Old Microlights - Do they just fade away?

[Bearcat]

I was wondering how many old microlights still fly.
In the 80's many were happy to get around in MAC CDL's , Eagles, XCR's, Basic 4000's etc
It would be a shame if these early designs are all left to rot away...
I was prompted with these thoughts after seeing this MAC CDL hanging from the roof in Uitenhage..
This MAC CDL (ZS-UXL) was first registered in Jan 1984 which makes it 30 years old...
So who out there is preserving microlight history ...or will it just fade away ?

[Stan]

Maybe someone could start a museum. I've got an Eagle that can still fly and an XCR that is a bit vrot. My son took the XCR's engine to build a go-cart. Good luck to him. Its a Cuyuna engine and no spares available for a looong time now. That's probably the problem, getting spares for the old planes. The schlep of getting a mod approved to put in a ROTAX makes it easier to just get another more modern microlight.

[falconp1]

Hi Bearcat.

Check out this link.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18076

There are one or two fotos that will answer your question. The owners seem to hang on to the dream for a little to long. The older aircraft also get a bad rap from the uninitiated and therefore are left to rot rather than be revived. Very sad.
My first aircraft was a MAC CDL ZS-VLK. I had endless fun with it. If you are strapped for cash this is just the kind of aircraft to get your ass off the ground.

I wish we could establish a museum for microlights. I'm sure I could convince a few owners to donate there aircaft on a non perminent basis.

[Des]

Are there still any " Grasshopper" microlights around ?
I had one which I pranged in Queenstown many years ago.

[Biggles]

Maybe someone should ask the existing aviation museums if they want to open a microlight section... possibly the EAA can join in. I recently saw an episode of American Pickers where they arrived as the US EAA Museum... Massive.

[mic]

at Morningstar a microlighting museum hangar is being built and looking for old micro's for exhibits. one Weedhopper has been donated already.

[Fyko]

Anybody out there with old microlight pics?

I'm working on an article for my column in SA Flyer about my time at Rhino Park in the early 1980s. At that time Fanie van Rensburg was selling Quicksilver MXIIs by the dozen from his shop in the Willows.
Hennie Malan was flying his American Eagle, John Cokinogenis (now Cook) was flying his Pfledge, Louis Meyer had just imported his Spitfire ans was building the first Thunderbird from it.
Doug Davy was building his Dual Patrol based on a Rally 2B. Various MAC CDL's were operating at Bapsfontein (Mikroland was just opening). There was even a device called a B1RD (no kidding) that only John Pocock of helicopter fame ever flew for its owner.
Mike Blyth started flying there wth Fanie in a Quicksilver.

I need good pics of all of these because it's just not possible to describe an old microlight adequately without good pics.

If you can locate pictures of the right quality (even in Grandad's old albums) you'll get to see them in print. And be acknowledged in the magazine.

[falconp1]

Hi Fyko.

Welcome to Mirolighters.

I have an original 1983 brochure advertising microlights such as the MAC CDL, Phoenix, Dragon, Quick Silver, Crosscountry Racer etc. that includes all the specs and prices for the time. I can scan a copy and send it off to you if you could use it.

I myself owned and flew a MAC CDL. I also owned and flew a Falcon P1 and a Condor that came out a short while later. I've got lots of photos if you are interested.

Regards
Freddie
083------442----5683

[Fyko]

Hi Freddie,

Thank you. Yes I would appreciate anything you have. This started off as one story covering the early days at Rhino Park and, specifically my involvement with microlighting there. That, however, is only a small part of the picture. A lot happened in the period 1975 - 1985 that would make interesting reading.
Pictures for actual printing need to be of high pixel density - say around 1MB, but for evaluation the filesize can be much smaller to save time and data cost. If you don't already have something to manipulate images may I suggest Irfanview, a freebie from http://www.irfanview.com, which is a powerful and simple little photo app. If you reduce your images to 640 x 480 pixels it makes a filesize of about 30KB which is quick, easy, and cheap to tranfer.

Thanks again for your response and I look forward to seeing your material.

