ULSTER MICROLIGHT CENTRE

* Fixed wing instruction now available - see below *

Click on the pictures for a larger view. Last updated 29th Nov. 2004

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 Now a member of the Microlight Webring. See below.

The Ulster Microlight Centre is part of the Ulster Flying Club at Newtownards Airport. There are about twenty microlight members and about 15 microlights hangared at the club.

Training and Trial Flights.

News and Events.

The Aircraft.

Advice for Visitors

Crossing the Sea Hall of Fame

N.Ireland Waypoints

The British Microlight Aircraft Association

Visit the Xair 4 Stroke page 

Training and Trial Flights.

In the British Isles all microlight instructors have to be properly qualified. Gerry Snoddon, QFI of the Ulster Microlight Centre is one of this selected band. He started flying microlights in 1985 and since then has amassed thousands of hours flying and teaching time. There is no steadier hand to get you in the air, and now for fixed wing instruction we have QFI Ken Crompton. By the way, don't believe what you read on a certain other website that it is Ireland's only fixed-wing training centre. There are in fact several instructors in Ireland.

For flexwing tuition and trial flights, contact Gerry Snoddon. Ireland's most experienced microlight instructor. Or for fixed wing instruction (nosewheel or taildragger) contact Ken Crompton.

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News and Events 2004

November

At the end of the month, ten of us took the annual trip to the Airsports show in Telford. There were a few less stands than usual but a good time was had by all. The new Xair Hawk was there and you can find more details on my other page.

August

On the first good weekend for months, six of us from Newtownards and two from Slieve Croob took a trip to Sligo. This gave us a chance to land at the reopening airfield at Enniskillen. From here on we had a fantastic flight over Lower Lough Erne to Ballyshannon and down some spectacular coastline to Sligo airport at Strandtown. That evening we took a flight further down the coast and back up over the spectacular mountains. Photos later.

July

Gerry took his wife on their first microlight holiday to France. They also endured some very rough flying conditions.

Despite a long run of bad weather, five of us made it to the PFA Rally at Kemble and made it home through some very rough headwinds.

April

Despite a lot of wet weather there was an Easter weekend trip to Tracey's airstrip in Wexford.

Congratulations are due to Tracey Sludds on going solo in her flexwing. She is well on her way to becoming the first qualified female flexwing pilot in Ireland. Well done Tracey!

Saturday 17th January Gerry collected his new silver Quik from Barton airfield. It took only two and a half hours to fly it home to Newtownards.

2003

August

Ten microlights from our club made it to the Campbeltown vintage airshow in Scotland on 16th. With perfect weather it was a great day out, and for some of us it was our first Irish sea crossing. The next week four of us made the biggest trip ever from our club to Blois ULM (microlight) show in France. Full story here.

Here's a new page about last year's Oban trip here.

July

Six microlights from our club made it all the way to the PFA rally in Kemble.This was the furthest trip ever made from our club. Plans are afoot now to go back next month to Long Marsden and maybe France.

May

We planed a round Ireland trip for the bank holiday weekend, but the horrendous weather continued for weeks after Clonbullogue and the forecast was bad so the trip was posponed. Instead we headed for Donegal for the day on Sunday. At 11am ten microlights, including John North from West Lancashire Microlights, took off for Carrickfin in Donegal. After a lot of dodging around showers, some of us stopped off at Letterkenny for a break. As we took off again we saw the last shower before the sun came out as we were treated to the fantastic scenery of the north coast of Donegal. After a late lunch we set off again south down the coast over Ardara, St Johns point and Donegal town before heading home past Lower Lough Erne and Enniskillen.

