HGFA Skysailor Magazine

34 SKY SAILOR September | October 2018 T he prototype was released at the Popham Show in May 2016. It looked great, but the aircraft had a chisel nose with landing lights mounted inside. I liked this idea, however, the UK pilots didn’t, so the nose was changed to the more traditional rounded nose. Once we could see that this aircraft was going to go ahead, Anne and I decided to place an order for the first production aircraft. We did this in February 2017. We knew the aircraft was still going through more development, but this was not a problem as we knew that with Dr Bill Brooks at the helm, the HypeR would be an outstanding aircraft. We watched each week as changes were made to make the HypeR an even better aircraft than the original design. After a year had gone by, our HypeR was getting ready to ship to YFT in Australia. By now we had a number of orders for new aircraft in with the factory. The day came, and the HypeR was loaded into a shipping container ready for the sea voyage to Australia. Anne and I watched the shipping tracker as our container came ever closer to the Port Melbourne. Over a month later, with a number of delays, the ship arrived in Melbourne. Next came customs, and don’t forget quarantine, but the one we didn’t think would give us a problem was Border Security. Lucky me! The factory test pilot, bless his little heart, had written on one of the documents ‘MG’ which stands for Military Grade, but he had jokingly meant that the aircraft flew as well as a military aircraft… This meant Border Security needed to look into things and hold up our delivery for another week, to analyse the goods in our shipping container and discover what the Military Grade threat might be! We laugh about it now, but it really tested our patience. Finally, the container was on its way from the docks to Yarrawonga! The shipping company informed us that the container would arrive at 10am, and true to their word, the truck arrived on time. We had 30 minutes to get the aircraft out of the container so the truck could get to Albury for its next pick-up. I had the container emptied in 20 minutes and then the truck was gone. Landside was now a mess of fuselages, wings, and boxes. All of the components of the three aircraft had to be moved into Hangar One, so I could start putting the aircraft together for the registration process. Luckily, I had moved our other aircraft out of Hangar One and secured them in Hangar Two the previous day. Half a day later, all the new aircraft were in Hangar One, and the real work began. It was a task and a half just to get the bubble wrap off the aircraft and the wings. I could just imagine everyone in the factory painstakingly covering every part of the aircraft to protect them on their sea voyage to Australia. Now I’m here cutting and ripping the protective layers off in a rush to get to the aircraft. Once all the layers were removed, there they were – three beautiful aircraft, including the one that Anne had been waiting for, the HypeR. A beautiful looking aircraft stood before us. Everything was just where we wanted it. The instrument panel was perfect! I had planned it that way and, sitting in the pilot’s seat, everything was just as I had envisioned. I fitted the Trig radio and transponder again, where P&M in England had cut the holes just in the right position. I mounted the Garmin Aera 660 on the right side of the panel, it fitted like a glove, just as planned. Next was the wing. Once again, P&M Aviation have made a great design. The wing went together in less than 15 minutes. The hardest part was putting the new registration numbers on. Once the wing was on the base, you could really appreciate the beauty of Dr Bill Brooks’ design. Before flying the HypeR you could tell, just by looking at the aircraft, that a lot of thought had gone into it. I have read a lot of the technical information that Bill had sent me, and knew this was going to be one very special aircraft. The next wait would be for the registration to come through. Most of the paperwork and data package was ready before the aircraft had arrived. Once I had the final parts completed, I send it into the regulator. An e-copy of the full data package was submitted on the Saturday. I was surprised to receive an email on Monday saying that the data package was all in order and the office would be processing the registration later that day. I had the registration paperwork back before last light. Wow, that was quick, and thanks to Brett and Melinda for such a great job! Tuesday, time to test fly this awesome flying machine. The HypeR is very roomy, so getting in and out is no problem. The seats are very comfortable. We are used to the seats in the PulsR, and the HypeR has the same type. I turned on the key and the instruments came on, the HypeR Tiger came to life. With a push of the starter, the Rotax Dealer Review: HypeR Tiger After flying the P&M Aviation aircraft for about a year, Anne and I ordered a number of aircraft from the factory. One of these was the PulsR. We love flying the PulsR around, it was a massive leap forward in trike technology, so when we heard that Dr Bill Brooks was in the loft at the factory designing something new, we were very keen to see this new aircraft. by Peter McLean – P&M Aviation Australia