Types of Microlight

There are three basic types of microlight aircraft. The first type, known as a weight-shift or trike, resembles a pow­ered hang glider. It is basically a glider wing from which a three-wheeled cart is suspended for the pilot to sit in. The

the three-wheeled design. The trike pilot flies the air­plane in a fashion similar to flying a hang glider, con­trolling it with movements of a horizontal handbar and by shifting the position of the body to alter its weight distribution. The lightest weight-shift airplane is a powered hang glider, which is foot- launched (to take off, the pilot simply runs down a slope into the wind). There also are powered parachutes and powered paragliders. As the lightest kinds of micro­lights, these also can be foot-launched.

Larger microlights are air­planes, either three-axis fixed – wing or two-axis fixed-wing. Three-axis fixed-wing micro­lights look and fly more like a full-sized airplane, moving around three axes of control: yaw, pitch, and roll. The pilot uses the same kind of controls as those in a regular airplane: ailerons, elevators, and rudder.

Such microlights are in some respects scaled-down versions of conventional airplanes.

The two-axis fixed-wing is a simpler machine. These air­craft look less like a conven­tional airplane and have no ailerons. For this reason, the pilot must use the rudder when making a turn.