Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

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 of grey of the cloud formations. I remember being in Chicago in the winter and pitying the Chicago dwellers: their grey winter sky had no variation at all - it was as though someone had taken a roller brush and painted the sky matte grey.

I was thinking about this as I flew today. There were lovely white "squashed almost flat on top" cumulus clouds. Their bases began at about 4500" Since the air wasn't very bumpy (we still had the headwind, though,) and since I haven't seen another aircraft during this entire trip, except at airports, I felt safe in putting my head back and (briefly) looking up at the clouds as they floated above me. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Sometimes when I'm flying and it's so perfect to be in the air, I get a deep ache knowing that so many people will never experience this. And no matter how much folks who love to fly try to describe it, it can never match the reality. (And I've read some very good books about the joys of flying.) When I went on the www.LetsGoFlying.com/SNF website, I realized that they need another tab. Theirs starts with Dreaming About Flying as the entry point. But what about folks - perhaps some of you reading this blog - who have never dreamed about it, because it seems too far out of reach. What about a tab titled, "I Can't Even Imagine Myself Flying, Yet Somewhere Deep Inside Is A Tiny Spark of Possibility."

Maybe some people don't explore flying because of the cost...I had never heard of ultralights when I took my introductory flight, so I didn't know there was a less expensive entryway into flying than getting a private pilot's license. And now there's a Light Sport Pilot license, which is also less costly to earn than a private pilot's license.

Others don't explore flying because of fear..."Oh, no, I could never be a pilot! I'm afraid of heights; afraid of small planes, afraid of..." you finish the sentence with your own reasons. A good friend of mine, Ed Warnock, advises "Take Baby Steps, not Giant Leaps." I think a great baby step would be to go to a flight school and ask to be allowed to get into a small aircraft. See what it feels like to be sitting in the right seat. (The passenger side.) Or go to a balloon launch just to watch the balloons take off in the misty early morning. (And they usually launch VERY early.)

Others can't imagine being a pilot. "I couldn't do that. I'm sure it involves learning so much." And I've heard "I'm too old to learn something so totally different." Well, learning to fly isn't rocket science. Yes, it does involve study. But you're putting the cart before the horse - we're talking about baby steps here. Take an introductory flight on a calm sunny day. Explain to the flight instructor that you want a calm, gentle ride - no hot dogging.

What I want is for everyone to just EXPERIENCE the joy that you can have when you're up in the air, peeking out the window at 1000' or 2000'. If you're only flown on commercial airlines, you don't really have a good idea of what flight can be like.

I remember a few years ago when Randy and I had been flying in central California. We stopped at an airport to refuel, and we were raving about the beauty of the Sacramento Delta. We had been flying over it at 500', and sometimes lower. A Cessna pilot was listening, and he said, "Where were you? I've been flying out of this airport for 10 years, and I've never seen what you're describing." He was astounded to hear that we were raving over his "back yard". "I realize that when I fly, it's to go somewhere. So I take off, climb to 7500' or 10,000' and never look down," he said. I hope we convinced him to do some joy riding (excuse me...joy flying) at much lower altitudes.

Am I sounding like a used aircraft salesman or the pr firm for www.LetsGoFlying.com/SNF? I don't mean to. But it's hard for most addicts not to want to share their addiction. And as I see this country from such a different perspective than from on the ground, I want to pick folks up by the scruff of their necks and shake them and shout, "Just try it!"

Back to the clouds -
I'm reading a wonderful book titled The Cloludspotters Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. He writes about types of cloud formations in an absolutely charming way. For example, as he describes the two main types of fog, advection and radiation, he writes:
"Advection fog is like the one that came rolling in with menacing speed over Antonio Bay in the 1980 horror movie The Fog. This was not a great film, which is a shame, as it is the only Stratus-based horror I've seen" (p. 83.)

Now, for those of you who have lasted this far in the hopes that "she'll EVENTUALLY get around to describing what happened today on the flight..."

The cold that I've been fighting won, on the last leg of our flight yesterday. (I thought my sneezing was due to an allergy to something I was flying over. Maybe unfamiliar pollens? If you've never sneezed in an open cockpit plane - well, I don't recommend it.) So this morning I was really reluctant to get out of my sleeping bag and will take full responsibility for the fact that we didn't get off the ground until 11:30 a.m.

I had looked carefully at the sectional before taking off,to see what road to loosely follow on our flight from Mariana Municipal Airport (we're in FLORIDA!!!) to Perry-Foley, our first refueling stop. But I just couldn't find the road from the air. The landmarks weren't as self-evident as they should have been, and I finally gave up and flew a direct compass heading - not a really good idea over all the forests. True, there are lots of dirt roads meandering around - and I could push the "I need help" button on my SPOT tracker - but I still got up to 3500' to give myself time to make a good decision should my engine quit. When I landed at Perry-Foley (in FLORIDA!!!) Brad said that he also had been unable to find the road and had flown a GPS-direct route.

It was on our next leg, to the Flying Ten Airpark where we'd been invited by Sam Briseno, a Flightstar pilot, that I was leaning back (briefly, remember!) looking at the clouds. This leg was much calmer than the previous one, although we still had a headwind. Thanks to our SPOTs, Sam knew exactly when we were coming and was outside to take pictures. He also had mogas available - although not ethanol-free, which he doesn't think is available in Florida. We had a great dinner with him and Larry, another resident at the airpark, and realized with glee that we are less that 120 miles from Sun N Fun! Even with our delays, we're going to be at SNF before it starts!