Party Crashing

One of the nicest things about flying a Powered Parachute is that you tend to fly a lot lower and slower that most other aircraft. Normally I fly under 500 feet above the ground. At times I may be just 50 feet about the trees and fields out in the country. I should mention that I only fly at 30 miles per hour so even at 50 feet over a farm field I am still flying at a safe altitude for this type of aircraft.

When you fly low you get to see more of what is around you. You get to see all the houses, the vehicles on the road, farm animals in the fields, wild life running wild and people everywhere. You can see people well enough to know that they are smiling and waving at you and I am always happy to wave back. I frequently see backyard barbecues full of happy and hungry people.

I really like it when I see kids out the country. They seem to really enjoy it when I see them waving and I wave back. If there are fields nearby that would allow for a safe close-up flight, I will get down close to the ground over a neighboring field and fly by the kids a few times. The kids and the parents really love it. This is where the party crashing happened.

On one of my regular evening flights around the local country side, I passed a particular house. What makes this house important is that just about every time I fly by there is a bunch of people in the backyard having a good time. Now, even when I am far away from this house I can barely see people waving their hands as I approach. I reward their enthusiastic waving with a mini-show with a few low passes and circles around the house. When you fly at 30 miles per hour your few circles around a house could take several minutes.

The other night I decide since they are ALWAYS out there waving and ALWAYS seem to have a party going on (the pool in the backyard doesn't hurt), that after I returned and landed at the airport I would drive on over with my powered parachute loaded on the trailer behind the truck and crash the party.

When I arrived I noticed that most of the vehicles were still there and it looked like enough cars to indicate that the party was still going on. So, I started to walk up to the house when somebody yelled, “Around back.” So, around back I went.

As soon as I saw somebody saw me, they said, “Can I help you?” I answered, “Since you always wave as I fly by, I thought I would come by and wave in person.” All of a sudden, I was welcomed into the remainders of their party. Unfortunately, all of the kids and some of the parents had just left for home. The remaining people offered me refreshments and came out to see my plane.

They asked questions and I answered. I showed how things work and they were amazed as how small the aircraft looked in the sky yet how big it looked sitting on the trailer. We then moved to the more comfortable environment of back patio with comfortable furniture, refreshments and food; and spent more that an hour getting to know one another and talking about my plane. They all thought it was the coolest thing around. After a while it was time to head for home. I thanked them for their hospitality and they thanked me for coming by and hope that I fly by and stop by again.

I headed for home with a smile on my face. I entertained a few people, put smiles on their faces and I made some new friends. What a perfect way to end a day.

Flying Adventures

One of the things I really like about flying is that every flight is an adventure. Sometimes you plan an adventure by planning to fly someplace fun but sometimes the adventure finds you even on a regular ordinary local flight. These local adventures are usually the best.

A few weeks ago while flying my ultralight aircraft around the area. Because of my flight I caused someone else, a non-pilot, to have an adventure of his own. I took off with my ultralight aircraft from a small private grass strip east of town and decided since it was a nice afternoon and would fly around the town. I flew west towards the town, only a few hundred feet about the ground, and came to a housing development on the east edge of town called King’s Ridge. I decided to turn north and fly along the edge of the town toward the North Baseball Fields a few minutes north of where I was. After circling the field for a few minutes, and apparently interrupting a couple of baseball games with my appearance, I flew south along the west end of town.

Near the Fairgrounds I saw a bunch of kids playing in a field so I took the time to circle the field a few times just to show off. Hey, don’t we all like to show off our airplanes? After that I continued south towards the airport about 5 miles away.

I followed the east edge of the town almost to the airport. I was planning to do a touch and go but the airport crew, who want to see me fly this ultralight, had already gone for the evening. So, I turned around and headed back to the field where I took off from. Of course, this means flying by the kids I saw before which meant another couple of circles around the field.

As I approached the field I originally departed from and wanting to continue to fly, I decided to fly east out into the country for about 6 miles. I know someone living out there that does have an ultralight similar to mine and he has not seen mine fly yet. So off east I headed to find his house. I arrived at his house several minutes later and circled twice. They apparently were having a cookout and I received many waves but nobody signaled me to land in a field so I headed back to my flying field from where I started.

Arriving back at the field I decided to so some approaches and a few touch and goes on the field. After I did a few touch and goes, a car drove up to the field and parked in the parking lot. I did not recognize the car and I figured it was just somebody stopping to watch. So, I did a few more touch and goes before finally landing for the evening.

As I was taking off my headset my visitor had walked up and said, “Bob? Bob Ackerman?” I answered, “Yes” and I looked at him. Here was a friend I had not seen in a few years. I ask how he was and we chatted for a little bit and then he said, “Do you know what you did to me?”

