there for watching.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks to my agent, my pet.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, thanks to Sky Demon for supporting this.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_03: Have a great weekend flying.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget, join the flyer club, flyer.co.uk forward slash membership, and uh like, comment, subscribe.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_03: See ya.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_03: Bye.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_03: Bye.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_04: Join the Flyer Club and be part of the UK's biggest GA community.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_04: Save hundreds of pounds with free landing vouchers, watch expert led webinars, and access all the online content on flyer.co.uk.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_04: All this and more from just six pounds per month or£62 for the full year.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_04: Join today at flyer.co.uk forward smash membership.