Flashback to 2000: Record set – despite plan failing to take off
2000: As world record attempts go, it didn't fully get off the ground.
Nevertheless, those microlight pilots who took to the Shropshire skies on May 6, 2000, were still able to claim a record despite being beset by difficulties.
The plan had been for over 100 pilots from all over the country to write themselves into the Guinness Book of Records by forming the largest group of microlights ever to fly in formation at the same time.
The flight plan would have seen them take off from the grass airfield near Shifnal and fly around the Wrekin.
An earlier attempt in 1999 had had to be scrapped because the weather wasn't good enough.
Organising the record attempt was Telford Business Club which aimed to raise cash for three charities – the Spinal Injuries Unit at Gobowen, Telford & Wrekin Community Trust, and Flying for the Disabled, with a target of around £5,000.
If you think that getting 100 microlights to fly in formation doesn't sound a particularly difficult record to set, there was a reason, as David Chiva, secretary of Telford Business Club, explained at the time.
“Nothing like this has ever been tried before so any number will be a world record, although obviously the higher it is the harder it will be to break," he said.
Although there had been interest from microlighters from as far away as Scotland, Essex, Wales, and Somerset, in the event bad weather in parts of the country made it impossible for many pilots to get to Shropshire and the plan to fly around the Wrekin was scrapped.
Only around a third of the pilots supposed to be taking part actually made it.
Even though the group still set a record – with 30 pilots in the air at one time – they had to fly around Shifnal airfield instead of the Wrekin because of strong winds at the landmark hill.
The group had been supposed to take to the skies in the morning but pulled the plug on that idea at the last minute because of poor visibility.
Mr Chiva, who organised the event, said afterwards that he was thrilled a record had been set but disappointed more people had not been able to take part.
“It was disappointing in some ways because there were far fewer people on the day than we had expected.
“A lot didn’t make it because of the bad weather in other parts of the country.
“We couldn’t fly in the morning, which set us back, and then it was impractical to do it in the afternoon because of the wind.”
Mr Chiva said the pilots had made two to four circuits each of the six-mile circumference of the airfield and had been in the air for about an hour.
He added he did not know whether a future attempt would be made to break the record the group had set.
“We’re happy with what we did, but it’s a shame we could not have had more pilots.”
The airfield from which they took off was at Brockton, near Kemberton, so would have been a use of what was a former top secret wartime RAF airfield, essentially used for overspill aircraft from the busy RAF Cosford.
There may have been another attempt to circumnavigate the Wrekin and set a formation record in July 2000 – and we say that because we have in our pictures archives photos of microlights setting off from the airfield in the early part of that month and heading for the Wrekin as part of a record attempt.
Mysteriously, we don't have any details of exactly what happened on that occasion.
In any event, the British Microlight Aircraft Association's website does record the success of that 2000 record set in Shropshire, saying: "Another microlight event to get into the record books was the attempt to get as many aircraft into the circuit as possible, using the Wrekin in Shropshire as the navigation mark.
"In the end, poor visibility meant a more limited circuit, but even so 30 aircraft were successfully shoehorned in – enough for the Guinness Book of Records to declare it a record."
Does the record still stand? There have been 20 years now to beat it, although a search of the website for Guinness World Records does not throw up any record for the biggest microlight formation, so maybe it is a record which is not recorded, so to speak.