The first big event of event of the year - Teddyfield at Clonbullogue has been successfully completed despite some horrendous weather. 10 flexwings and 2 fixed wing microlights arrived at Newtownard on Friday. We added 7 flexwings and 4 fixed wings to that number as 2 Kens, 2 Alans, Gerry, Victor, Pat, Mick, Chris, Reggie, Pat and Gordon took their planes. The wind was a bit fresh when we set off, but by the time we arrived at Clonbullogue the wind was 15 gusting 25 which made for some interesting landings. Conditions were in fact too extreme for parachuting jumping and Paul was very pleased to see 54 aircraft turn up by Saturday. Some well known names in microlighting, such as Chairman of the BMAA Chris Finnagan and round the world flyer Brian Milton flew in directly from England. After a great party on Saturday night, some set off into an even stronger headwind for Scotland via Kilkeel. The wind was forcast to die down in the afternoon and when it did, most got ready to go. Unfortunately by the time everyone was ready, the wind picked up again, so it wasn't a very pleasant trip back to Newtownards. Those that wern't in a hurry to get back, stayed on waiting for better weather. Monday though started out wet and remained with low cloud cover all day. The last planes finally got out on Tuesday afternoon.

2002

December

Well into winter flying and we are getting the odd Saturday or Sunday flight. Mike and William's BMW Xair is now flying and William has ordered a 912 Sky Ranger.

3rd October.

We've had the last weekday evening flight this Thursday, as the days are getting too short. Gerry brought back his new 582 Blade on Tuesday, arriving into some poor weather at home.

19th September.

Good weather has continued into September and this weekend 9 of us flew out to a model club meet at Dungannon. 19 microlights turned up and we were entertained by the 76 models on display and flying.

25th August.

Sunday turned out nice, so Chris (Shadow 912), Reggie (Thruster Jabiru) and myself (Xair Jabiru) set off for the Isle of Man. It took us 1 hour each way, with about 35 minutes over the sea.

19th-22nd August.

Summer arrives. Mike, Ken, Alan and William set off for a trip down south. They visited Abbeyshrule, Galway and the Aran Islands.

12th August.

After quite a few delays, Reggie's new Jabiru Thruster Sprint was finally ready. Our fixed wing instructor Ken went over to Oxford with him to help fly it home. With this dreadful summer weather they had to stopover in York and again at Carlisle on the way home, arriving back on Monday morning. That brings the Jabiru engine count at Newtownards up to five. As Reggie works for a film support company, sometimes doing stunts, you might see this Thruster turn up in a future movie!

22nd & 23rd June.

More than a dozen of us visited the PFA Rally in Cranfield and two PFA members flew their newly build planes there from Newtownards.

13th May.

We had a visit from Paul Dewhurst of the BMAA. He was over revalidating two of our fixed wing instructors. Both passed and Ken was uprated to QFI. Well done Ken! Afterwards, Paul gave the club a talk on competition flying and the 1^st World Air Games in Turkey 1997. He also showed us his slides from Sun and Fun in America.

At 4th& 5th May. Successful 1st big trip of the year.

After some contradictory forecasts, the weather did pick up and the big bank holiday fly-in to Clonbullogue (Teddyfield) was on. On Saturday morning, eleven Newtownards microlights, set off for the big event, followed by many more that had arrived in from England and Scotland. In common with most of these summer trips it was quite thermally and so was a bit heavy going. As Clonbullogue is a very busy parachute centre, most of us were held off for twenty minutes while all the parachutists landed. It all got a bit chaotic and worrying for some Thrusters flyers that were low on fuel. Everyone landed safely though, in a fairly tricky crosswind. Microlights from England and Scotland continued to arrive. Some had already traveled over on Friday and some like Big John Moore even flew directly to Ireland via Wales. Somewhere over the water his exhaust mount cracked, but due to safety springs and lockwireing, it wasn't going to come off. A local farmer was able to weld the mount back on. That wasn't the only mechanical problem. Jim, from our group, who had to go home on Saturday, found someone had stepped on his wingtip and broken the batten. After that was replaced he found a carburetor problem that had to be repaired. After that, he and Victor got home safely. They missed a great evenings entertainment. Local TV3 arrived and interviewed Paul and Sacha the organizers and big John. Instructors, Gerry and Ken took the some of the cameramen and reporters up for some aerial shots. After a cold night, Sunday dawned fine and most decided to start the long journey home. For us, we had a bit of bureaucratic nonsense, involving being banned from returning to N.Ireland, until Gerry got on the phone and talked a bit of sense into them. Don't we love rules and paperwork!

