6. At what altitude can a microlight fly?

Outside take-off and landing procedures, the regulations require a minimum height above the ground, away from any artificial obstacle or gathering of people, of 500 feet (approx. 150 m). The nature of the 'obstacles' overflown (factory, built-up area, gathering of people, etc.) leads to specific minimum overflight heights.

The maximum regulatory altitude is 19 500 feet (approx. 5 950 m).

In practice, the ceiling depends on the qualities of the machine: the higher you go, the thinner the air, and therefore the less able it is to "carry" the aircraft, which must then develop more power to keep climbing. Given its power and wing area, each aircraft thus has a "theoretical ceiling", often between 4000 m and 5000 m, at which it no longer climbs. This limit is more than sufficient for our form of aviation.

Most microlights fly between 300 m and 1500 m above the ground, a height that lets you make the most of the scenery.