Adrenalin junkie
One Paphos-based microlight pilot has just completed a five-day marathon from the UK to Cyprus to raise money for charity
‘At his age, he really should know better’ is a phrase Dave Armstrong, now 71, has long been familiar with as he continues to seek adrenalin rushes that would overwhelm many men half his age.
Born and brought up in London, Dave retired from his successful printing business ten years ago to settle in the village of Tala, not a place that exactly jumps with activity. As a younger man, Dave was fascinated by speed, and competing in long distance go karting became his first passion, until he broke a hip during one race. He than moved on to horse riding, but that utterly failed to get his adrenalin pumping. “I rode with a hunt and thought at first this would be great fun but to be honest it was nothing like you see in the movies or on TV, it was, in the end, just an excuse for a p..s up, so I then took up roller-skating, learnt how to ski, then I went scuba diving and then it was playing golf.”
Not a game exactly renowned for the fast acceleration of adrenalin levels, so Dave decided, in 1998, at the age of 62 that perhaps flying a microlight would do what golf, skiing, hunting on horseback and deep sea diving had failed to give him – intense excitement, raw fear, huge challenges and a grand sense of personal achievement.
So, when his neighbours are put putting around their gardens with their lawnmowers, Dave can be seen loading his own flying motor mower onto his trailer to drive to the airport where, with no fragile wings and lots of prayers, he will take to the skies.
Piloting a microlight has often been disparagingly described as akin to flying a lawnmower, but, these small but perfectly formed engines have proved to be remarkably strong, and coupled with their relatively slow flying speeds, low inertia, along with the craft’s unique ability to land and take off in small spaces, makes the microlight not only one of the safest forms of recreational flying, its also a hobby which doesn’t have to cost a fortune to enjoy.
But what happens if the engine quits? “It goes nice and quiet and it’s an instant conversion to a glider.” The design of the craft has been developed from hand-gliders but, some of these babies can and do travel as fast as 175mph, with the average speed for a basic model being between 40 and 80mph.
They are light, which means pros and cons, as Dave explained: “Being light means we are more subject to the vagaries of the weather, we can’t go up in strong winds, and there’s not much body protection from the elements so you are some what exposed if a freak storm hits you, although we wear protective all weather suits and helmets, especially on long trips.”
Dave has just completed a long trip of his own to raise money for disadvantaged children here in Paphos. “Our start point was England, then we flew through France, Italy, Corfu, and Rhodes and down to Paphos, with the flying shared along the way with my co-pilot Jay Madhvani. At first glance people do consider it a rather small fragile craft but we have satellite navigation, air charts, all the equipment needed to pilot safely through countries. Of course there’s no facilities on board so you have to watch your fluid intake, and it’s a bit cramped but, it’s a marvelous feeling being up there, it’s the closest sensation one will ever get to a bird in flight, and, like a bird, we can and do have the ability to land almost anywhere if there is a problem.”
And what were the hairiest moments of his recent five-day marathon journey?
“Landing at Megara (Athens), we had a prediction of wind speeds of 10 knots which was acceptable, but when we got there it had swiftly changed to a speed of 30 knots which wasn’t at all acceptable. Our craft was fully laden and we tried to land as best we could but the bouncing was something else that, combined with by the fact that we slewed off the runway and the wind was so strong when we exited the plane, we had to use all our strength to hold the machine down on the ground. That was defiantly one of our more highly fuelled adrenalin moments.”
And the qualifications needed to fly a microlight are?
“Like everyone else in this Paphos-based club, I am a qualified pilot and have always treated the whole business of flying very seriously. Although it is a fun thing to do, it’s also key that you also know what you are doing; the difference flying a microlight compared to a standard small aircraft is you are so much more in touch with the machine that you can feel everything that is going on, both good and bad.
So is one cross country marathon enough? “I doubt very much if there will be another one as long as this one, if I did sign up for another, I’m sure as hell my dear wife would swiftly divorce me, so, for the time being I will stay well within Cyprus airspace.”
I left Dave browsing through his pilot’s log book, recording memories of trips over to Beirut, of his many European jaunts, all logged and recorded for posterity, but, something tells me this mature adrenalin junkie won’t be seen at the local crown green bowling club any day soon.
