OK, John. You asked for Fuglies, and my family reckon I'm an authentic specimen, so...
I packed in flying eight years ago, with 868 hours logged in gliders, motor gliders, microlights, GA. At 77 I was becoming too absent-minded to be safe, so I stopped before someone stopped me. I owned or shared various aircraft over the years, but this is my all-time favourite: the French Fournier RF4 motor glider. No starter, seldom anyone to swing the prop for me, so doing it single-handed could be somewhat fraught. One day it ran away from me. But once airborne, it gave me the best of both worlds. Motor on, I could cruise at 100 mph on a VW engine merely sipping petrol. If I found a thermal, I switched off, and it became a glider. When I needed to switch on again, that involved diving till the prop twitched, swung, and the engine fired. Usually no problem, but sometimes dicey. If the prop refused to play, then once below 1,000 feet, with the sheep fast growing larger, it was time to pick a field, but quick. Good for the adrenalin. But the RF4 was great fun. Best of all was to motor down to Wales and, with luck, contact mountain wave. Best I managed was 13,000 feet. Happy days...
