Microlights at 600 kg? No! 200% microlight? Yes!

Season 202217 February 20222 min read

Last year the Federation successfully celebrated its fortieth anniversary at the Mondial de l’ULM, which was 100% microlight. Our regulations have gone through three changes, one in 1981, one in 1998, and the most recent dates from 2019.

It fully preserves the declaratory system for microlights, halfway between aviation and free flight. It is an original and recognised system, with 6 classes of machine. In 2021 the Federation passed 16 150 members. The flight safety trend is good. Affiliations are numerous. We are the leading country in Europe for the number of machines and pilots. Nothing prevents flying abroad, with equivalences and well-established procedures that can be improved if necessary. Despite this obvious success, a section of the aviation press (more heavyweight than ultralight) periodically tries to impose a vision of the microlight at 600 kg that we do not want.

Who is “we”? The majority of microlight pilots, club presidents and instructors, but also French manufacturers and equipment makers, and above all our authorities. So, once and for all, it would be healthy if certain go-betweens, often importers of foreign machines that are not necessarily heavy but rather expensive, stopped their constant lobbying, which rests on no particular legitimacy other than the lure of profit.

Microlights at 600 kg? No! 200% microlight? Yes!

Not only do we not want to make the regulations more complex at the top end with heavier machines, we want to simplify them at the bottom end with lighter single-seat machines by simplifying approval. We are working on this with the DGAC. We know what we stand to lose by joining a unified European microlight system: more constraints on pilots, more constraints on maintenance and innovation. We also know that the constraints on energy and the social acceptability of aviation are very favourable to the kind of microlighting we defend: accessible, innovative fun for all tastes within a reasoned and recognised framework. This does not stop those who can afford it from treating themselves, and it does not stop aeroplane clubs from creating microlight sections affiliated to the Federation, but let us not be clever with a hybrid set of rules that will satisfy nobody. There is room for everyone: light certified aircraft and microlights.

The challenge of developing our activities is not a regulatory one. It is mainly a matter of the resources we put into training: for mechanics, for pilots, for our club instructors, for our federal officials and structure presidents. It is also linked to defending and creating our microlight airfields. And it is driven by the reach of our sporting activities. In short, let us all work together to bring the right solutions to the real problem, with the legitimacy and effectiveness required, without ideology but with pragmatism.

At the first MULM, 100%, you saw new machines that had travelled a long way. The second edition of the MULM will be 200% microlight, with ever more paramotors and French and foreign machines in every class, for everyone’s enjoyment.

Happy flying to you all.