Flying

Back when I was young, the RAF selected people and taught them to fly, in the hope that they'd decide they rather liked flying for free, and would join the Air Force. I was one of the lucky recipients, so I learnt to fly in a Cessna 150, in Southend. Shortly after I got the piece of paper, I had a motorcycle accident that put me out of the running for joining the RAF. At this point I started a fight with the Civil Aviation Authority to be allowed to fly again... there's a reason they're known as the Campaign Against Aviators. I eventually succeeded, and ended up buying a share in a Thruster TST microlight.

The Thruster TST - a Rotax 503 powered taildragger from Australia.  They say if you can land a Thruster, you can land anything.  I was fine with this until we installed airfoil struts, and I had to re-learn how to land it solo again, as it would float for ever.

The Rans S-17 - a Rotax 447 powered taildragger.  I never flew it with the pod on, as it was originally designed without it, and I liked the flies in my teeth.  This thing was a bit of a handful to land, especially with me in it, as it would take off at the first hit of a gust.

I got a chance to trade this against a 2 seater when I was trying to figure out what to do with flying.

The Flightstar IISL - a Rotax 503 powered flying tricycle.  It's nice and easy to land, flies slowly and doesn't use too much fuel.  I flew it whenever the weather didn't suck, and it was nice to be able to take passengers.  It had a decent radio (rather than the handheld I used on the S-17), and I added a digital engine information system.  There's also a ballistic recovery parachute which I never used.  I put a Rotax 582 on it to get better climb rates (without affecting the fuel consumption significantly) in the summer.

After 8 years and having passed my gyroplane endorsement, I traded this in on the Magni.  I demo flew it, and delivered it to the new buyer in Marysville.

The Magni M-16

The Magni M-16 - I bought this as Ken was getting out of gyroplanes, and there aren't a lot about on the West coast.  We got it converted over, and now I'm just having fun flying.