I ’ll admit there was a time in my flying  career where I’d have looked at the Quicksilver GT 500 with a mixture of fear and loathing. Ignorance tends to create an animosity that only real world experience can change. But in the 1980s and 1990s I had bigger fish to fly and so I continued my prejudice that was common in the divide between ultralights and so-called ‘real aeroplanes’.

I regret that now because if I’d have just accepted the challenge and got to know an aeroplane like the Quicksilver GT 500 I’d have had a whole realm of aviation open up 20 years earlier than it has. Thankfully I’ve grown up, become less judgemental, and have become eager to enjoy all aspects of light sport aircraft flying.

Bert Moonen, the Australian agent for Quicksilver, owns the aircraft I’m lucky enough to fly. It’s an original GT 500 with the addition of perspex doors that replace the original fabric and clear plastic, and was built in 2009.

The GT 500 debuted in 1990 at the Sun n Fun fly-in held annually in Florida. Tom Price and Dave Cronk, two of the ultralight/lightplane industry’s most expe- rienced engineers and designers, created the aircraft as a follow on from the single seat GT 400.

Bert Moonen

An article from Australian Sport Pilot Magazine December 2018