Popham - Microlight Trade Fair - Saturday 4th May 2013

The first day of the annual Popham Microlight Trade Fair had very mixed weather with low cloud and rain in the morning but clearing up to be bright and breezy in the afternoon.

This years show had a large number of gyrocopters both on exhibition and visiting.

Rotorsport the UK agents for Auto-Gyro brought two examples of the Cavalon gyrocopter - the type gained UK CAA Section T approval on 1st May 2013 - this example G-CHWM was flying demonstration flights and is the second to be registered in the UK and is based down in Devon.

 
In direct competition with the above Cavalon in the two seat enclosed side by side marketplace is the Magni M24C Orion  - G-CGRX c/n 24-10-6004 was the 600th gyro to be built by Magni ( small "600th" above the cockpit ) - delivered in 2010 it was based at Perranporth, Cornwall until April 2013 when it was sold to a new owner in the Bournemouth area. 

Busy giving trial flights was Calidus G-ULUL - this example was built in 2010 and originally registered as G-HTBT. It was re-registered as G-ULUL in February 2013 and now wears promotional titles for an Air Total fuel called UL91.

Magni Gyros were also exhibiting and offering demo flights in M16C Tandem Trainer G-JWNW  - this M16 was built in 2010 and is powered by a Rotax 914 turbo engine  - it is based near High Wycombe.



Among the visiting gyros were,

G-YYRO  Magni M16C Tandem Trainer c/n 16-10-5654 - there are currently 14 examples of the M16C registered in the UK - this sky blue Magni is based in Kent and was built in 2010 and is powered by the Rotax 914 turbo engine.

Visiting from Oxfordshire was Auto-Gyro MT-03 G-DADA - this MT-03 was built in 2008 and was originally based up in the north of England. Powered by a turbo Rotax 914 G-DADA had flown over 190 flight hours by December 2011. The MT-03 and later MTOsport are very popular in th UK with a combined total of 87 machines currently registered.

Another visitng Magni M16C was G-YRON - this flew in from nearby Fairoaks.

Among the aircraft exhibited was Aeropro Eurofox G-ETUG - this aircraft is the taildown tug variant fitted with a hook for towing gliders of up to 750kg. Over 400 Eurofox aircraft have been built since 1990 with 23 currently registered in the UK.

Link to Eurofox Aviation - UK dealer

The Popham Microlight Trade Fair attracts several hundred visiting aircraft among them are many flexwing trikes such as G-LSKY a P&M Aviation Pegasus Quik microlight. This example was built in 2005 and is currently based in Kent. Almost 400 Quik microlights are currently registered in the UK.




Steve

Old Sarum - 12th May 2010

A return visit to Old Sarum today found more interesting aircraft including the following

G-CGIX Rotorsport MTOsport autogyro - this aircraft is virtually brand new having been registered in March 2010 - the pilot told me it had flown just 8 flight hours so far. In recent weeks two gyros have been based at Old Sarum, this one and G-CDZZ and a poster in the cafe advertisies gyro flight training.

Click here for external LINK to MTOsport UK dealer web page

G-CFOG Ikarus C42 FB UK c/n PFA 322-14482 was a visitor and was built in 2006 - this is one of 33 examples currently registered as kit built C42s - another 100 factory built aircraft are also registered.

G-BJYK Jodel Wassmer D 120A Paris-Nice c/n 185 was a visitor today and is seen being hand re-fuelled at the AVGAS fuel pumps. This aircraft is now 50 years old having been built in 1960. It was originally registered as F-BJPK and took up a UK registration in May 1982.

G-ASVM is an early example of a Reims built Cessna F 172E c/n F172-0077 and was built in 1964 and originally imported by Westair Flying Services at Blackpool. Over the past 46 years this aircraft has had 15 registered owners and had flown over 3,850 flight hours by 12.09

G-BGWR Cessna U 206A Super Skywagon c/n U206-0653 operates as a parachute skydiving jump aircraft based at Old Sarum - note the fold up jump door. This aircraft was built in 1966 and operated in The Netherlands as PH-OTD before arriving in the UK in 1979 taking up registration G-BGWR.  In 1984 it was re-registered as G-DISC but reverted to G-BGWR in 1996. By 12.09 it had flown over 8,334 flight hours. 

N151CG Cirrus SR22 c/n 0344 was built in 2002 and I believe this is based at Old Sarum. This very popular aircraft is still in production with over 3,000 examples built.

Recently arrived at Old Sarum is this replica Royal Aircraft Factory BE2b bearing serial "2783". This full scale replica has been built at Boscombe Down by the members of the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection. It is a very impressive aircraft, I liked the large stitching binding the fuselage canvass together. I understand that "2783" represents the first aircraft to land at Boscombe Down back in 1917 . The BE2 served as a reconnaissance and light bomber during the early years of World War 1. There are no original surviving BE2 aircraft today in the UK - the RAF Museum at Hendon also exhibits a replica.

However a BE2f serial A1325 has recently returned to the air after a prolonged rebuild in New Zealand. The same company has also built a flying replica BE2c - more details on the very interesting website below

External Link to The Vintage Aviator Company of New Zealand

Steve