Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

On my website, I wrote that this flight is about more than flying to the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In in Florida. It's also about carrying a message that we can all challenge our self-limiting beliefs... create and achieve big, hairy, bodacious goals for ourselves.

In the last two weeks, I've shared this message with three very diverse audiences. The first was a group of women at a state prison here in Oregon. The second was a group of college students, and the third, a group of university administrators and managers. In each case I use my ultalight flying - and this up-coming flight - as a metaphor for pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones and into our courage zones.

Most of them had never heard of an ultralight; some had seen pictures, and a very few had seen one in person. Very, very few had any interest in actually flying in one. Yet I was struck by how similar their reactions were. They were able to translate my flying experiences - more specifically, the feelings I have when I fly, such as pure joy, fear, anxiety, exhilaration, - to their own lives.

I think that's because we all have an adventuresome spirit waiting to be unleashed. And I'm not defining adventure as climbing mountains or rafting rivers or flying ultralights. To me, adventure is an attitude, an attitude that we apply to the day-to-day obstacles of life - facing new challenges, seizing new opportunities, testing our resources against the unknown, and in the process, discovering our own unique potential.