Flight onboard a microlight

Ariel Villasanta chickened out. Dunno if his act of backing out was just part of the script or if he indeed feared for dear life with the uncertainty that comes relative to flying onboard a microlight.

Through GMA-7 Kapuso Network’s “Pinoy Meets World”, a travel and lifestyle special aired every Sunday, the hilarious duo of Ariel Villasanta and Maverick Relova of what was ABC-5’s award-winning gag show “Misadventures of Maverick and Ariel” toured parts of Nepal recently.

Yes, they are already kapusos like the rest of the tandem of celebrities tasked by “Pinoy Meets World” staff to do travel stories on countries where our hedonist Pinoy-kababayans are. This after Michael “Pekto” Nacua and John “Belly Flori” Fehr discovered the charm of Laos and the high respect the Lao people have for Pinoys; while Angelica “Ms. Flawless” Jones and Alyssa “Videoke Diva” Alano tasted the domestic and street life of Morocco (including its wilderness).

The assignment in Nepal was what I perceive to be the network’s way of welcoming to their new home the two reality TV stars who will be hosting “Send o Save”, one of channel 7’s newest game shows.

After touring around the capital city of Kathmandu, meeting holy men who engage in the hashish ritual (legally, huh!) and after bumping onto cows – erm, holy cows – they were taken to an airfield to enjoy microlight aviation tourism that Nepal has started to develop.

“Ipapaubaya ko na lang kay Maverick ang pagsakay sa eroplanong tatlo ang gulong,” Ariel sniggers.

Blame it on public ignorance. The reputation of microlights and ultralights suffered a lot. Ultralights or lightweight and slow-flying aeroplanes have had a poor safety reputation. Well, early designs were admittedly fragile or unstable that resulted to a number of accidents, but the reputation came largely from rumor and distrust of this type of aircraft.

But designs have already matured. So has the built quality and airworthiness. If there would be accidents involving these “might-be-freaky three-wheeled aircraft that can be towed on the grass fields”, pilot error is shown to be the main cause of the vast majority of these accidents.

I admire Ariel for his “Retro-active” antics, but smirk at his decision to let go of an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate and adore and praise the grandeur of Nepal’s mountainscape. If we could only swap boots, I swear before Sagarmatha there would be no running away from experiencing what it’s like to be part of Nepal’s sports aviation. We only live once, so we have to make every second count.

Over at Clark Air Field in Pampanga, I did pay P700 for a 40-minute flight aboard the microlight with the Angeles City Flying Club which has full service sport aircraft (ultralight/microlight) aviation facility in Woodland Air Park in sitio Talimundok, barangay Sta. Maria, Magalang town, Pampanga.

The club has 12 professionally maintained aircraft with various models – Quicksilver, Rans Coyote, CGS Hawk to name a few - and is ready to help enthusiasts discover the fun and excitement of open-air sport flying. Open air because aircraft have literally open cockpits. Says my fully licensed and qualified pilot I only knew as a certain Noel, “just relax, enjoy, and leave it to the expert.”

I was directed to get at the backseat of the pod of the two-seater Maxair Drifter which has a maximum passenger weight of 250 pounds or 112 kilograms. Then, I was issued a headgear. One of the ground assistants adjusted and locked my headgear for me and then had me buckled onto my seat. The other ground assistant, without much prodding, gladly clicked a few souvenir photographs of me before the pilot and I headed airborne. In the minutes that followed, my pilot repeated “relax and enjoy the scenery” as the microlight taxied from the makeshift registration tent to the runway.

Then the microlight took off from a 450-meter grass runway and had placed me on air for 30 to 40 minutes with a bird’s-eye view of lovely Mt. Arayat and awesome Mt. Pinatubo with the glittering lahar flats of Crow Valley. Well, there was an advisory at that time to not really fly close to the caldera of Pinatubo and the triangular peaks of Arayat for safety reasons (dunno if that had something to do with magnetic fields whatsoever!)

Noel, the pilot, circled Angeles City over five times at a thousand feet high while maintaining the allowed distance from the crater of the two volcanoes, till I had my fill of satisfaction and the rush of adrenaline had subsided.

I was chuckling at Ariel’s act of decline from enjoying Nepali skies even if the chance was handed on his lap for free. It was a pity the Nepal adventure didn’t bump into me who’s more than willing - life and limb – to try out how it feels to be on a seat-of-the-pants flying experience over the Himalayan range.