Flying Podcast

As part of the build up to doing a round the world flight Jon Hilton told me that he wanted to fly his CT microlight to Canada and back. Jon set off in May of 2013 and went from the UK to the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and on to Canada before turning around and doing the same thing in reverse. His entry in the log book in the tower stood out alongside the usual 'Sleaps, Caernarfons and Welshpools'. I'm sure the book has rarely seen an entry such as, 'Canada, via Wick'!

Cary Robins is the owner of American Aeronautics and his company markets weight and balance calculators. I wanted to find out why weight and balance is so important, about his company's products and about his flying career too.

A flight from London to Sydney, Australia in a PA28 by Andy Hardy and Sam Kidd. We discuss the planning that the guys have had to do prior to this epic flight adventure.

A trip to the Light Aircraft Association Rally to see what's new on the GA scene here in the UK. I talk to various aircraft manufacturers and importers including Grass Strip Aviation, Red-Air, Sprite Aviation, Dragon Aviation, The Light Aircraft Company and Swift Aviation.

An update on the Flying for Freedom project. As you'll remember from episode 63 the Fly2Pole expedition is endeavouring to get several disabled military personnel to the South Pole in microlight aircraft. So, when the Flying for Freedom team held a sponsor's open day a few weeks ago I popped down to Kemble for a bit of a catch-up.

A chat with many of the exhibitors at Popham. We talk to everyone from the SSDR manufacturers to the importers of some of the hottest hot-ships in the world of microlighting.

At the Flying Show last year I met a chap called John Laity on the P&M Aviation stand. John is one of the founders of Flying for Freedom which aims to train injured ex-servicemen to fly microlights as part of their rehabilitation into civilian life. In addition, Flying for Freedom are launching an expedition to the south pole where they'll be trying to get a team to fly flexwing microlights to the pole and back. I caught up with John via Skype recently, just after his return from the press launch at the Tower of London.

For today's episode I travelled down to Derby Aero Club to meet Martin Jones. Martin is the owner of the airfield and is also proprietor of Airspeed Aviation. My reason for the visit though was to have a chat to Martin about the restoration project that he's undertaking. His labour of love is a 1934 de Havilland Comet DH88 - G-ACSP - a so called Comet Racer. The aircraft was originally built by de Havilland for the England to Australia, 'MacRobertson' Air Race.

An interview with BMAA Chairman, David Bremner. David explains what the organisation does and how it works to promote and regulate microlighting in the UK.

A visit to The Flying Show at the NEC with interviews with Breezer UK, The Light Aircraft Company, Dave Sykes, GASCo and lastly, The Airspace and Safety Initiative.

Today we're up in the English Lake District talking gyrocopters with Andrew Lysser of Cumbria Gyroplanes. It's been a while since we discussed the world of gyrocopters so I took this opportunity to get an update from Andrew.

Jon Hilton is an adventurous pilot, currently flying a CTSW out of Barton Airport, Manchester. Having read a couple of Jon’s reports in the BMAA’s monthly magazine he sounded like a prime candidate to appear on the Podcast. He started out completing his PPL in the USA, in his early twenties, and went on to get his night, multi and IMC ratings. After taking a break from flying Jon came back to aviation but this time chose to fly microlights, buying a CTSW a couple of years ago.

We're talking to Chris Walsh today, ATCO at Manchester International Airport. We had lots of questions for Chris, sent in by podcast listeners. So if you'd like to know about what it's like to be an air traffic controller, how to become one, how they cope with the A380 and what their attitude is towards us GA pilots, then have a listen.

For today's episode of Flying Podcast I went down to AeroExpo at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire. I had a wander round to see which exhibitors had something interesting on offer and got chatting to a fair few of them. I went down on the Friday and although there were a fair few people in attendance most exhibitors had plenty of time to spend with anyone with an interest in their products. I have interviews recorded with: Conair Sports, Cosmik Aviation, Czech Air Sports, Sky Demon, Tecnam UK, Jasta Binks Aviation and Beaver UK.

On today's Flying Podcast we've got a pilot from 'down under'. That's Owen Zupp. A couple of years ago, Owen flew a single engine light aircraft around Australia. I remember hearing about Owen's exploits on the great Australian aviation podcast Plane Crazy Down Under so when Owen contacted me offering to come on to the podcast I jumped at the opportunity.

A few years back, when the RAF was disposing of its fleet of Victors, Andre Tempest put in a sealed bid and found himself the owner of a full sized V-bomber, designed to deliver the UK's nuclear deterrent to somewhere in the Soviet Union. I was interested in hearing why anybody would want to own their own Victor so, on a brilliantly sunny, spring day, I went to visit Andre and 'Lusty Lindy', as the aircraft is known, at Elvington, near York.

To get a broader appreciation of what the Light Aircraft Association does I was pointed in the direction of Brian Hope, editor of the LAA's magazine 'Light Aviation'. We discuss everything about the LAA from its history, through the development of aeroplane kits right up to the forthcoming LAA rally at Sywell.

I'm joined by Mark Finney on the podcast. Mark is the Chief Pilot for the Goodyear Blimp, 'Spirit of Safety' here in the UK.

Today I’m off down to Turweston Aerodrome to meet Andy Draper of the Light Aircraft Association. Andy is the design engineer with the LAA and having joined from kitplane company, Europa, he now looks after the modification work for LAA aircraft but also oversees the ongoing airworthiness of all the approved types. I was interested in finding out what the process was for building your own aircraft so who better to ask than Andy. If you recognize Andy’s photo on the web site that’s because he was involved in the TV show ‘A Plane Is Born’ some years ago, helping Mark Evans build his Europa kit plane.

A chat with Duncan Armstrong, fellow aviator from Barton Aerodrome. We always enjoy chatting about our learning experiences so I thought it would make an interesting podcast discussing what we learned during our flight training and in the years afterwards. We talk about what we found difficult, what made us worry, things that amused us and even things that scared us.