2001

22nd Sept. More trips to Scotland

Saturday turned out fine so Victor and Chris decided to join Joe on his trip to West Freugh. Joe was flying his VW powered homebuild PFA Menestrel. Chris was in his 912 Shadow and Victor was in his Mainair 528 F2 Alpha. On Sunday we had another visit from Trevor and Maureen who were last here in 1998. This year their Blade 912 is still stuck at their farmstrip due to Foot & Mouth, so they are on a driving tour of Ireland. While staying at Slieve Croob with Bob, they borrowed his machine for a little local flying.

25th Aug. 2001 - Big trip to Scotland.

This was a big weekend for our club, as Alan, Ken, William and Mike flew their Quantums (3 912's & 1 582) to Oban. They flew from Newtownards to Movenis and from there to a sea crossing from Ballycastle to the Mull of Kintyre and a quick stop at Campbeltown. From there it was on to the island of Gigha and then to Oban. Full story click here

15th July 2001 - Big Yorkshire weekend.

This weekend we had another visit from York Microlight Club. This time 7 aircraft made it, including Ben Ashman's old 462 Q that he flew to Jordan (this time flown by QFI John Teesdale). The others included a Quantum & Blade 582, 1 Blade 912, 2 Quantum 912's and an HKS Quantum. They set off on Saturday via St. Michaels (Blackpool), Kirkbride and West Freugh. On Sunday Gerry took them for a flight into Belfast City Airport. In the afternoon 11 of us took off from Newtownards for a flight down the coast to Bishopscourt. From there we routed down to St. John's point lighthouse and then inland to Jimmy's airstrip at Slieve Croob. We were joined there by Alan and the 12 of us set off for Killyleagh and up the west coast of Stranford Lough, over the Yacht clubs to Newtownards. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

Ideas for the future.

Some possibilities that have been talked about:

A tour round Ireland, a trip to the PFA rally.

Events 2000 - year of the celebrity visits.

Due to weather, there wasn't much in the way of flying events this year. The best we could do was Bellarena gliding club near Limavady. Still we had quite a big group and it was a fun day with a stop off at Movenis for lunch.

Line up at Bellarena, with Donegal in the background.

We had three of celebrity visits this year. First we had woman's world champion hanglider and paraglider pilot Judy Leden MBE. She holds the world record for the highest drop from a balloon in a hanglider (41,000 feet). You may have seen this on TV. She also flew a charity flight from England to Jordan in a microlight. The visit to the club was to borrow a microlight to do some filming for an advertisement. If you live in the Ulster television area, you will have seen this as a bunch of cheesy actors pretend that they can hanglide.

Gerry Snodden, Judy Leden and Pat Braniff

Off for an interesting flight, see below.

When she brought Pat's microlight back and re-riged it, the wind dropped completely and so she thought it would be a good opportunity for a quick flight round the local area. So they suited up and set off with Pat in command. Unfortunately the wind was only changing direction and shortly after they took off, the wind sock went straight out! It was an overcast and murky day and Pat was having trouble with his radio, so after a few minutes they were out of sight. After about 15 minutes we were getting a bit concerned so we called them up on radio, and got only silence. A long five minutes later they reappeared from the other side of Strangford Lough bouncing slowly towards runway 34. After a lot of swaying and bouncing and advice from the ground and a world class pilot in the back seat, Pat set her down very nicely, with a sigh of relief all round.

Shortly after this, round the world microlight pilot Brian Milton came over and gave a talk on his trip to the Ulster Aviation Society.

It was a fascinating evening and we were surprised how quickly three hours went in. We were invited to join Brian on part of his next adventure, crossing the Atlantic.

