I went microlight flying again last weekend, or at least that was the intention. My brother took my wife for a flip, first time she'd been in one. Now she wants to get a license. When it came to my turn, the engine was running rough, so we taxied back in and had to put the machine back in its shed. The rear two cylinders plugs were sooted up , while the front two cylinders looked like they were running lean. How this is possible with a single carburettor remains a mystery. If anyone has any ideas, please e-mail me and I will pass the information on to my brother. Later that day I was to see the same engine perform flawlessly in a three-axis machine, and to hear the owner praising it for its reliability . . .

Strangely enough, this time I was really looking forward to flying. I'm not sure why I still have some reservations about flying in a motorbike with a roof, as my three year old son calls them. Maybe it's the single bolt that holds the wing on. I'm certainly not nervous about flying with my brother, who now has about two hundred hours. Somehow, it still has that feel of riding pillion about it. Perhaps I should take it up myself, though it seems to me that microlighting involves a lot of assembly and disassembly and very little flying. I've certainly spent more time doing that than actually flying in them. If it's not the engine, it's the weather. What looks like a nice day suddenly turns to winter in the Arctic as soon as the last bolt is in place.

I did, however, get a flight in a Jabiru. A chap called Nigel took pity on me and took me for a flip. What an amazing aircraft! Once you get over the fact that it is made from pre-formed bits of plastic glued together in someone's garage, you can't help but be impressed with the design. It's fast, uses hardly any fuel, the controls are nowhere near as twitchy as I expected, and it is still classified as a microlight, with all the advantages (especially maintenance) that this classification entails. It is certainly superior to a Cessna 150 or 152, though I'm not sure I would like to land it in much of a crosswind, partly because of its light weight and partly because the rudder looks far too small. It's a bit cramped, but that is to be expected. It is reasonably quiet, though we were wearing headsets, and I suspect certain microlight fields look very short as you are coming in to land.

The thing I cannot work out is why the engine is apparently so reliable, yet the same engine when put on a weight-shift machine becomes a temperamental beast. It is the same engine that stopped me going flying with my brother. He appears to have had nothing but trouble since he first bought it, yet every Jabiru pilot I talk to waxes lyrical about reliability. Surely the manufacturers should be taking a keen interest in this?

If I do ever take up microlighting, I have no idea if I want a weight-shift or a three axis machine now. They both obviously have their advantages. I'd prefer to have both. But for now, I'll have to make do with the 727. I haven't flown for three weeks, and I'm starting to miss her.

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