14 | Pilot June 2018 | pilotweb.aero
Show Report: Popham Microlight Fair
Words & photos: Philip Whiteman
A brilliant weekend
I
n recent years this
great open-air trade
event has been
blighted by poor
weather: this time
round, for all three days−
the weekend fair and
Monday’s vintage fly-in
and classic car event−it
was ‘scorchio’, as The
Fast Show’s Euro channel
weather girl would have
put it.
“It was a bumper
weekend,” airfield
manager Mike Pearson
tells Pilot, “although it’s
aged me by ten years!
Nine hundred aircraft
visited, 500 of them on the
peak day, Saturday. It was
a job to park them all. We
had 5,300 people come
through the gate, not
counting the number who
flew in.”
Traders, many of whom
were offering special show
offers, expressed their
pleasure with how the
weekend had gone. All
this came on the back of
an especially good year for
the Hampshire airfield,
which according to Mike
Pearson has enjoyed the
biggest total of annual
movements since 1996
and seen a ten per cent
rise in income.
Not that he is planning to
relax, hosting a drone racing
weekend immediately
after the Microlight Fair
and formulating plans to
introduce charging points
for electric aircraft – an
‘even greener’ option than
the 91 ULG avgas already on
offer. Popham is on the up!Enjoying record high temperatures for May and some of the
best flying weather so far this year, the Microlight Fair left
traders and customers basking in a warm glowCLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE:
Skyranger Nynja, which
features composite
fuselage panels and
other aerodynamic
refinements; seminar on
the ULPower engine
delivered by Metal
Seagulls; new, top of the
range SEHT ANR
headset revealed – we
hope to test it soon; The
Gyrocopter Experience's
Magni line-up; visitors
enjoying the sun; and
Aircrew's prototype Pilot
Aware/ADS-B/Flarm-
driven Aircrew traffic
display/HSI/AI – the
projected price is £