JEDDAH, 12 December 2002 — Nothing in fact stood between my un-aerodynamic body and an expanse of extremely unwelcoming and very unyielding ground a thousand feet below. Nothing except a large plastic bucket suspended under a small tent and powered by a lawnmower engine. It couldn’t possibly last. Tents were never meant to fly. Flying is what birds do. Air travel is what humans do, in comfortable seats surrounded by millions of dollars of the best engineering money can provide; all the important bits have “Rolls Royce” written on them.
It was interesting though. The youthful pilot seemed entirely optimistic, at ease, even enjoying himself. As panic subsided, I began to think that flying in a microlight aircraft must be as close as we can get to an understanding of how early aviators felt when they left perfectly safe ground and soared into an unknown element with their untried technology. After a few minutes, however, enjoyment began and then, quite unbidden, grew.
A microlight really is a very small aircraft, little more than a hang-glider with an engine. A huge plus is the fact it is a glider and so can land, even without power. Capt. Samih Janakat, general director of the Royal Air Sports Club of Jordan, demonstrated that by cutting the engine and landing very neatly in just a few meters. I could admire that, even enjoy the display of skill; I was not in the passenger seat.
A microlight aircraft has a take-off weight of only 450 kilograms plus a wingspan of about six meters. The lightweight body is attached to the fragile-looking wing by a single bolt. “No,” Capt. Janakat calmed me, “they don’t break. The bolts are changed every few flying hours, checked before every flight and have a shear strength of over ten tons.” Reassuringly, that is 20 times the take-off weight. Even so, it was an act of prodigious self-control not to reach up and tweak the thing, just to make sure.
Microlight aircraft are very new to Saudi Arabia. They were first seen here two years ago at two one-week exhibitions in Madinah and Taif. Capt. Janakat flew the machine then and is in the Kingdom now, with a team of Hungarian pilots and 11 microlights.
On Capt. Janakat’s previous visit, Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed saw the aircraft and was greatly impressed. This year, the return in force is his contribution to the Eid festivities in Jeddah. The team of pilots is mounting displays of formation and general flying to show the public the aircraft’s potential. For a modest fee, members of the public can sit in the passenger seat and be flown over Jeddah by an experienced pilot and look at the city as never before.
The aircraft are a great attraction. Children, with no intimations of mortality and seemingly oblivious to the laws of physics and gravity, form animated queues to get themselves taken up. Parents seemed, very wisely in my view, to adopt a more cautious approach. The pilots, with commendable professional detachment, simply assess the extra take-off weight with a critical eye, calculating wind speed and climb rate. And, I ascertained, checking the bolt.
Laszlo Toth, a Hungarian ex-military pilot, put the flying team together. With hundreds of hours in aircraft as diverse as gliders and supersonic MiG fighters, his whole adult life has been spent flying. Already working in the Kingdom, he missed flying on a regular basis and this prompted him to speculate starting a flying club. In spite of many difficulties, he persevered. “I was told that there was no chance but when I went to the authorities with detailed proposals, I was surprised and very pleased with the positive response I got.”
Maj. Mubarak Al-Swilime was part of that response. Instrumental in overcoming the small mountains of paperwork and permissions, he put together the formal structure that became the fledgling Jeddah Aviation Club.
“We had to obtain approval from quite a number of different authorities,” he explained, “so we coopted delegates from all the interested agencies onto a representative committee and put them to work.”
And work they did, very enthusiastically. In a few months they were able to put together the first Saudi skydiving course and obtain recognition of the club from the FAI, the international body which governs all aerial activity.
Activities started last April with the first paragliding course. A cross between parachuting and hangliding, paragliding involves flying on updrafts of warm air while suspended below a steerable wing-shaped parachute.
Currently the team is flying until Dec. 20 from the temporary site of the Jeddah Aviation Club on Al-Malek Street. Reminiscent of the early days of the Old Jeddah Airport, with rolled sand airstrip, generators and tents, the site is perfectly adequate for the minimal requirements of microlights. It is enough also for having achieved a world first. The team is the first to fly microlights with public passengers at night. To see Jeddah spread out below, adorned and decorated with lights, is an experience worth having. It is simply stunning.
When not actually flying, very fit-looking pilots in jumpsuits sit in the holding area discussing meteorology and flying conditions. They must be fit because the aircraft is controlled by moving a horizontal bar which in turn moves the entire wing: All done purely by muscle power. On a breezy day, that involves a combination of real effort and precision.
Zsolt Petroszki and Adrian Mahaovics, whose combined age of 56 includes flying for 26 years, are thoroughly enjoying themselves flying over Jeddah. “It’s a good and safe place to fly,” Adrian said. “The weather is predictable and the terrain, because it is flat and near the sea, doesn’t provide too much turbulence. It’s an ideal spot.”
Will the concept of aero-sport catch on in the Kingdom?
Maj. Mubarak thinks it has great potential. “This Eid, the response has been very encouraging indeed. There has been a tremendous interest. When we finish, we will analyze the results and make some decisions based on that. Right now, the outlook seems very good.”
Judging by the queues of people waiting to fly, the crowds arriving to see and the fun to be had almost hovering over Jeddah in a microlight, Maj. Mubarak has a busy future ahead of him. All right, yes; fun.
