Francis Donaldson

How did you get into aviation?

When I was growing up, my father and older brother were into making model aeroplanes. I followed suit and we’d spend most Sundays flying them at the local club site. My father loved to make things – a boat, kit cars, electronics – so having had my own toolkit from the age of about four, becoming interested in homebuilt full-size aircraft came very naturally. 

How did your flight training go?

At 14, I took a week-long gliding course, and having built and flown many R/C models, the actual flying, done on open cockpit Slingsby T.21 gliders, seemed plain sailing. I was much more worried by taking my turn driving the tractor that towed the gliders around – and very relieved they never asked me to be the winch driver.

“In 20 years or so I think we’ll find that electric power will probably be the norm”

Aged 25, although living in Salisbury, I trained for my PPL at Cranfield where a quirky club offered initial training in an old Auster, a basic non-radio taildragger. You had to hand-swing the prop and manage with brakes that hardly worked, with the instructor shouting in your ear. For me, it was a chance to learn to fly in the fashion of the 1930s, and after that, I never felt intimidated by modern stuff.

Any nerves for your first solo?

No, I wasn’t nervous. Provided the engine kept going (which was someone else’s responsibility) I was sure I could get round the airfield and down again in one piece. I was more concerned about not getting in anybody’s way – Cranfield was very busy in those days with circuits in both directions as well as gliders, balloons and vintage jets.

Learning cross-country flying was much more of a challenge in those pre-GPS days. My biggest fear was getting lost. Navigating by map, watch and compass, things can soon get very confusing, with the potential ignominy of barging into controlled airspace or having to land in a field to ask the way. But we managed!

As LAA’s CE for 30 years, what are you most proud of?

The fleet size has grown from 600 to nearly 3,000, we’ve cleared a huge number of new designs that can be built and the scope has widened to include much bigger, more powerful and sophisticated aircraft which we’d never have imagined early on. And we’ve kept the support going for people who want to build and fly very simple entry-level aircraft, and even helped a few people to design their own.

Most importantly, our fleet’s safety performance has constantly moved in the right direction despite the diversity in the types of aircraft, and many are seeing much greater annual utilisation than in days gone by.

What makes a successful kitplane design?

There’s no best design, it all depends on what you want the aeroplane for. Something intended for unlimited aerobatics probably wouldn’t be suitable for touring. Something that’s really slick and fast will cost an arm and a leg and won’t be much use on a farm strip. The RVs, which are far and away the most numerically successful designs, succeed because of their excellent compromise between all these aspects.

Thoughts about LAA’s future?

In 20 years or so I think we’ll find that electric power will probably be the norm, rather than the exception. I hope this will provide a lot of interesting scope for experimentation by amateur builders. Maybe, as in the 1970s, when Burt Rutan revolutionised the scene with his composite canards, we’ll find 3D printing or some other technology that will give us aeroplanes that are quite different to anything we’ve seen before!

What do you most love about aviation?

I’m fascinated by the way aircraft are designed and made. They have to be easily built, fun to fly, and be easy to maintain – it’s wonderful how designers use different approaches and materials to achieve those same goals. Some are hand-crafted, others factory-moulded. For me, the best way to end the week is with 15 minutes of aerobatics in an open cockpit biplane. And I love the smell of sawdust and glue when I open the door of my workshop.