The microlight flying school and club at Popham Airfield, HampshireGift and experience flights - trial lessonsTreat your loved ones (or yourself!) to the most exhilarating experience of your life... A flight in a fast, modern ultralight plane! It's a real blast and it's much more than just a pleasure flight - you get to do the flying yourself, under the careful supervision of an experienced flying instructor! Read more about our trial flying lessons and when you're ready to take the plunge, you can buy your flight securely online or call us 7 days a week on 0845 130 9676. | What they say...Brilliant fun. Best birthday present ever! Andy, Surrey, 2007 I couldn't believe how stable and comfortable the plane was! Fantastic views, the whole world looked different! Chris, Dorset, 2007 I've flown in light aircraft before and found it a bit dull but this was breathtaking! As soon as I've got the money, I'll be back for more! Alex, Herts, 2007 Efficient, professional and very friendly with an outstanding emphasis on safety and fun. I signed up right away and I've been flying with Airbourne for 2 years now with no complaints at all, not even a grumble. Rob, Hampshire, 2008 The instructors at Popham train to an extremely high standard and the whole setup exudes confidence and professionalism. Steph, Hampshire, 2008 Been flying with us? Tell us what you think! email us or use our forums. |
 Our microlights offer inexpensive, fun flying with spacious heated cockpits, comfy seats and outstanding handling - and they're quite competent tourers, too, capable of carrying two average men (with luggage) to northern France in a single leg at speeds that rival or exceed most typical flying club rental aircraft. Incredible STOL performance opens up a whole new world of farm strip flying, with 300+ fields in the UK alone (and thousands more across Europe) that are extremely challenging, if not completely inaccessible to most typical GA aircraft. You can fly our aircraft for just £42 per hour, wet, on your existing SEP licence, usually just with appropriate differences training (see LASORS or speak to us to clarify the specific requirements relating to your licence). It's hard to believe, so what's the catch? Well, there's no catch, but there are some things you need to know: They're two seaters, they aren't certified for flight in IMC or at night and because they're legally restricted to 450kg MAUW, you'll need to be a bit careful with the luggage! Why not give us a call (0845 130 9676) or pay us a visit and see what our fleet can do? We guarantee you'll be impressed!  We've been training confident, safe pilots since 1980 so it's fair to say we know what we're doing! But the club's contribution to your flying doesn't stop once you get your PPL. In fact, that's just the beginning! We really go the extra mile to help our pilots make the most of their hard earned licence and here's how: - - Organised fly-outs for students and qualified pilots alike
- - A "club coaching" scheme encourages experienced pilots to take new PPLs "under their wing" (so to speak) as they build confidence and undertake more adventurous flights
- - Our online "buddy flying" system helps pilots pair up and halve the cost of flying.
- - Regular, organised fly-outs and social events encourage our members and their families to get to know each other socially. Impromptu visits to the pub after flying are a very regular occurrence!
As you'd expect, we've also got great facilities: Access to three well furnished, air conditioned club rooms for flight planning, pilot briefing or just watching TV. Popham's fantastic cafe is open from 8AM - 4.30PM, 7 days a week, with hot food available at weekends. Broadband internet access is available for free, either via WiFi or though terminals in our clubroom. Parking is free and children are very welcome, as are pets. And we're easy to get to - by road, rail or air.  Microlight aircraft really have moved on a lot in recent years. In fact, many of today's microlights are more capable, in terms of speed, reliability and endurance, than the typical American "group A" aircraft! And they're a lot more fun to fly. We operate a fleet of nine aircraft: 6 Ikarus C42s, 2 Eurostars (all capable of cruise speeds in excess of 100MPH, with 4+ hours endurance) and a Thruster T600N. Our fleet are equally comfortably operating from rough 300m farm strips as they are from 3000m of tarmac so with many thousands of accessible airstrips across Europe, you'll never run out of places to visit. Our modern, high performance Rotax engines are as easy on the environment as they are on your bank balance: They burn normal unleaded petrol rather than Avgas, they're about four times more fuel-efficient than typical GA training aircraft and they're so quiet that people on the ground won't even know you're there! Of course, the fleet is maintained to the very highest standards by our vastly experienced full time engineer, so availability is never a problem.  Training pilots is our business and we have a large team of dedicated instructors who are absolutely committed to ensuring that you finish your training not just with a licence, but with the confidence and skill to make the most of it. We currently have five full time instructors from a variety of military and civilian aviation backgrounds and several part time instructors. They're all vastly experienced pilots and true aviation enthusiasts who instruct because they love flying and love teaching others to fly. Two of our instructors are also qualified examiners.  Owning or renting an aeroplane is a costly business which is why our share scheme, which we've been operating for many years now, is such a success. When you buy a share in one of our aircraft, you'll have free access to our entire fleet - so you can just turn up at the airfield and get into a clean, perfectly maintained, fully insured aeroplane and go flying, at cost price, with none of the expense and hassle associated with aircraft ownership. Touring is actively encouraged and you can take an aeroplane away for a whole day, overnight or even longer. We also provide full safety equipment for cross-channel adventures. Availability is fantastic: Even though we're a very busy training school, we carefully balance the needs of students and qualified PPLs to ensure that we have sufficient aircraft to meet demand. In fact, if you just turn up we can usually find you an aeroplane, although we strongly recommend advance booking to avoid disappointment. And if you decide you want to leave the syndicate for any reason, we'll buy the share back from you!  We're open seven days a week, all year round apart from two days (guess which ones) from dawn until dusk (or 8PM during the summer, which is when the airfield closes). As long as the weather's okay, we're flying - and on that note, we think it's important to give our students the confidence to handle marginal conditions, so we're not afraid of a bit of bad weather either (as long as it's safe, legal and beneficial at your stage of training). And when the weather's really terrible, our state of the art simulator helps to keep your training on schedule.
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