Episode 68 – Cary Robins – Weight and Balance Calculations

Cary Robins - American Aeronautics

Cary Robins – American Aeronautics

Today we’re talking weight and balance. Often something that us pilots of light aircraft forget to do before every flight but obviously a very important component of safe flight.
Cary Robins is the owner of American Aeronautics and his company markets weight and balance calculators. I wanted to find out why weight and balance is so important, about his company’s products and about his flying career too.

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Episode 66 – The LAA Rally 2013

Mystery Ship

Mystery Ship

The LAA Rally has come round again. Very often we’re scouting round looking for something really exciting to talk about on the UK airshow/rally scene. Luckily, this time the CAA has helped us out albeit at the very light end of the light aviation market. Over the coming weeks they’ll be consulting on a proposal to deregulate the single seat microlight market. So, if your new aircraft weighs in at less than 300kg (MAUW) and has only one seat, you’re away!

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Episode 62 – Martin Jones – de Havilland DH88 Comet Racer

Martin Jones, Derby Aero Club

Martin Jones, Derby Aero Club

For today’s episode I travelled down to Derby Aero Club to meet Martin Jones. Martin is the owner of the airfield and is also proprietor of Airspeed Aviation. My reason for the visit though was to have a chat to Martin about the restoration project that he’s undertaking. His labour of love is a 1934 de Havilland Comet DH88 – G-ACSP – a so called Comet Racer. The aircraft was originally built by de Havilland for the England to Australia, ‘MacRobertson’ Air Race.

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Episode 60 – The Flying Show 2012

The Flying Show - NEC - 2012

The Flying Show – NEC – 2012

For today’s episode of Flying Podcast I went down to the Flying Show at Birmingham’s NEC. I had interviews lined up with Breezer UK, The Light Aircraft Company, Dave Sykes, GASCo and the Airspace & Safety Initiative. An interesting cross section of the people attending the show I think.
The show was pretty much as it had been in previous years, not overly busy but there were plenty of interesting folk to chat to. So all-in-all probably worth going down to if you’re into aviation. We arrived at 11.30 on the Sunday and the traffic into the NEC wasn’t too bad. The £10 parking fee is a bit steep but they have a bit of a monopoly going on there so we have to stump up the cash.

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Episode 56 – AeroExpo 2012

BE-2C 'Biggles Biplane'

BE-2C ‘Biggles Biplane’

For today’s episode I travelled down to AeroExpo 2012 at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire. I had a wander round to see which exhibitors had something interesting on offer and got chatting to a fair few of them. I went down on the Friday and although there were a fair few people in attendance most exhibitors had plenty of time to spend with anyone with an interest in their products.

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Episode 51 – Andy Draper – Light Aircraft Association

Andy Draper - Design Engineer - Light Aircraft Association

Andy Draper – Design Engineer – LAA

For this episode of Flying Podcast I was off down to Turweston Aerodrome to meet Andy Draper of the Light Aircraft Association. Andy is the Design Engineer with the LAA and having joined from kitplane company, Europa, he now looks after the modification work for LAA aircraft but also oversees the ongoing airworthiness of all the approved types.
I was interested in finding out what the process was for building your own aircraft so who better to ask than Andy.
If you recognize Andy’s photo on the web site that’s because he was involved in the TV show `A Plane Is Born’ some years ago, helping Mark Evans build his Europa kit plane.

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Episode 41 – Malcolm Howland – Thruster Air Services and Fly365

Thruster T600 Sprint

Thruster T600 Sprint

On a recent trip to Lincolnshire I found myself at Wickenby Airfield, home to Thruster Microlights and Fly365 flying school. The man I’m here to talk to is Malcolm Howland who heads up the flying school and also works for Thruster.

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