Lake District Sports - Lake District Microlighting

Is it a plane? Is it a hang glider? Is it a way to recapture the magic of the early days of aviation in the most manoeuvrable little aircraft you could imagine? Microlights can be ‘flexiwings’ that steer like hang gliders or fixed-wing craft with stick-and-rudder controls like their larger cousins. On either type, a trial flight with an instructor will grant you plenty of opportunity to take the controls – as well as a view of Cumbria - the Lake District that will take your breath away.

There’s only one flying machine which can match a microlight for versatility. When James Bond received his from ‘Q’ it was called “Little Nellie”. They’re actually known as gyroplanes – and lessons are available at Carlisle Airport!

Types of Aircraft

While ultralight-type planes date back to the early 1900s (such as the Santos-Dumont Demoiselle), there have been three generations of modern, fixed-wing ultralight aircraft designs, which are generally classed by the type of structure.

The first generation of modern ultralights were actually hang gliders with small engines added to them, for self-launching. The wings on these were braced by wires, and steered by shifting the pilot's weight under the wing.

The second generation ultralights began to arrive in the mid-1970s. These were designed as powered aircraft, but still used wire bracing and usually single-surface wings. Most of these have "2-Axis" control systems, operated by stick or yoke, which control the elevators (pitch) and the rudder (yaw) -- there are no ailerons, so may be no direct control of banking (roll). A few 2-Axis designs use spoilers on the top of the wings, and pedals for rudder control. Examples of 2-Axis ultralights are the "Pterodactyl" and the "Quicksilver MX" (as seen in the photograph to the right).

The third generation ultralights, arriving in the early 1980s, have strut-braced wings and airframe structure. Nearly all use 3-Axis control systems, as used on standard airplanes, and these are the most popular. Third generation designs include the "T-Bird," "Kolb" and "Challenger" families.

There are several types of aircraft which qualify as ultralights, but which don't have fixed-wing designs. These include:

• Weight Shift - while the first generation ultralights were also controlled by weight shift, most of the current weight shift ultralights use a hang glider-style wing, below which is suspended a three wheeled pod which carries the engine and aviators. These aircraft are controlled by pushing against a horizontal bar in roughly the same way as a hang glider pilot flies. Trikes generally have impressive climb rates and are ideal for rough field operation, but are slower than other types of fixed-wing ultralights.

• Powered parachutes - cart mounted engines or motor scooters with parafoil wing, similar to parachutes used in skydiving.

• Powered paragliding - backpack engines with parafoil wing, which are foot-launched.

• Gyroplane - rotary wing with cart mounted engine (see autogyro), a gyrocopter is different from a helicopter in that the rotating wing is not powered, the engine provides forward thrust and the airflow through the rotary blades causes them to autorotate or "spin up" to create lift. Most of these use a design based on the Bensen Gyrocopter.

• Helicopter - there are a number of single-seat and two-place helicopters which fall under the microlight categories in countries such as New Zealand. However, few helicopter designs fall within the USA's more restrictive ultralight category. One of these is "Mosquito."

• Hot Air Balloon - there are numerous ultralight hot air balloons in the US, and several more have been built and flown in France and Australia in recent years. Some ultralight hot air balloons are hopper balloons, while others are regular hot air balloons that carry passengers in a basket.