Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

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 picture, since I took so many that I want to share. Be sure to click on any one to see the entire group full size – these thumbnail pics just don’t give you the whole picture. (Pun intended!)

We set up our tents on the tarmac under our wings last night, and I was awakened @ 5:30 a.m. by a rooster’s crowing. The words I said aren’t fit for print, so I buried my head in my sleeping bag and went back to sleep. For those of you who want to dub us the Noon Patrol (or some other variation, and my friend Alan Cossitt came up with a long list,) today you’re again justified, as we didn’t get off the ground until 12:30p.m.

There were three of us – since Tom Harlan joined us in his Drifter.

We had a nice tailwind and the scenery grew more and more lush. As I flew over fields and deciduous forests & tree plantations, I marveled at how beautiful the country is from 1000’-1500’ up in the air. We crossed the Mississippi River – and we were in Louisiana! How can you not love a state that names an impenetrable swamp Dismal Swamp? And names a town “False River”? And has the crawfish as its State Crustacean?

In two wonderful hours of flying we saw so much greenery and water that it completely made up for the barren aridity of Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas. (Sorry folks – I never said I was objective.) We landed at Eunice, LA and John Bickham was there to meet us and escort us to his home strip (Nauga Field) in the unincorporated community of Starhill, LA. As the four of us flew, I was grinning from ear to ear. I LOVE being in the air surrounded by other ultralight-type Light Sport aircraft. And since we were all taking pictures, we stayed in close visual contact.

Here’s John in his Kolb:

And Randy and Tom:

And Tom and me:



But that wasn’t the best part. As we flew east (on what John later told us was one of only 12 days a year for such great visibility – most of the time it’s hazy, hazy, hazy…) we could see changes up ahead from the forests. I wasn’t sure what was ahead, just that it was going to be different.

As I flew closer, I began to see wonderful patterns, made by crawfish farms and rice paddies. Absolutely, astonishingly beautiful patterns. I took over 30 pictures and am only uploading 5 here.

I began flying lower, to take better pictures. Then I sawssomething very large and white in the distance. Intrigued, I decided to rev up and quit loafing along.

As I got closer it looked like a psychedelic pattern…and just about as incomprehensible:

It wasn’t until I was over top of them that I could see what it/they were: hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of FEMA trailers, originally intended to house the homeless survivors of Hurricane Rita – then abandoned due to unhealthy levels of formaldehyde.
(Be sure to click this thumbnail for the larger picture, so you can see how the trailers are corniced together.)

And then, seeing Dismal Swamp. The fellow at the FBO in Eunice said that the swamp is so vast and impenetrable that even if they knew where you went down, it would take them a month to find you. I’m not sure if he was just pulling my leg, but it made an impression!

John had briefed us about landing at his 1500’ grass strip: there are power lines and trees at both ends, and due to heavy rain on Sunday the strip was a little boggy. He didn’t mention Gertrude, the resident alligator. Maybe he figured we’d be spooked enough without talking about her.

We landed without difficulty, although we got mud and water spraying up as we touched down. And then the welcoming committee came out! In trucks and ATVs they descended – the nicest, most heartwarming southern welcome you can imagine. The owner of the airstrip also has a deer camp on the property, which has seen many iterations and now is sort of an informal community center. We sat and listened to tall tales about the BoPotamous, which is seldom seen and which survives on Naugas (hence the airstrip’s name Nauga Field.) We heard hair raising stories about catching alligators barehanded, and what happens when you get one that is large enough to lunge out of the back of a pick-up truck. You could tell they loved having new rubes to share their stories with, and I loved every moment.

Then it was time to go to John’s home for dinner and meet his wife Sandy, have a wonderful crawfish ettoufe and strawberry shortcake for dessert. The day ended all too soon with Randy and Tom going back to the Deer Camp to bed down for the night, and me getting to sleep at John and Sandy’s.

Not a long day of flying – only about 3 hours – but a truly memorable and delightful one.