I had restricted myself from taking passengers until I had 15 flights in MLSY. This was to ensure that I had fully tested the reliability of the aircraft and got used to its flight characteristics.

So I looking forward at the weather I saw a window of opportunity to take Karen on her first flight. The weather was good with blue skies and a 8-10 kts of SSW winds quite perfect for runway 20. After preparing the aircraft I walked the grass runway to check its suitability for use. It was slightly soft but ok to use.

Once Karen was seated and strapped in I briefed her on the emergency procedures and we headed for the runway. Even with the slightly soft runway and ‘two up’ MLSY leapt into the air and we headed for a trip round the coast.

We flew at 1200′ most of the time and it lasted around an hour. I said to Karen not to worry about taking pictures or videos as I had the GoPro running however once I had landed I found that I had forgotten to start it – doh!

On approach I noticed that the wind had veered to become a crosswind. The landing proved challenging as the runway conditions further down were much softer. With the top section of the runway coned off I had to flare much higher and ended up running into the soft section and decided to go round. The second approach was better and I landed shorter but still had to taxi through the softer ground so caused some rutting that we walked out.

Maypole was closed two days later after further rain made the runway unusable.