n a dangerous trend, a growing number of ageing thrill-seekers are taking to Queensland skies in home-made and second-hand ultralights – one of the most dangerous planes available – as well as powered gliders and light aircraft.

It's an inexpensive aviation experience for adrenalin junkies.

Pilots can fly with a minimum 20 hours' experience and, according to Recreational Aviation Australia, which is responsible for matters relating to ultralight aircraft, students have to pass only two multiple-choice exams and a formal flight test before receiving an RAA Pilot Certificate. No medicals are conducted.

Crashes involving ultralights have claimed 10 lives in the past 16 months in Queensland.

The dangers of flying small aircraft were highlighted again last week with the death of two men when their powered glider crashed in southeast Queensland.

Less than a day earlier, another two men had died in a light plane crash.

Queensland ultralight enthusiast Shane Winter, 49, died when a German-built glider crashed at an airstrip in the Brisbane Valley on Monday. He was a passenger in the craft piloted by a 45-year-old Victorian man, who also died in the incident at Watts Bridge Memorial Airfield at Toogoolawah, 80km northwest of Brisbane.

The double fatality occurred the day after experienced aerobatic pilot Barry Hempel, 60, and his passenger Ian Lovell, 35, crashed into the ocean off South Stradbroke Island.

Mr Lovell was celebrating his birthday with a joy ride in a Russian-built Yak-52 warplane when the incident occurred.

Last month, the pilot of an ultralight walked away after his craft crashed on Little Goat Island, in Pumicestone Passage, 60km north of Brisbane.

Richard Saint, an ultralight enthusiast and staunch defender of recreational planes, knew both Mr Winter and Mr Hempel.

He said the men were well known and highly regarded, and that their deaths had shocked the Queensland aviation industry.

"I knew them both and you couldn't ask for better pilots," Mr Saint said.

He likened flying recreational aircraft to climbing mountains or riding motorbikes.

"It's about exhilaration and personal achievement, similar things that mountain climbers and motorbike enthusiasts feel when they do what they love, and in those sports there are also risks involved," he said.

Mr Saint said ultralight enthusiasts were "a close-knit group" and had closed ranks since the latest incident.

Police are investigating the fatalities, and spokesmen for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority declined to comment.

The spokesmen said ultralights, also known as recreational aircraft, were an RAA responsibility.

The RAA failed to return The Sunday Mail's phone calls and emails.

"The day-to-day handling of ultralights, the licences and monitoring of aircraft is the responsibility of the RAA," the CASA spokesman said.

In 2003, there were at least 5000 ultralight planes in Australia.

Aviation insiders said they believed the number had almost doubled in the past four years as access to inexpensive planes and excitement about the pastime spread.

Celebrities with pilot's licences, including Angelina Jolie and John Travolta, also made flying popular.

A growing number of retired pilots, in their late 50s and 60s, have adopted the hobby, along with farmers who use them to manage large properties.

Advertisements on the RAA website show planes available for as little as $4950. Time-share planes were also available for $3900 plus an hourly rate.

The most basic recreational plane can be constructed from hand-hewn lengths of aluminium tubing and sail cloth. By definition, ultralights are powered aircraft intended for experimental, recreational or educational purposes, flown at less than 200km/h and under 5000ft (about 1500m).

Ultralight-related incidents include:

• Gold Coast pilot Garry Sweetnam, 49, a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer, and Murwillumbah man Andrew Mitchell, 33, died when their twin-seater ultralight nosedived into the sea off Surfers Paradise on March 7.

• Two men were injured when their ultralight crashed during take-off on North Stradbroke Island on September 2 last year. The men suffered back injuries and leg fractures in the incident at the Dunwich airstrip.

• Caloundra man Bernard Flood, 53, and his teenage granddaughter Lysinda died when their ultralight went into a tailspin and nosedived into the sea off the Caloundra coast on June 17 last year. The plane was registered with Recreational Aviation Australia and allowed to fly up to 20km offshore.

• A man and a woman died when an ultralight plane crashed on take-off north of the Sunshine Coast on April 16 last year. The plane crashed at a private airstrip at Howard, west of Hervey Bay. It was believed the aircraft clipped trees and cartwheeled above a road after clearing the airstrip. It crashed 50m from a home and burst into flames.

• Two men died when their ultralight crashed at Oak Valley southwest of Townsville on May 20 last year. The men from the Townsville suburb of Mt Louisa were killed when the microlight apparently experienced engine trouble and crashed into a waterhole during a 20-minute joy-ride from the Montpelier Air Park.

• A Gold Coast man was lucky to be alive after his ultralight crashed into canefields near Jacobs Well on August 26, 2006.

by Lou Robson

SOURCE | The Courier Mail