YES, the biggest movie to hit the screen this year is out now, and you can view it here. No, no, not that Bond thing; the first in a series of new BMAA promotional videos which will be released through eMF every month – and what an excellent and professional first it is.

“Check it out! BMAA members teamed up with YouTubers Ben Atkinson and Rory ‘On Air’ Auskerry to talk about British microlighting and the role that BMAA plays in getting us airborne,” said new CEO Rob Hughes.

“Watch, enjoy and share – introduce your friends to our world of microlighting and join in the fun!”

ZARA Rutherford, the 19-year-old British-Belgian pilot who’s aiming to become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world, is still going strong in her Shark hotship. By the time you read this she should have been in the Far East preparing to head home to Belgium, but delays caused her Russian visa to expire. She’s now got a new one and is all set to cross from Alaska into Russia.

Interviewed by the Alaskan paper Juneau Empire, she said it had been far from plain sailing. She has had some fun, though. Here she is landing at Nome, Alaska; she also managed to squeeze in a VIP tour of the Virgin Galactic sites. You can follow her progress via her website, flyzolo.com.

SINCE editor Geoff Hill once rode a 132-mile round trip just to see what a town called Chicken in Alaska was like, he empathises with SportCruiser pilot Terry Kent, who heads for two challenging farm strips in Kent just to find the perfect ice cream. At one, Harringe, he also finds the UK’s wittiest airfield loo. Mind you, it’s hardly surprising, since Harringe is the home of splendidly bonkers KMAC and MF stalwarts Geoff Hall and Paul Brooker.

THAT’S French for OMG, as you know, and it’s the only word to describe this video of flexwing flying in the French Alps by Franck and Nathalie Toussaint, whose family have been microlight pilots and instructors at Tignes since 1984.

“This is the second generation demonstrating absolutely unique flying that only the flexwing trike can give,” said Ben Ashman, who spotted it.

EAST Fortune QuikR pilot Graeme Roberts talks us through how he ended up in a ditch after an injudicious application of brakes on a grass strip. Apart from a strained shoulder he’s OK, and the aircraft is fixable – and he may go down in history as the only pilot ever to ditch on land.

On the same subject, Neil Hathaway does a nice job of getting down safely after a partial engine failure on climbout, possibly from vapour lock.

Slaloming through a wind farm, flying through a hangar and along a tunnel, hitching a lift on a diving plane: here are five things that proper pilots with nerves of steel get up to.

Spotted by our new CEO Rob Hughes on a Saturday when he should really have been lying down in a darkened room after a rather hectic first week in the job. Read all about it in your next MF.

IRON Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has a commercial airline pilot’s licence and thousands of hours in everything from his 757 to a Bücker Jungmann, and he thinks modern microlights are miles better than traditional GA machines. Rock on, Bruce.

ROLLS-ROYCE’S stunning Spirit of Innovation electric aircraft has had its maiden flight from the MoD’s Boscombe Down airfield. With a motor producing 536hp, it’s designed to reach over 300mph and beat the current electric world speed record of 210mph, set by Siemens in 2017 with an Extra 330LE.