British Microlight Aircraft Association

Once arrived and parked, it was time to meet the BMAA team and explore all that Popham has to offer.

BMAA CEO Rob Hughes was ready to welcome the bears, and after a few words, a handshake with Paddy, and the customary pictures, it was off to the BMAA Flexwing simulator to learn the basis of the weightshift microlight. Here they got a taste of handling a flexwing, and an appreciation of the differences from the types of aircraft they’ve flown before.

Next, they took a trip around the trade exhibition, meeting lots of manufacturers and key people in microlighting. These included:

Flylight showing them their 600kg Ninja, and Sub-70 Peabee.

Exodus Airsports showed them the new BMW powered Deltajet, and they were taken for a tour by Rob Grimwood.

Metal Seagulls is based in Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire, Wales. This is a very familiar airfield for Irish GA flyers, being the last point before many crossings of the Irish sea. Here, Patricia Porter and her Husband Jonathan run a business specialising in design and support for all things Light Aircraft. Patricia, Gwen, and Carys showed Paddy some basic maintenance on a UL Power engine.

Metal Seagulls have recently started working on their own aircraft design, called “Fafali” and their daughter Gwen was very excited to show Paddy and Lucky a model of the final design, as well as some of the first protype assemblies.

After this, Gwen showed the pair a Sling 2, into which a UL power engine by Metal Seagulls is being fitted.

Skyleader: The guys checked out the new Skyleader 400 and Skyleader 600 models, which are new to the UK and causing a lot of excitement amongst flyers.

Pooleys: Stuart Bannister from Pooleys took the guys and showed them a homebuilt Sherwood Ranger biplane.

Gyrocopters: There was a large turnout of gyrocopters and the pair looked on in amazement at these unsual looking beasts. The tried a few on for size, including Big Nellie!

After a busy day at the show, Paddy and Lucky joined everyone for a Curry before leaving the group to it, and heading off for an early night.