Who said we need low cost airlines to fly for cheap? At the cost of a second hand car, you can operate your own low cost flights, and four pilots are the living proof that you can go as far as the UK on what they call “a motorbike with wings”.
That’s what David Sykes, Trevor Richardson, Gary Nicholls and Matthew Roberts of York just did, when they crossed from their home country to Malta in 25 hours, with around six stopovers along the way via France, Italy and Sicily, and the breathtaking views of the Alps some 12,500 feet above ground.
It all started over a pint of beer with a dozen Maltese pilots from the Island Microlight Club who were visiting the York Flying Club two years ago.
“It did not take much to convince us to take this trip,” Sykes said, about the longest microlight flight to Malta so far. Now their Maltese counterparts are contemplating a similar trip to York as the British pilots are on their way back home.
The four pilots flew on two microlights, which are characterised by the fact that they weigh 450kg or less, carrying the bare essentials and a survival kit just in case.
Crossing the Alps was the hardest bit of their flight, facing high winds at some 128 miles per hour and extremely high turbulence, feeling the cold and the wind inside the cockpit.
“That was scary,” Nicholls said. “It was an adrenalin rush, but the last lag over the sea was just wonderful and relaxing.”
Richardson, who is a Royal Airforce Engineer who had just returned from a six-month mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan, said they would have liked to land in the Gozo helipad but they could not get authorisation to land there.
The founders of the Island Microlight Club set up a decade ago are also trying hard to get permission to use the Gozo helipad, but red tape has proved to be harder than flying in a thunderstorm.
“The Gozo helipad would be perfect for us, as it is,” said Major Mark Said, who founded the club together with his colleague Major Alex Dalli.
“We spoke to ministers, civil aviation and lots of authorities, all of them agreeing with our proposal to either buy the helipad or rent it and turn it into a flying school with great potential to attract foreign flight students. But when it comes to the crunch, we find we’re running in circles, with nobody responsible to give us the green light.”
Both majors are professional AFM pilots and offer full courses leading to a pilot’s licence, besides long-term assistance to like-minded enthusiasts who buy their own microlights or even assemble them from scratch.
The Malta club now counts 40 members. Based in the Luqa airfield, they have a couple of hangars with more then 20 different microlights.
Log on to:
www.islandmicrolightclub.com