So you want to fly, but can’t afford the cost of getting a full Private Pilot’s Licence, let alone the price of your own light aircraft? Don’t despair. For a fraction of the cost you could still get yourself airborne – in a microlight plane.

Let’s clear up one common misunderstanding right at the start. Microlights for sale are not powered hang-gliders. They are 100% genuine, government-licensed, light single-seat and two-seat aircraft. To fly one you have to be passed as physically fit, undergo a proper training course, and pay for your licence, flight permit, annual inspection and aircraft registration.

No-one said it was cheap but it is by far the cheapest way to fly your own plane. There are two main types of microlights for sale. In the UK, about 75% are flex wings. They have a folding fabric wing rather like a hang glider. Suspended below it is a unit containing the engine, seats and wheels? The plane is controlled by changing the angle of the wing, using a triangular bar suspended in front of the pilot. Most flex wings are so compact they can be carried on the roof of a car or in a very small trailer. The other 25% of British micros are fixed wings.

The wing is either straight or swept back, and can be made of fabric, stretched tightly over a frame, or of composite panels. Fixed wings have conventional control surfaces on the wings and tail, and the most advanced models can hardly be distinguished from other light aircraft. The main difference lies in the Government regulations that govern their size. British microlights for sale must not weigh more than 390kg at take-off, and their wing area and fuel load are also restricted. If anything does go wrong they are designed to float down gently like a glider – not drop out of the sky like a brick.

The average microlights foe sale can take off in 100-150m in still air, but they need even less ‘runway’ if there’s a head-wind to provide extra lift. Any reasonably flat field will do, so long as the pilot has permission to use it. There is no need to use an airfield. Many of them can be unloaded from a car, set up, checked and be airborne in 15 minutes. Another advantage is that these very light craft become airborne at 65-70km/h, and gain height rapidly, which greatly reduces any nuisance caused. Their modern two-stroke and four-stroke engines are very quiet, and drive large, slow-rotation composite propellers which reduce the noise.

Once in the air, microlight pilots are subject to exactly the same air safety regulations as a Jumbo pilot. Except at take-off and landing (or an emergency) they must not fly within 150m of people, buildings or other structures, and they must not fly over towns and cities. Because they are so light and low powered, microlights are more vulnerable to bad weather conditions than bigger planes. They are not flown in strong winds, or above cloud layers, and generally fly only when visibility is 3km or more.

Microlight sports flying

Although many pilots simply enjoy pottering about over the countryside, there are serious competitors, too. There are nearly 100 microlight clubs in the UK alone and hundreds more across Europe, the USA and Australia. Many of them hold their own competitions, and there are national and international competitions as well, with events ranging from races and aerobatics displays to long-distance endurance and navigation exercises. Strength doesn’t come into it. Physically handicapped pilots compete on equal terms, as one disabled pilot proved in 1994 when he won the 1600km ‘Round Britain Rally’ outright – and later set another record by flying from Land’s End to John o’Groats in one day.