Chapter Three

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My first Microlight flight

 

     It seemed like forever, waiting for Barry and Bob to return from their sky bound adventure. I strolled around the van and the edge of the field wondering if something bad had happened to them. All sorts of things passed through my mind: has the engine stopped or the wing collapsed and fallen to the ground? I was cold and damp and the longer I waited the more I began to worry about them.

     Then a very faint humming sound, quickly got louder. It picked up my spirit. It had to be them, didn’t it? Yes, I was sure it was. Apart from the man in the muddy, Bob the builder outfit, no one else was here.

     I decided to take a closer look at his bright yellow aircraft. Two wheels at the back with yellow spats over the top to keep the mud from flying up all over the place. Three Silver tubular arms stretched out from each one, on either side of the aircraft. The first went up to just below the engine, and another ran out to the bottom of a black skirt and plastic petrol tank. The third was at the bottom also, but it ran forward under the front seat, just before the start of the yellow fibreglass pod.

     I looked it over inquisitively, but dared not touch. It wasn’t that I was scared of the man coming out of the pub and catching me, but what if I touched something and then he had a crash? I didn’t want to live with those kinds of doubts. However I was intrigued by the whole thing.

     The black seats stepped up so the passenger could see over the pilot’s shoulder. I stared down past the pilot seat into the pod. A thick pole ran down the centre between where the pilot puts his legs and deep down in the dark spaces I saw a foot throttle and a foot brake. Along the front of the pod facing where the pilot sat was a little clear plastic screen and a small control panel with a half ball shaped compass, and a few other instruments, but I didn’t know what they were.

     In the middle of the dashboard, a thin tubular pole came out and went right up, connecting to a thicker pole, near the underside of the wing.  Behind where the passenger would sit, was another part of that thick tubular pole, which went up into the air for about eight feet? That’s where the wing attached to the pod. One bolt! I must be mad.

     The wing looked enormous towering above my head. On one side its tip touched the grass and the other tip pointed up into the air. It was triangular shaped, mainly white, with a yellow leading edge. Black wires came out of it to the ends of a thin tubular triangle. Barry had called this the control frame, but I was yet to see what it did at close range?

     Suddenly from out of the mist came Barry and Bob, sailing gracefully toward the field in front of me. Within seconds of sighting them, the little aircraft touched down then I heard the engines revs increase and she taxied over to where I stood beside the little yellow Microlight. He switched off the engine.

     Barry eased the control frame to the side and his wing gently rotated to the side until the tip lay on the grass also. He reached down into the pod and came up with a tie, wrapping it around the front strut and the control frame; this held the wing still.

     On seeing them I felt relieved. Relieved they were safe, but also envious because Bob had been up flying around the sky and I hadn’t. I had my doubts that I would even get a chance to fly, with Barry being gone for so long, and the visibility still very poor, he might not want to go back up.

     Barry slipped off his helmet, placed it on the ground and climbed out.

     I ran over to him. “So what was it like?”

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