Welcome to this, my first book review, I will keep it short as the book tells it’s story better than I ever could, which is to be expected as it’s written by Geoff Hill, possibly the tallest man at the flying club, editor of the BMAAs own magazine Microlight Flying and author of several books on motorbikes!
It tells the tale of a young boy, with a dream to fly and then having that dream crushed somewhat, until later in life when he discovers a new breed of human which can live purely on HobNobs and are able to guide engines attached to canvas and metal poles around the sky. He was hooked, as most of us are, from he first took controls.
The engine stopped, and out of the plane climbed a man wearing faded jeans, a sheepskin flying jacket…and an expression of baffled optimism - Geoff Hill
Along the way you meet Geoffs ridiculous sense of humour and several talking creatures, which serve to amuse us, the reader and provide several philosophical motivational points to our intrepid pilot to be Geoff!
The book culminates in an ambitious trip in a brand new kind of aircraft (for the time!) called a Thruster T600n (I also learned on one), it had a 4 stroke engine and everything. But you’ll need to read the book to find out about where he was aiming for and if he made it!
All in all I loved the book, found it very easy to read with short chapters, fast pace and a sense of humour throughout that had me chuckling to myself quite happily! I’m a fairly slow reader, I tend to have the attention span of a goldfish with dementia when reading but I had this read cover to cover in 2 nights, showing how hard it is to put down.
Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in flying and microlights in particular, you can pick up a copy from Amazon (who also print it) for under £5, bargain!
As an aside I had to go and have a look on Google Maps to see if I could find the airfield Geoff learnt at, sadly there isn’t much left of the WW2 airfield at Mullaghmore left today as you can see. However, you can still meet up with Geoffs old instructor Mark at Causeway Airfield, only a few miles north, I did a [write up of a trip here recently](https://leftdownwind.co.uk/articles/causeway-airfield-a-gem-on-the-north-coast/) which you can read if you so desire!
