Tag Archives for " microlight flying "

Real Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines

By Mark Attwood | Flying

Well, I am certainly looking forward to this Wonderland Film on BBC on Monday 23rd January. It’s a film following the microlight “Round Britain Rally” featuring the author of “Propellerhead”, Antony Woodward.

I couldn’t get a clip to share here, but here’s an image from the BBC site:

Magnificent Men

Antony was also a guest of Libby Purves on Radio 4’s Midweek. Here’s the link to Listen Again on iPlayer (don’t know how long this will be live for, so apologies in advance if it’s been taken down by the time you read this).

Finally, I couldn’t end this blog post without showing those of you a clip from the fabulous film that inspired the title of this documentary film, and inspired me as a child: “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” – a simply wonderful film that starred the incomparable Terry Thomas and Eric Sykes (the theme to which I used to drum to on parade with the Air Cadets in the 1980s through the streets of Northamptonshire 🙂

Finally (again) I really couldn’t end this without sharing that fantastic theme song:

Flying by the seat of your pants

By Mark Attwood | Uncategorized

One of my favourite expressions, captures the pioneer spirit of early aviation. And now microlighting.

This video shows what can happen when the wind messes with you. Too low and too slow. You can almost feel the branches of the hedge wipe your clenched buttocks when you watch this. Those high-pitched voices at the end of the video are the voices of people that have just, somehow, unexpectedly, avoided death.

Air Law exam passed – only four to go!

By Mark Attwood | Flying

It’s been a long time since I did an exam. Twenty years to be precise. And I’m not saying Air Law is a boring subject, but studying it is a fantastic cure for insomnia should you ever suffer it. I simply couldn’t read five minutes about the Chicago Convention, or the dimensions of a MATZ, or what an AIAA was without nodding off very soundly.

Imagine my surprise then when it came to the NPPL (M) exam last week and I passed. With 90%!

I’m not sure if the exam was easy or I just took more in than I thought I had, but I was truly shocked at the marvellous result.

My only disappointment was that I was the third and not the first person to finish the exam in about five minutes and leave the room with 25 minutes to spare. I find my competitiveness even at 41 to be a tad distasteful, yet still so much fun.

In the bar afterwards, I did find a wee bit of the sixteen-year-old-with-14-O-Levels-cockiness creep back into my ego. Down boy!

I made my excuses and left before I started embarrassingly going round the bar pretending to make small talk whilst actually saying “Me? Oh, I only got 90 per cent. What did you get?”, which would have undoubtedly have happened if I’d succumbed to the CFI’s invitation for an alcoholic beverage. Five kids and a sublime wife at home are a great leveller.

Now, over to Meteorology, Air Navigation, Human Performance and the other one.