I said, “What?” He said he saw me when I approached the Kings Ridge housing development on the edge of town at the beginning of my flight and he wanted to learn more about this ultralight. He had no idea who was flying it or where it came from, so he got in his car to find out. He followed my flight up to the baseball fields north of town, followed me down towards the airport a few miles south of town, back to town and he got to the Fairgrounds with the field of kids just as I left. He then followed me out into the country and watched me circle a house and then head back to town. As I was doing my touch and goes he figured out where I was landing at so he drove up to checkout this ultralight aircraft.

Here I was having a nice flight around town and all the while he was chasing my ultralight around town, down to the airport, out in the country and back to where I started for more that 45 minutes, just to find out about this ultralight aircraft. My pleasant flight turned into quite an adventure for him.

Flying With The Birds

If you have been reading this blog then you know I recently purchased a Powered Parachute. This unique aircraft uses a large parachute as a wing as it flies through the air. After flying this unique aircraft for a few months now, I have come to the following conclusion.

This is FUN!!!!!

Now a powered parachute flies differently that a regular airplane. In a regular aircraft you fly at least a thousand feet about the ground at a speed of 80 mph or faster. People look like ants on the ground. You pass cars on the freeway and towns quickly disappear behind you. This is regular flying.

Even though I have to obey the rules of the sky just like any other aircraft, powered parachutes fly differently. First, let me tell you that powered parachutes travel about 30 mph over the ground. They travel a little slower into the wind and a little faster with the wind. Compared to regular aircraft this is pretty slow. Rarely do you get more that 500' above the ground when flying the powered parachute. Usually, when I fly, I remain only 250' to 300' above the ground.

Because of this slow speed and low altitude, you get to see people waving from the ground. You can see the smiles on the faces of the people below you. You see cars pull over just to watch you float by, people coming out of their houses and kids on the playground all running to get a better look. You see people stop what they are doing just to watch you fly by. This is fun flying.

As I travel over the country side I see all kinds of people outside waving at me. If I see a cookout, or a party in the backyard, and they are waving; I make it a point to fly around them a couple of times, just to give them a mini-air show. I can see the people with their cameras and video cameras shooting away as I circle overhead. I can even hear the shouts of people on the ground. This, to me, is fun.

I have had people follow me around the county just to find out where I land. They drive up and have a thousand questions about my powered parachute, questions that I am glad to answer. I have had people drive up and ask me to go back up and fly around a cookout at their home again. Then, when I am done flying, come down and join them, which I have gladly done.

When the powered parachute is loaded up on my trailer I get different questions. Usually it is, “What is it?” I explain that it is an ultralight aircraft. Some do not believe it can fly and I show them the pictures of me flying this crazy contraption. Yet, after viewing the pictures and looking at the cart (the place where I sit and the engine is), most people still look like they do not believe that it can fly.

Maybe, because the cart looks like a collection of pipes with the engine in the back and two seats in the front, the aircraft looks like it would be unsafe. My Mother asked me, after seeing some pictures of my plane, “Do you call a mechanic or a plumber to fix it?” As for the safety, I feel really safe flying my powered parachute. I have studied the accident reports of all types of personal aircraft and the powered parachutes are one of the safest. When I decided on which model to purchase, I picked the model that has the highest respect in the industry. Hey, it is my butt up there, my butt needs the best.

I have made many new friends since I started flying my powered parachute. I could not have asked for a better way to have fun. While I was having all this fun, I studied and now I am an Ultralight Flight Instructor. I am now able to teach new students to enjoy the fun that I am having every time I fly. Hopefully, I will find some new students to teach and make new friends along the way.

While I was learning to fly this powered parachute I had a dozen questions for my instructor and many of these questions were sent through email. In one early email I sent to my instructor, I wrote these words that I believe sum up everything. I said:

“The word 'Fun' is not big enough to describe this.”

I am still having FUN!

I Bought An Airplane

I have been looking for an airplane that would be fun to fly and affordable to purchase. If you know anything about flying you know that “affordable” is a word that is rarely used with airplanes (unless you are rich). Purchasing or renting an airplane is also an expensive proposition. The local rental Cessna 172, a typical 4-seater airplane, rents for about $80 per hour at the local airport. The two-seat Piper Cherokee 140 rents for $75 per hour. I do not know about you, but $75 or more an hour on a regular basis is more that my pocket book can support on a regular basis.

But, I wanted to fly. And since I have always wanted to fly, a few months ago I completed the first step toward that goal by completing my Private Pilot’s License. Now I need to find something to fly that is affordable to me, an average person. Fortunately I have been looking at aircraft for a few years now so I am familiar with what is out there. I subscribed to all the available aviation magazines and various aviation organizations that cover the lower cost aircraft. I read the reviews, ordered information kits from dealers and manufacturers, and did everything else I could think of to find out what is available.

The first place I looked is kit planes. These are planes that come in a box (usually several large boxes) and you put the plane together yourself, usually in 500 to more that 1,000 hours. I looked at quick built kits in which the manufacturer had performed 40% or more of the work for you (you still need to do at least 51% yourself). I quickly learned that there is a trade off between the cost of the aircraft and the time spent in manpower to assemble. If I was to build a plane, the price would be lower. If I got part of the aircraft pre-built, the kit was more expensive.

