Microlights (over Pagham Harbour)
I have never quite had the nerve to fly solo in a microlight. On those few occasions when I have taken the controls of a two-man machine I have found it difficult to stop it from entering a spiral dive...
Whenever I fly I find myself fascinated by the separation between the world of the air and the world below. To the people on the ground the plane is just an inanimate thing - possibly an annoying thing - travelling across the sky. But to the pilot the ground is a place from which he has escaped; and the people down there look like ants rushing about.
One of the things that always passes through my mind when flying in a microlight is the possibility of losing a shoe... and coupled with this I find myself trying to imagine the look on the face of the person who catches it. Sometimes the urge to make contact is almost irresistible!
(Gouache)