Hi all from England

[oly2b]

:confused:
Can anyone give guidance on a suitable machine to go solo on in the UK.
I like the Campbell Cricket but you need 50 hrs post solo to fly these now.
Any help grafefully received.

Craig

[barnstorm2]

Craig,

Welcome to the forum!

I hope you find your answer here. You might want to check the pin chart for neighbors..

Link: http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10079

[aerodynamicdon]

Are you wanting to use a 'hometown" ship and not import? Isn't the Montgomerie Merlin in Scotland just north of Hadrian's wall? Plus, welcome!

[Gypsy]

Hi and welcome, given that this forum is international I am practically your next door neighbour.

Are you having any lessons and if so with who? You can still learn on, solo and fly open framed bensen types till you log 50 hours post ppl before moving on to "podded" machines but its finding an instructor willing to teach you. Once you have your ppl and 50 hours then its whatever is licensed to fly here, ie bensen, cricket, magni, merlin etc. However there seems to be a concerted move by the CAA in this country to get rid of single seat gyros on the basis that to low hour pilots they are death traps, in favour of factory built twin seaters.

I am learning with Chris Jones in Cumbria, who is the only full time instructor in th UK and have been for the past 12 months, however I have stalled in my training ( forgive the pun ) because he no longer trains students on single seat machines, not a problem really as I didn't fancy single seaters anyway but I would have done just to get my license then move to twin seaters.

He leases a Magni to teach dual and wont permit students to solo on it so he has no machines for his students to do solo work until the ELA is permitted to fly, and unless I shell out £34000 and buy my own MT-03 which is permitted I will have to wait in an ever growing waiting list to continue my training.

[steveb]

Craig

As mentioned before you can solo on an open-frame machine, and there are open-frame versions of both the Bensen and the Cricket available. You can, of course, solo on a 2-seat machine, and plenty of people are doing so on the MT-03 (though you will need to won your own to do so).

It will be interesting to see what the cost difference is between the MT and the ELA once VAT, delivery and UK certification costs are taken in to account - it may not be as much as appears to be assumed.

Just to avoid any confusion, I own an MT-03 (and a Merlin) and have just qualified for my Instructor rating, so I have an interest in encouraging people to learn how to fly on an MT!

Steve

[oly2b]

I was very keen to start learning to fly gyro this year, but after finding out about MPD2005-008 abd talking to Peter Lovegrove and other it's a bit off putting, (CAA - Campain Against Av******) don't get me going about Mode S transeivers.

I hope shortly to have a trial flight with David Beevers at Melbourne, (I already fly gliders at York).

It's pity about Crickets, been to see a very nice Mk1 replica complete and the two seaters and AV18 abit out of my price bracket.

Craig

[chasermerlin]

graig

i train at henstridge somerset under tony melody on my merlin 582
which was the first single seat machine to be cleared by the caa
from the now infamous mpd2005-008
took along time but we got there
slowly but surely crickets are being cleared i know pl gets
frustrated but if u want to fly a cheapish single seat machine
they are available at the right price and by time u have been trained
the sky will be urs at a reasonable cost

all best (hang in there)

john (proud owner off gbwah)