Sunday 19 May 2013

Popham 2013 Microlight Trade Fair Podcast

Steve Cooke of the BMAA, has produced a podcast from conversations with traders recorded at the show including ourselves, Robin and George are near the beginning, third and fours respectively, it's well worth a listen even if you went to Popham, link is below:

http://www.flyingpodcast.co.uk/exhibitions/episode-64-popham-microlight-trade-fair/

Saturday 11 May 2013

Popham 2013 Update

It had been an eventful Friday driving to Popham, as the van blew the coolant out towing the trailer on the M4, luckily we were less than half a mile from Membury service station.  Turned out the coolant bottle pressure cap valve had broken and the extra load of the trailer had highlighted the problem.  Robin hitched up the trailer and I went on ahead in the van after letting it cool down and topping up the coolant, I got there without loosing anymore fluid so all was fine.

Some aircraft flew in on Friday while we were setting up our pitch and it was lovely and sunny, we were finished by 3:30 pm and sat back to enjoy the rest of the day with a few drinks.

The microlight trade fair was well attended over the bank-holiday weekend,  Saturday started overcast with light rain (well it wouldn't be Popham without some rain would it), the sun came out around 12:30, but this was followed by a brisk wind which just kept getting stronger as the day passed, and our poor marquee was getting a right old battering.



You can see our marquee in the background, this was around 2pm and the wind kept getting stronger.  The wind had stopped many visiting by air and attendance was down for a Saturday usually the busiest day, but many did come by road. 



By 3:30 our marquee was suffering from structural failure and we decided to take it down and throw it in the skip.



Sunday was a much calmer day with good sunny weather, attendance was excellent and many aircraft flew in.  There was plenty of interest in our Eindecker as usual and in the four stroke engines GSAL is developing based on the B&S V-Twin, for future use in SSDR.

One benefit of loosing our marquee was that it took very little time to pack up and leave for home.  Although this was slowed up slightly with Shaun's car battery being flat, it was easy to start with jump leads, and we were off back to Aston Down for a well earned rest on the bank-holiday Monday.