AX2000 Microlight

Microlight flying within the UK can be traced back to the late 1970's, at this time hang glider pilots decided to take the logical step of fitting small engines to their hang gliders this was scary stuff back in those days, however very exciting.

As this was an uncharted area it meant that knowledge and skill could only be learned hands on in the air. This did lead to many accidents back in those days.

Those days are now gone, many of today's microlights are fast, comfortable flying works of art, many have heaters cd players and all the modern electronics fitted and certainly easier to fly than ever before.

Costs range from as little as £2500 for a 'first generation' used microlight to over £40,000 for a new fast, sophisticated model. My first aeroplane was a little MW5 and cost me £2300. She still is a lovely little flying machine and was recently seen at chedder at the MW fly-in.

Microlights and ultra lights can be flown from any suitable large open field, with of the owners permission and within any existing planning constraints, or from one of the many club sites or general aviation airfields in the UK.

As we now have CAA Aircraft Permits, Instructor Ratings and an excellent pilot training and licensing system, microlights has come of age it is one of the most fun, inexpensive and exhilarating ways to fly and touch the face of god.

Ownership of a flying machine is not expensive and costs about the same as owning a second car. Being inexpensive to purchase and fly they have allowed people from all walks of life to operate their own aircraft, many own more than one at a much lower cost than are associated with normal GA aircraft.

These little wonder machines have flown around the world and climbed to over 25,000 feet. Today's high-performance microlights fly regular cross-country flights of over 200 miles in less than 2 hours on 25 litres of unleaded petrol. You can fly to france for breakfast and be back in the UK for lunch.

With effect from 1st April 2002, Article 129 of the Air Navigation Order 2000 defines a microlight aeroplane as follows:
"Microlight aeroplane means an aeroplane designed to carry not more than two persons which has:
(a) a maximum total weight authorised not exceeding:
 
(i)
300 kg for a single seat land plane.
(ii)
450 kg for a two seat land plane,
It can carry a maximum of two people and the take off weight must not exceed 450 Kg.
It has either; a wing loading not exceeding 25Kg/sq.m, or a stalling speed not more than 41 mph.
It has an unrestricted fuel capacity - within the constraints of its maximum weight and balance limits.

There are two types of aircraft.

1. flexwing -Weight shift Controlled Microlights
These have a wing structure based on the hang glider design wing they have a tricycle undercarriage with one or two seats, an engine and propeller suspended below the wing. There is a braced triangular control bar that the aviator uses to pivot the wing around it's hang point assembly thereby achieving control of the craft.

These look like conventional aeroplanes with fixed wings, what most people would call an aeroplane, aircraft, they have tail plane and fin. In many cases they have a fully enclosed cockpit. They are controlled in all three axes by the use of ailerons, elevator and rudder.

The British Microlight Aircraft Association is our association that looks after the interests of microlight owners and pilots in the UK. It is approved by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and has powers delegated to it to control training and air worthiness of microlights in the UK.

There address is.

British Microlight Aircraft Association
The Bullring
Deddington
Banbury
Oxford. OX15 0TT
Tel: 01869 338888

The link to the BMMA website is at the bottom of this page.

The cyclone AX2000 is a three axis microlight with conventional controls, she is a development of the AX3 with many improvement over this earlier aircraft.

It was designed to be light and very strong and in its day was a very economic machine to fly.

Constructed of 6261 T6 and 7075 T6 aluminium alloy which combines light strength and flexibility. many parts of the aircraft's fuselage are triangulated and this gives her the ability to absorb a great deal of energy with out damage.

She is covered in ultralm a fabric designed for microlights.

She was originally bought by a gentle man called Antony who enjoyed many hundreds of hours flying her and even took her across the channel. He moved on to other flying machines and sold her to Tony Blackwell of Aerolight at Long Marston.

Tony used her as the schools training machine and many young pilots got there wings with her. She continued as the schools machine untill Tony decided to buy a C42 as the schools training machine.

I bought her in May 2004 and enjoyed flying her. When her permit was up she went into storage at Long Marston due to pressure of my work as a hypnotist and neuro linguistic programmer, plus a very good friend of mine Terry Viner wanted to build another Sky Ranger which I helped him to build. So I was still flying just not in my machine.

This year I made the decision to renew our relationship and become serious about flying again. The permit work has been done and a test flight which has uncovered minor work that is being carried out at the moment.

As we are based at Long Marston we have had to wait a few weeks, this airfield is used for many activates including Gods Kitchen and the Bulldog Bash during this time it makes working on the aircraft, testing and flying difficult.

When the Bulldog bash is over we will continue the work and get her back in the air with a full permit.