Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

I talked with Randy tonight, and he is tent camping in a field 5 miles north of Dunsmuir, under the wing of his Carrera. He took off this morning and was making great time as he left the Yreka Valley heading into the Siskiyous. The, as he neared Dunsmui… more »

Randy was able to leave the field he camped in last night, and he's continuing to fly south. He said he experienced a real “pucker factor” as he was going over the Siskiyous – the engine started giving him the same problems it did yesterday. He was able… more »

Gusting to 35 mph this morning - and going up to 65 mph later today. Turbulence below 12,000'. I think I'll stay on the ground! I have good friends in Palm Desert and will spend the day with them. I'm hoping that I can get back in the air tomorrow.… more »

Randy showed up at Brian Ranch airport, in Llano CA at noon, so he's "catching up" to Arty. I've added a link to Randy's Spot page too, so we can now monitor the progress of both pilots. You'll find it along the right edge of each page. I estimate Randy… more »

Saturday, April 4 Today was a great day. I HAD to show some of you (you know who you are) that I wasn't a couch potato and don't deserve the title of Noon Balloon so I was wheels off at 7 a.m. in wonderfully smooth air with a nice tailwind. I had been… more »

Sunday, April 5 I got to the Casa Grande (AZ) Airport about 10:00 a.m., having checked out Randy on his SPOT tracker and seeing that he was still at his overnight spot. Jim Hefner and Ron Lee met me there; they had flown in from Tuscon in Jim's Cessna… more »

Monday, April 6 Neither of us got out of our tents until 8:00 a.m. today. No point - the winds are howling. Randy needs to repair his brakes, so we used the courtesy car at the airport to run around town looking for everything he needs. Vince Viaro fro… more »

Monday, April 6 During the night the wind picked up, and I work up briefly and thought "I wonder if all my stuff will blow away?" before falling back to sleep. At 6:00 a.m. the wind was really howling and I wasn't sure that we'd be able to fly at all.… more »

Wed, April 8 If things had to go wrong, it couldn't get much better than this. If you read Randy's comments yesterday, you'll know that we were 45 miles from Va Horne, TX when his Carrera started to vibrate badly. He landed on a dirt stretch and could… more »

Thursday, April 9 When I fly my mind never wanders – I’m fully absorbed in the moment. I’m looking out for other aircraft, searching for good landing spots if something goes wrong with my engine, exalting in the wonder of being in the air, reveling i… more »

Friday, April 10 Randy is wrapping up on his repair work on the Carrera and ought to be able to test fly it within the next hour or so. The hub plate for the prop was cracked, which is what caused the terrible vibrations - the prop load trying to pul… more »

Friday, April 10 Randy worked on his Carrera much of the day; after everything was back together he test flew it and then did a prop pitch change, since he wasn't getting the RPMs he wanted. After the pitch change it was better, but still not where h… more »

Saturday, April 11 I couldn' download these pics yesterday, when we landed at Ft. Stockton, but I wanted to share them. Ft. Stockton is a big fire center spot - we saw lots and lots of firefighters from numerous national forests, as well as their pl… more »

Sunday, April 12 WOW!!! I woke up in the middle of the night listening to the howl of the wind, an absolute downpour of rain and then hail on the metal roof of the hangar. Thank heavens that Mary Jo took pity on us last night and let us set up our c… more »

Monday, April 13 What a wonderful day! We didn’t rush getting out in the morning, since we are making such good time and it was so pleasant visiting with Gerry at his home, and then with Dale and Johanna, the FBO managers at Burnet (Kate Craddock Field… more »

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 How do you describe an indescribably wonderful day? If I turn to Roget, I can come up with all sorts of superlatives: magnificent, superb, astonishing, amazing, fantastic…you get the picture. And actually, you WILL get the pic… more »

Wednesday, April 15 Income tax day - and it never entered my mind at all! There's something about this flight that keeps me focused...so focused that I've been forgetting to call in and get messages from my office line. Not good, if I want to have cl… more »

Thursday morning, April 16 I DID post to this blog yesterday, so you if you're only reading this one, you can go to last night's post as well. This is a personal request to everyone who is reading this blog. Please go to the following website and… more »

Thursday, April 16 I know, I know – I didn’t REALLY write this on April 16th, because it’s now almost midnight on the 17th. I was so tired last night after an absolutely fabulous day that I didn’t have any energy to post to this blog. So now I’ll ma… more »

Saturday, April 18 W#hen I was a child I loved to lie on my back out on the lawn and watch the clouds. Being horse crazy, I saw almost nothing but horses and horse body parts. In Oregon, our grey days are still beautiful because of the varying shades… more »

Sunday, April 19 We landed at Sun n Fun in Lakeland, Florida at 3:30 p.m.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Three weeks to the day since I left home - if you don't count that brief 70 mile flight on the Thursday before the Sunday that I really left. (If… more »

Monday, April 20, 2009 So I imagine you expect to hear me rave about Sun n Fun. I’ll save that for tomorrow or the next day, once the show officially opens. Today (actually, tonight) I want to write about a number of different things. 1. How much… more »

Thursday, April 23, 2009 It’s 6:45 a.m. and the light is beginning to seep through my eyelids. I’m curled in my sleeping bag, cozy and warm and not inclined to move. The inclination changes as I hear the deep “WHOOOOSSSHHHH,” “WHOOOOSSSHHHH,” “WHOOOO… more »

Saturday, April 25 It was hot and humid yesterday, and it looks like it will be the same today. I don’t know what the “humidity factor” was – but the temperature in the shade was 91°. I had planned to do some flight planning yesterday for our flight… more »

Sunday, April 26 Sun ‘N Fun ends today, and we’ll be packing up and flying out tomorrow. The turf ultralight airstrip “disappears” this afternoon; it was created by the FAA especially for Sun ‘n Fun. For those of you who are going “Huh? How can a 140… more »

Monday, April 27, 2009 Mea Culpa, mea culpa. I have been thinking “east, east, east” for so long that I completely got my directions mixed up. Those of you who were able to translate know that I meant west. Norm would probably point out that I also… more »

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Today was a resting and flight planning day for me. (Check out the new route home. It will probably change as we incorporate more information and invitations.) I hadn’t realized how tired I was from Sun n Fun until we got to S… more »

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 What a wonderful day! Three of Sam’s friends from the EAA chapter came by in the morning. They had heard our stories at the chapter meeting last night and wanted to see our birds for themselves. Gerry – who also owns a Drif… more »

Thursday, April 30, 2009 Florida slipped away beneath my wings yesterday and today Alabama and then Mississippi were behind me as I flew into southern Arkansas. Everything below is so similar – there is no way of knowing when one state becomes anothe… more »