Best regards

Fyko van der Molen

fyko@villadcocos.com

[Fyko]

Hi Freddie,

Hi Freddie,

Many thanks for the email. Brings back memories.

Do you have any pictures of MAC-CDL, Patrol, Quicksilver, or Double Eagle?

Page 23 of Aeronews shows ZS-UUZ registered to HL Malan. That in fact is one of the aircraft at Rhino that appears in my article. Can you send the rest of the registration info? On the following page there should be a registration for ZS-UZF which was my Patrol, and also ZS-VEW which was a Quicksilever bought by two builders who sold the aircraft after the fatal accident we had at Rhino in about April 1983, and which I then bought.

I remember Otto Hurliman with X.C.R ZS-UTX. He had a leather workshop near Magaliesburg town on a plot. And De Gersigny was based at Baps. Later Mikroland.

Also Mike Russel with the Eagle had a cash at Rhino with it but was unhurt, if I get the name right.

Very nostalgic. Many thanks. I’d like to see whatever else you have.

Fyko

[falconp1]

Hi Fyko.

My pleasure. I have photos of my MAC CDL ZS-VFH which I'll send you. Is the HL Malan the guy that made props for us.

The page with all the registrations on was cut for some reason. Most probably for the add on the other side. That’s all I have.

I know that Phillip van Niekerk still has a few MAC's and Basic's In his hanger on his plot in Bapsfontien. He would be the next guy to call for more info. He was my instructor in 2000. Phillip had a video of a guy that took off with an Eagle which staled and went into a right bank and then hit the ground. The next moment the guy came hobbling out of the bush minus one shoe using the most colourful language. Most of the guy's you mention was before my time.

[Fyko]

Hi Freddie,

Many thanks. For your help. I'm getting a few answers from guys too shy to go public so they use my direct line, but this is opening up a memory lane for a few of the old-timers.

HL Malan is Hennie Malan. When I first met him Hennie had a Double Eagle as per the registration in Aeronews. As a sideline he assembled the Quicksilver kits that were sold by Fanie van Rensburg, and with the money he also bought an MXII from Fanie. I lost contact with them when I left Rhino a few years later. That was before Fanie started building the Basic 2000, which was a huge step backward from the Quicksilver, in my opinion, but one that was forced on him. I don't know if he ever made props, but I can imagine him doing so. At the time he was an electrical inspector for the province so he would have been unemployed from 1994 onwards.

There was another colourful character named Peter Uhlig, who will feature in a story in SA Flyer one day. He was the German with wife problems who went flying with a bottle of Johnny Walker and fell asleep. The aircraft ran out of fuel and landed itself in a mielie field near Baps. Peter had his license suspended for six months over that. He subsequently went back to Germany after the Wall came down.

Later in the 1980's Fanie wrote a letter to a flying magazine in which he announced his withdrawal from aviation, without saying what he was going to do next. In my opinion Fanie was one of the very best men in the microlight business - he never ever let a customer down and he was completely reliable in everything he started. The only other person in his class that I knew was Mike Blyth who, ironically, started flying in one of Fanie's Quicksilvers in 1984, if my memory is correct. Fortunately for all Mike is still in the business, and Fanie would have been an asset had he remained in it also.

Another stalwart pilot from those days was Robert Emslie, who worked at the CSIR, and had a method of deep-anodising our aluminium pulleys so they lasted a lot longer than the originals from Eipper. Robert thought nothing of loading a drum of fuel onto the passenger seat and going off to Elisras from Rhino, something that we wimps considered far too adventurous.

Best regards

Fyko

[kloot piloot]

Hi Fyko,
I sent you photos of Mac CDL's ZS-VCX and ZU-CPF as well as a real MAC CDL adventure story. Let me know if you can use the story. If not, I will post it here
Cheers
Roel

[Fyko]

Hi Roel. Many thanks. I responded on your email address. Excellent story, you should post it here and follow my further suggestions. Thanks again.

Fyko

[KWV]

HI GUYS
i use to own ZU CPF back a good number of years ago cant remember when i sold her but hell was that mac the most fun to fly so wish i didn't sell it