In a guest post The Microlight Flyer informs us about the very bright prospects of the Jaipur public being able to own and fly their own ultralight crafts for recreation or use in their business in the very near future .
Autogyro, a 2 seat, rotary wing, multi-utility, light sport aircraft, popular in the U. S., Europe, South Africa and Australia is now all set to be introduced in Indian aircraft market also. Though it resembles a helicopter in having a rotor at the top but in fact it is an aircraft in which the fixed wing is repalced by a rotating wing. Historically speaking, Autogyro even predates the helicopter, as it was invented by Juan de Cierva, a spanish civil engineer in the year 1920.
The Autogyro and the Microlights shall be priced in the range of 35 to 45 lacs depending upon the price and performance of the aircraft.
The company also plans to open up a flying school on the Microlight Airfield so that training for Pilot License (Microlight) can be imparted to the would be purchasers of the microlights. This training school shall be the first of its kind in Asia for imparting training on Autogyros.
The Company plans to display the Super Genie Autogyro and Phantom-MKI, a high performance Microlight at the Hyderabad Air show to be held in October 2008 where demonstration flights would be undertaken in full view of the public.
Vibhooti Singh Deora, CEO of the Company says that their first microlight should roll out within three months of the completion of certification process by the DGCA, and probably that shall happen by the beginning of May 2009. According to the Company, marketing for these aircrafts shall not be problem because the prices are almost equivalent to most of the luxury sedans available in India with fuel average even better than those. Therefore looking at the economics of the aircrafts the Indian market is all set to accept them. More than 100 registrations for these microlights have already been done most of which are from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, New Delhi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Chennai, Shirdi and Rajasthan. According to Deora, many people have approached them and inquiries have been pouring in, the response is positive not only due to the low price of aircraft but also because in this way luxury car owners would now be able to fulfill their dream of becoming aircraft owners.
Though the concept is quite new to India but there is a possibility that Autogyros could get a better response in comparison to the microlights. One of the most distinguishing feature of the Super Genie Autogyro is that it is an inherently stable, safe and crash-less aircraft, i.e. even in case of a mid-air engine failure, it would land easily and safely with the help of its auto-rotating main rotor.
The other feature which distinguishes Super Genie from other aircraft is that it can fly as slow as 30 kilometers per hour, a speed at which other aircraft would lose lift, stall and fall to the ground like stones. Though the Super Genie can fly stably and continuously even at a height of just 6 inches above the ground, it can even go upto the height of 10,000 feet.
The Super Genie is 4 meters long, weighs 248 Kg., has a single 100 hp 4-stroke engine in pusher propeller configuration at the back, providing it the thrust required to move in the forward direction. The single non-powered free rotating rotor on the top acts like a rotating wing and provides continuous lift to the Autogyro. Super Genie does not need a runway but just 5 to 10 meters of hard surface or grass for take-off. According to the Company, their Autogyro consumes approximately 13 to 16 liters of MOGAS per hour (not 100LL AVGAS) and with just 60 liters, it can fly 600 kilometers non-stop at a cruising speed of 150 kilometers per hour.
Presently Autogyros are being used in Europe, the U. S., South Africa and Australia for pipeline and canal inspections, forest and highway patrolling, border surveillance, agriculture crop spraying, aerial survey and photography, sports and recreation.
This Jaipur! 
Hi, is there any microlight pilot training facility in banglore or any other place i need there adress and contact no expesialy in banglore
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Hi, i finished my 10th standard and i joined the course diploma in computer engineering i completed the course but i was unable to get the degree certificate can i become a ultralight aircraft pilot with my 10th standard. i need to know wether there is any ultralight pilot training centre in and around tamil nadu and i need there details.
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Hi, Anand, my suggestion would be that it you’d better do a PPL and become a full fledged pilot instead of becoming just an ultralight pilot. After getting a PPL you can fly both ultralight as well a conventional aircraft whereas after doing PL(Microlight), you can only fly ultralights/ microlights and to convert to a conventional aircraft (PPL) you’ll still have to do minimum 50 hours. So this seems to be an expensive proposition.
As the sale of microlights increases in India, there is going to be a surge in demand for microlight pilots. Being a PPL holder you’ve better prospects because someday if your employer thinks of graduating from microlight to conventional aircraft, he won’t have to employ another pilot, you will be capable of doing both. Therefore in my personal opinion PPL presents better prospects than PL(M).
Moreover there are so many flying schools spread all across India, who provide PPL training, find one and join. You may become a pilot in the next six months or so. So from now on be on the lookout for a good flying school and not a microlight flying school, because not many exist in India.
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I wanted to thank you for this great blog!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
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