Microlight: Flying the Pioneer 200

Learning to fly the popular Pioneer 200 Microlight recreational aircraft in New Zealand.

Peter Randall is a dairy farmer near Dargaville in Northland, New Zealand. His recreation, the thing that relaxes him, is flying his own Pioneer 200 microlight.

Catching the flying bug

Peter, 65, completed his agricultural training at Shuttleworth Agricultural College in England. On the same site a collection of vintage planes was housed and it was this collection that caused him to catch the flying bug.

 

Pioneer 200 Microlight

His diminutive two-seat Pioneer 200 weighs approximately the same as one of his bovine dairy animals, and he easily pushes it out of its shed by himself. The microlight can stay in the air for three hours at 200 km per hour on a full tank, which holds 15 litres. It’s sufficient to get Peter and his wife 600 km non-stop.

From the home farm in Northland, the small aircraft has carried the couple to Ashburton, more than halfway down the South Island, with two stops to refuel. Aiming directly south along the coast, Raglan, a four-and-a-half-hour drive takes only an hour, and Whangarei, a 45-minute drive, takes 15 minutes. The Randalls frequently join their daughters for lunch in North Auckland in just 35 minutes, and then in the afternoon make the return flight to the farm.

Flying is safer than motorbike riding

Peter says flying is much safer than motorbike riding and is more relaxing than driving. For him it is pure recreation. The couple join fly-ins in different parts of NZ, including the popular Black Sands fly-in at the Raglan Aero Club. The Raglan club organises competitions and opportunities to land on the beach. At a recent Black Sands fly-in over 30 planes put down on the beach while a minimum 50 more landed on the strip.

Instrument panel Pioneer 200 Microlight – Photo Theresa Sjoquist

Microlight class

Microlights have a maximum two-person capacity and have visual flying only rating. The class microlight is qualified by weight, and a 38 knot stall speed. A private pilot’s licence is required for larger craft, but Peter says microlights are now so advanced that the recreation-only flyer simply doesn’t need anything larger. The Pioneer 200 features a constant speed prop, something many larger Cessnas don’t have.

Peter Randall pushes his Microlight Pioneer 200 back into the shed – Photo Theresa Sjoquist

Learn to fly

Peter got his flight training at Dargaville Aero Club where Murray Foster, who is training officer for the area, provides free theory tuition. Hireage of an aircraft is $100 an hour and at that price, learner pilots attend for training from every corner of New Zealand. They can also sit all their exams at Dargaville. Peter achieved his solo licence after just eight hours of training. The full licence took 35 hours. In New Zealand, the medical check-up to qualify for a microlight licence utilises the same criteria as that for a heavy traffic licence.

The runway on the Randall’s dairy farm, Dargaville, New Zealand – Photo Theresa Sjoquist

Peter accommodates his Pioneer 200 microlight in a reconstructed cowshed on the farm and counted himself lucky to have sufficient level land without any bends in it for the required 400 metres of runway to launch his aircraft.

 

Copyright