Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

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 fun it was to fly out of Sam Briseno’s airstrip with six other ultralight-type aircraft. Bob Blakeslee took these two pictures of Randy and me from his Challenger as he escorted us out.

I don’t remember if I already included a shot of my Drifter fully loaded, so this gives you some idea of all the stuff I carry.

2. How much I’m enjoying corresponding with Charles Gablemann’s Aviation Club.
Charlie is an Ed-Tech at the Phippsburg Elementary School in Phippsburg, Maine. There are ten students in the school’s Aviation Club, from grades 3-5. They usually meet every other Monday but the past month and a half they have been meeting every Monday because they are sponsoring Aviation Week in the school in mid-April.

Every Monday, two of his students send me questions about my flight. I really enjoy hearing from them – each a potential pilot!

In one of his early e-mails, Charlie wrote:
“We start our weekly meeting with your blog tracing your route and examining your pictures which I might add are great. Some of my kids are studying biomes and your pictures of the deserts were fantastic. Every subject in school can be related to Aviation; it's a great motivator. That's just one of the reasons I loved it so. Arty, I want to thank you again for letting us be part of your flight. Feel free to mention us in your blog anytime. Clear skies and smooth flying. Charlie.

Yesterday I got another e-mail:
“Arty, we just finished Aviation Week here at school and it was a great success. Aviation Club sponsored a paper airplane throwing contest, an Aviation Art Contest, a presentation by the Maine Powered Parachutes Association, and our Aviation Club put on a presentation of our own, to the kindergarten,1st and 2nd grades entitled ‘Aviation Time Line.’ I’m sending you a couple of pictures taken of us right after the presentation.”

These pics are great and I LOVE the banner – thanks so much, kids. If you videotaped your presentation, I’d love to see it.

We need more Charlies and Aviation Clubs.

3. How impossible it is to describe the magic of flight. A group of ultralight-type Sport pilots were sitting under the wings of two Challengers (ultralight-type E-LSAs) this afternoon, telling tall tales about our flying exploits, each of us sharing our hairiest and scariest, as pilots like to do. I mentioned that I was glad Norm wasn’t listening, since I know he worries about my safety when I go off on these flying expeditions. I wondered aloud why we didn’t talk more about the joyous flights, the peaceful sense of serenity, the amazement of seeing the world from a different perspective, the times when you know that ‘G-D’s in his heaven - all’s right with the world!’ (Robert Browning, 1881.)

Andre, who had flown down from Ottowa, in one of the Challengers, said, “Because you can’t describe magic. You’ve got to experience it.”

How right he is. One of the absolutely most magical times in my life was when I flew THROUGH the middle of a rainbow! I had just flown through 3-4 minutes of an excruciatingly painful hailstorm. When I finally took my arm away from protecting my face, I saw ahead of me a rainbow, directly in my line of flight. I expected it to retreat, as all rainbows do. But it stayed where it was, and I got closer and closer and closer – and I was flying through it and it was above and below and all around me!

I think the only thing in my life that compares was when we first saw our infant son Mark. For those of you with children, you can immediately recapture the magic of first seeing your new child. And for those of you who fly – even if you’ve never flown through a rainbow – you can recapture the magic of some of your flying moments. But if you’re not a parent or you’re not a pilot…you can only imagine. I wish words weren’t so limiting.

4. How statistics don’t begin to tell the story, Yet people are always interested in statistics and I’ve been getting questions. So – here are the statistics of the flight so far, from Sandy, Oregon to Lakeland, Florida.
Number of miles flown: 3611
Number of flight hours: 60.33
Number of gallons of gas: 241
Number of flying days: 19 (+ one day grounded due to winds and two days grounded while Randy installed his new engine in Van Horn, TX)

Let me know if there are any other statistics you’re curious about.