Oh, don’t worry – he overhauled that engine, installed an electrical system, built a heating system – and i am sure it’s as reliable as my IO-550…. He’s a great technician and he’s also building another single seater (forget the name but one of those tiny racers from the 30s with a Walter engine!)
I know it’s an extreme example, but there’s many guys like him – with J-3s, L-4s and other slow planes. Flying is much more than doing the PPL and flying long legs on A/P …
don’t forget the IR 
I think this noob has chosen the right forum – the discussion is balanced and pragmatic………
Jamie welcome and a really interesting debate. Jan is there the equivalent of Annex II Permit to Fly in Belgium? A nice Vagabond/Chieftain/Luscombe doesn’t cost much to buy or maintain, although you would need hangarage. 75 knots and 4 usgph, 85 knots for the Luscombe.
Sorry, Robert, it’s a very good question but I’ve no idea really. Would have to look it up in the AIP I reckon.
If such a regime is available, though, it must be less attractive than the UK one, as I know at least one owner struggling to keep his Auster on the G-reg.
There are some warbirds on the OO-registry, that does seem to point in the right direction – but at what conditions?
I have flown GLD/TMG/UL for almost 20 years before jumping he PPL ship. I know many people moving from UL to certified world and only few guys going opposote direction. Cost of UL is lower but you need to compare apples to apples. Low cost slow fabric UL can be easily 1/5 of fully loaded TKS Sr-22. What counts is your mission. If going after local burger runs within 100 km and you and all your friends are 60-65 kgs boot including – go for advanced UL. And you get almost the same experience for half the cost. If your ambitious are higher – get PPL,don’t waste money on half step.
Microlight time doesn’t count towards SEP revalidation even though you can fly microlights on an SEP rating after differences training. The LAPL doesn’t have ratings it has privileges and all gets complicated vey quickly, SSEA is just the UK equivalent of SEP for national licences.
you can fly microlights on an SEP rating after differences training
In which countries?
To the best of my knowledge, in Poland that is the case (allowed to fly ultralight planes with a PPL(A)/SEP(L)). That’s my version and I’m sticking to it ;)
One more argument to think about, since it hasn’t been mentioned yet: The only ICAO compliant licence is the PPL. You may not intend to use that now, but if you want to fly during a vacation in the US or South Africa, you need a PPL conforming to ICAO standards to validate. The LAPL is an EASA only invention and not internationally recognized, and obviously a microlight licence isn’t even standardized on the European level.
