Microlighters

Henni wrote:Hi all,

Just found this link. Very, very impressive! Hard to believe that so much power can be had from such a small engine.

For now I'm happy with my choice of the Rotax 583. I think it's going to be good value for money. Off course it's not a four stroke Rotax, but then also so is not the price. At the moment it's the most power for the least weight and also for the lowest price. Someone in my shoes cannot ask for more...

Keep well all my flying friends,

Henni

quote wrote:According to BRP, this lightweight two-stroke engine uses sophisticated electronic injectors and a powerful central computer to deliver major improvements in performance, efficiency and ease-of-use.

BRP first introduced the E-TEC technology in its Evinrude outboard engines in 2003 and subsequently won the Clean Air Technology Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Adapted later on for Ski-Doo snowmobiles, it was first brought to the market in 2008 with the Rotax E-TEC 600 H.O. engine. Since then, it has become the industry’s best-selling 600cc engine and has won numerous industry awards.

Henni wrote:Hi all,

Success at last!

Attempt no.5

Note, this was nearly 35 years ago. I was stupid & would NEVER recommend this to anyone. In the meantime I received full training and a valid license. Don't threaten me as a result of this story!

Well, this was the beginning 1980's. I managed an hour and a half of official flight training at the old Barragwana airport. Now I motivate someone to buy a Quicksilver MXI microlight from America.

When the box arrived, I helped him to assemble this thing in his front yard. It came with flying instructions, and I told him the little that I knew.

Well, it sat in his garden for three months. He was too afraid to do anything with it. So he asked me to take it to my plot and to store it there for him, which I did. I said to him that if he EVER wanted to sell it and would accept three monthly payments, that I would take it from him. He would however not consider at the time.

One day he phoned me out of the blue and informed me I can buy the aircraft from him under those conditions. Boy, I did not wait, but took off early from work & drove straight home. I assembled everything in a jiffy and took it to an open field on my plot. It was just big enough for a qualified person to fly from without any room for error.

Told my wife I'm just going to taxi it around a bit & that I would not try to fly it. In the middle of this field was a small trench. When I went over it for the third time, I did not feel it & new I was almost flying & pulled back on the stick. In the air we went.

The last thing my instructor taught me was stalls, & that was all I had on my mind. So I sat as quiet as possible whilst waiting for this thing to gain some height. When I reached roughly 1000ft (I had no instruments), I levelled off & decided to see how this thing stalls.

So I cut the power completely & yanked the nose up to about 45 degrees. Boy, did that thing go into a snap stall! The next thing there was nothing between my face & the ground, & before I knew what was going on, I let go of the controls & grabbed a tube to each side of me.

There I sat, frozen solid in that position. The aircraft dove, picked up speed, pulled itself out of the dive & after a few oscillations was flying level again. Yet, it took quite a while before I could let go of those tubes & concentrate on flying her again.

By now, my wife was going crazy on the ground. She called every neighbour to come and help. When I approached for my first landing attempt, there were already quite a few cars that arrived to watch all of this commotion. I had to land between a water tank & some out buildings and because of a cross wind, found that rather hard to do. Well, to cut a long story short, I landed on about the 5th attempt, safely by the way without bending anything.

And that my friends, was how I started & finally succeeded in my craving for flying.

Keep well all,

Henni