Firstly apologies for not writing much recently. I look at my annual flying hours in my little drifter and think that maybe my priorities are a little skewed. Speaking of drifters, Greg, my boss is now the proud owner of a drifter and joins the vintage ultralight owners brigade. I look forward to posting photographs of slow journeys to the Tiwi islands and beyond.

A few years ago, the Top End Flying Club conducted a fly in to the Darwin Aviation Museum located next to the Darwin International Airport. About 12 or so ultralights flew into controlled airspace, with permission from CASA (called an instrument), the blessing of the RAAF and the Darwin Airport Management.
We had one transponder and that aircraft was the lead aircraft and the remainder flew as a “gaggle” and landed on that monstrous 10,000 foot long runway at Darwin.
RAAF military police with their German shepherd dogs unlocked gates and let us push our aircraft (no live props) through onto the museum hardstand where one of the visitors to the museum open day asked me if my aeroplane still flew, suggesting that a museum was the right place for the plane.
I mention this for a number of reasons – It was a great fun event for someone who does not have a PPL and going as a group with those who do have a PPL and controlled airspace experience meant that I was learning correct behaviours and actually flying my plane in a way that didn’t endanger others.
When you read Zane’s article in the July issue of Sport Pilot about when you can and can’t fly into controlled airspace, this is one privileged event that we have enjoyed up here in Darwin. We know fully well that “No” is the standard response to entry into controlled airspace.
I also mention it because of perceptions. Some think that a drifter should be hanging like a wright brothers special in the ceiling of a museum… but many of us know that it is like an aerial trailbike, not really fast, but lots of fun and the closest thing to Harry Potter’s broomstick that my son or anyone might get to fly in. Is that an ultralight which is what it was called for many years? Is it a recreational aircraft? Is it a sports aircraft?
I call my drifter an ultralight because that is what I learned to fly in. calling it sport or recreation doesn’t make it any more safe or appropriate, but for the last 6 years at least my drifter hasn’t been an ultralight, it has been a recreational aircraft. So a name is simply a name and it is our mind set that will determine whether we are ultralighting, recreating or sporting.
As a board member, I should refer to our aircraft as a recreational aircraft and if I flew a Jabiru or a Texan then I reckon that would be a recreational aircraft and I would refer to it as that.
So as a pilot, am I a sport pilot because I fly an aerial motorbike? Am I a recreational pilot because I don’t derive income from my flying and fly wherever I feel like heading that day? Am I an ultralight pilot because that is what I have been doing since before the AUF came along?
I just think that I am a drifter pilot and I am quite proud of that and it would appear that a bunch of guys down at Boonah feel the same way.
So whatever kind of pilot you are, be a safe pilot.

This entry was posted on July 15, 2011 at 10:39 PM and has received 387 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.