On Friday 20^th October the Club held a 'Wings Night' where all the new pilots were presented with their wings badge by round the world microlight pilot Colin Bodill. A great night was had by all. It was great honour to have Colin there, a quiet and unassuming man but an amazing pilot. During his trip took an interest in helicopters and afterwards gained a license in world record time of 5 days!

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The aircraft

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Alan Boyd in his Mainair Flash 2 Alpha 582

This is a CFM Shadow. One of 3 912 models built for Richard Branson. Owned by C. Robinson.

These are Xairs, a new heavier microlight kit in a category call SLA (Small light aircraft). The red one in the middle is the first in N.Ireland, built and owned by William McMinn. (not for sale!) It now has a BMW engine on it. The green one is my Jabiru powered model, the first four stroke version in N.Ireland.

Believe it or not this is also a microlight, a Murphy - Renegade Spirit. This one, BMW powered, was owned by Jim McMinn.

Slieve Croob BBQ. Pat approaching Newcastle.

Coney Island - as in the Van Morrison song.

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Advice for Visitors

By Air: N54 34.9498 W005 41.3502

Contact Belfast City Approach on 130.85 until you are about three miles from the aerodrome, then transfer to Newtownards Radio on 128.30 for airfield information. Runways are 22 (lefthand circuits) and 04 (righthand). Also available are runways 16 (lefthand) and 34 (also lefthand).

By Road:

The main entrance to the airport is on the Portaferry Road, Newtownards. As you drive in you will see straight ahead, the main hangars and the microlight caravan. Flying takes place most weekends and often on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Call in and see us.

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'Crossing the Irish Sea' Hall of Fame

This is a new section devoted to those brave enough to fly across the Irish Sea and land at Newtownards. Below is the list of visitors that I know of. More detail later.

From York Microlight Club, July 98:

Andy Walmsley in a Gemini 582 G-MYOM

Dermot Boylan in a Mercury 503 G-MYDC

And Stuart Barkworth in a Pegasus Q G-MVHO

Trevor and Maureen in their Blade 912 G-MZMD Aug 98.

From London, John Lloyd (G-MZAP) from Hunsdon MC in a Blade 912. Aug.2000

Shadow and Pegasus flexwing on Pooleys day 2000

From York Microlight Club, July 2001:

Quantums 912 G-BZDS & G-BZSX

Blade 912 G-CBAD & 582 G-BZEL

Quantum HKS G-MZMF & 582 G-MYMC

Pegasus Q 462 G-MYBW 

And going the other direction from our club.

Twice now : C.Robinson in his 582 Shadow and now in his 912 Shadow.

Alan,Ken & William in Quantum 912's with Mike in a Quantum 582.

Victor in a Mainair 582 F2 Alpha and his new Blade 912

Gerry Snodden in his 582 Blade and 912s Quik.

Ken Crompton and Reggie Blaine in a Thruster Sprint Jabiru.

Gordon Craig (Xair Jabiru), Colin (582 Quantum), Pat Brannif (582 Flash 2), Alan Lindsay (582 Blade).

First to land on Rathlin Island and first flexwing from N.Ireland to the Isle of Man - W.McMinn in a Quantum 582.

First fixed wing microlights from N.Ireland to the Isle of Man - C.Robinson (Shadow 912), Reggie Blaine (Thruster Sprint Jabiru) and Gordon Craig (Xair Jabiru).

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N.Ireland Waypoints.

Here are some waypoints for flying in the local area.

Make sure your GPS is set to DD MM.MMM, i.e. degrees and minutes. Note: there are usually 3 variations of degree settings, if you enter waypoints in the wrong one you may be up to 30 miles out!

Here's the Irish airfields in Microsoft Autoroute Europe 2000 format click here

And in Microsoft Autoroute Europe 1998 format click here

And UK microlight sites UK airfields in 2000 format.

Here's the French airfields which accept microlights:-

2000 format click here and 1998 format click here

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