Motorbikes and the Dordogne

The microlight saga continues

No pictures in this post - sorry.
We have now made the decision on which model of microlight to buy. We only want a flexwing and won't consider a 3 axis. For those that don't know, a 3 axis looks like a small aeroplane with an enclosed cockpit.
Our choice was narrowed down to an Air Creation Tanarg or a Pegasus Quik. Here in France there are many new and second hand Air Creation microlights, as they are built in France, but very few British Pegasus machines. The local fliers call the Tanarg the Bentley of flexwings but the Quik is known as the Porsche. Both aircraft have the Rotax 912, 4 stroke engine, but with 100 bhp the Quik lives up to its name with a cruise speed reported to be around 90 mph, we'll see.
We will be visiting England in September and while Jude is horse riding in Canada with her sister Lib, I will look at secondhand Quiks. The plan is to buy one and bring it back to France on a trailer, park it at Daves airfield fist of all, and then bring it the last 120 miles home when I have had some training with Dave.
I am getting the towbar for the car this week and sorting out a medical for my license too. We also need to buy a GPS, probably a Garmin 296. I have GPS on the bike and in the car, but they are very different to those designed for aviation.
Jude and I have decided that we will have a holiday next year and fly down Italy to Malta. If we time it right then Dave and Amanda will be with us in their Quik.
This really is a cheap way of flying, once you have a microlight, the main cost is fuel. I expect around 12 to 14 liters of petrol per hour, which will cover a distance of around 90 miles in still conditions. With a tailwind one can obviously get much further. A flexwing microlight can be bought for as little as £3000.
For those interested in learning then have a look at Daves website on www.wanafly.co.uk. He is a UK qualified flying instructor and owns a wonderful airfield, (see previous post). The main reason why people come from the UK to train with Dave is the weather, in the UK there are many times when students turn up to fly and find the weather not suitable for training, here we don't have that problem.
Just as an afterthought, Jude was looking into microlight numbers in the UK and France. She came up with rough figures of around 3000 in the UK and 15000 in France. That must say something about the weather!

posted by madman @ 12:12 pm