Small aircraft flying in formation as another one prepares to take off at Al Khor Fly-In yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma
The seventh edition of the Al Khor Fly-In took off yesterday with colourful autogyros, microlight aircraft, Cessna planes and helicopters storming the skies to the delight of hundreds of spectators from all walks of life.
“This is a thrilling adventure which helps us to learn more about flying,” a young visitor said.
“Every year, the show is getting bigger and bigger, more organised and it helps the young generation understand what is flying all about,” said Captain Fuad Dashti, one of the participating pilots from Kuwait.
He had been participating in the event since 2009. He finds flying as an exciting hobby.
He admitted that there were few flying clubs in the Gulf region citing his home country as an example with no flying schools unlike in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Captain Dashti expressed optimism that with events such as the Al Khor Fly-In being held annually, many people will pursue aviation careers and graduates would soon fill various vacancies in the industry.
Qatar Civil Aviation Authority chairman Abdul Aziz Mohamed al-Noaimi attended the event. He joined organisers and the crowd in watching different shows at the airstrip from 1pm.
While autogyros and some weight-shift microlight planes dominated Al Khor skies the whole day, a kit plane, owned by an Italian pilot, was one of the top attractions in the exhibition.
A number of spectators, young and old, had their photo ops in the 95-kilo plane built by Maurizio Perissinotto in a hotel room.
“We are selling it as a kit and anybody can buy it in a box,” he said. “It works out in the range of QR70,000 to QR80,000 like a medium range car.”
Known as the Zigolo MG12, the kit comes complete with every component ready drilled and finished. It can be assembled in 100 to 200 hours.
The plane flies between 75 to 95km per hour, has a 15-litre fuel tank and consumes about five litres of fuel an hour. The plane’s other features include an explosion-proof tank, a cup anemometer (a device for measuring wind speed), a ballistic parachute and a free-flight GPS variometre (an instrument for measuring the magnitude and direction of a magnetic field).
The Zigolo MG12 can be completely dismantled in an hour for transport on a trailer or a pick-up truck.
An airline and aerobatic pilot, Perissinotto also does some air shows mostly in Turkey and Europe. He finished assembling his plane two weeks ago and its first appearance is in Al Khor Fly-In.
The Museum of Flight, based in Seattle, the US, has put up a booth and organised some robotics and flying toys activities for kids.