7 October 2022
“The Light Sport Microlight sector is thriving, it really is.” Those are the words of the CEO of the British Microlight Aircraft Association (BMAA) Rob Hughes during the FLYER Livestream on Thursday, 6 October.
Rob was on the show to talk about the article published last week on FLYER called ‘How Not To Buy An Aircraft’ – the story of a new 600kg microlight TL Stream aircraft that’s been sitting unused in a hangar for the past 18 months.
Although there have been issues with gaining approvals, Rob is confident that the BMAA and CAA are now beginning to work their way through the processes.
Rob said, “There’s been three new company approvals since 19 August 2021 when the 600kg category came into law. Eleven new microlight variants and 39 new light sport microlights registered and flying on permits, all on the BMAA [register] at the moment.
“That’s 39 new aircraft which weren’t flying before. We think that’s around £3.5m worth of sales.”
“We’ve also added a 22.5kg ‘Payload Mod’ for certain 450kg microlights and 180 of those have been processed,” continued Rob. “It’s particularly for Skyranger and Ikarus C42 [aircraft] which were limited to 450kg but can now enjoy 472.5kg, thanks to this law.
“At the moment we have around one in seven BMAA aircraft in the Light Sport Microlight category so, look beyond the Stream, and LSMs have been a huge success… and there’s more in the pipeline.
“Eurofox is bringing out another variant. Skyleader and Ellipse are next. Recently the Shark has been announced with The Light Aircraft Company in Norfolk, and we are working with many others.”
However, Rob admits it’s taken time.
“It’s a learning process for everybody,” he says in the video. “We’ve been learning, the CAA has been learning and so has the LAA. And also the manufacturers as they come into the market.
“The further along we go on this path, the quicker and easier it’s going to become to approve these aircraft and we see a whole load more coming.
“It’s really, really good news for aviation, for British industry and, of course, for microlighting.”