I looked at my pocket book and set my goals. I wanted something reasonable price (at least equal to or less that my nice pickup truck in cost), something that would not take me months and years to build because I wanted to fly now, something that could be transported easily since there are no hanger space available for more that 50 miles, something that was reasonable to operate which usually means fuel costs of 8 gallons per hour or less, something that would not require thousands of dollars in annual maintenance fees, and finally something that could carry me and a 200 pound passenger with full fuel. Many of you know that I am well over 200 pounds.

With these goals in mind I started looking at everything available. I quickly eliminated many aircraft designs due to the weight limitations. I found some nice affordable airplanes that leave only 50 pounds for a passenger after full fuel tanks and with me in the aircraft. Most people I know are more that 50 pounds so these aircraft quickly got dropped from the list.

I seriously thought about a single seat aircraft. These were quite affordable and within the goals that I established. But I quickly realized that I would love to share my joy of flight and a single seat aircraft just does not offer the ability to share a ride with someone. I decided that a two seat aircraft is the minimum for me.

Fuel consumption was not a problem with most of the aircraft I was looking at. Most use a Rotax brand or similar smaller engine which can be quite economical to operation. These smaller engines also use regular automobile fuel which further lowers the operating costs since aircraft fuel is well over $3.50 a gallon (the last time I checked).

Next I started to look at Ultralight Trainers which are two seat ultralight aircraft. Ultralight Trainers are bigger that a normal ultralight and technically not an ultralight by definition. Fortunately most Ultralight Trainers can be converted to “Experimental Light Sport Aircraft” which allow me to carry a passenger when I want. This opened up more than a hundred new aircraft to my list.

My newly grown list of possible aircraft was divided into five types of aircraft. The first is the kit plane aircraft which is your “built it yourself” type of aircraft. Many have foldable or removable wings and can be easily transported on a trailer or towed behind a vehicle. The second type of aircraft is a used conventionally manufacture airplane such as the aircraft I listed toward the beginning of this blog. The third type of aircraft I looked at is the ultralight trainer airplanes. The fourth type of aircraft is called a “Trike”. These aircraft use a large hang glider wing and a pusher engine. Finally, the fifth type of aircraft is the “Powered Parachute”.

Each type of aircraft had its pro’s and con’s. The kit plane would take the longest time to build, at least one year by most estimates. The kit plane provided me with a normal airplane that could be put in a hanger if I could find an available one. The kit plane could be used to travel longer distances but the this type of plane, by using a low cost and low powered engine, was limited in air speed. That means any travel distance would take much longer that in a Cessna 172 or a Piper Cherokee 140. I used the specifications of these two types of aircraft to give me some focus on the specifications of each aircraft reviewed. Also, I did not have a location where I could build this plane at this time. I would need at least a 2 car garage just to build the aircraft.

The second category I looked at is the regular airplane, such as the Cessna or Piper. These ran a little higher in price than the kit plane and required more money annually for inspections and maintenance. Most of the lower priced airplanes require a major engine overhaul in a few years and expense that could be in the thousands. The closer the engine overhaul time is the lower the price became. Also, since no hanger space is available I would have to park it out in the weather, something most pilots do not like to do.

Next I looked at the ultralight aircraft. Some were classified as an ultralight aircraft while others were classified as ultralight trainers. Most were an open frame aircraft. That means the pilot seat is mounted on a pile of tubes. There is no outer skin, doors, roof or other body panels on these types of aircraft. Some of them looked like cheap lawn chairs welded together. I wanted something that is strong, not something that would bend if I leaned on it wrong.

The fourth option, the Trike, offered low cost and ease of transport even though I needed a long trailer to transport the folded wing. The case for the folded wing is over 20’ long. But I was puzzled why each dealer I talked to recommended that I get a ballistic recovery parachute system (called a BRPS) when I get the aircraft. I had to think about this. This is a parachute that rockets out when you have a problem and the aircraft is not flyable. You remain seated in the aircraft as it floats down with a parachute. I expected the aircraft to be relatively safe under normal conditions and the recommendation of having an emergency parachute was not comforting. So, I did some homework and there are a few problems in the past resulting from wing collapse. I asked around with ultralight pilots and other pilots and they all said to stay away from them. Whether they were properly informed on the safety or lack of safety with the Trike, I don’t know, but overall the parachute recommendation concerned me.

The final type I reviewed is the Powered Parachute. This uses a large parachute for a wing. Since I had been a sky diver for many years in my younger days, the parachute still has a warm space in my heart. The Powered Parachute offered the capacity to carry me and a 200 pound passenger, ease of transport and plenty of fuel capacity. The only restriction was the wind conditions and the airspeed. The Powered Parachute flies in ground wind conditions of 10 mph or less (recommended 6 or less for a smooth ride). Low cost kit airplanes fly at anywhere between 60 and 120 knots. If the airplane is classified as a “Light Sport Aircraft” then it cannot fly faster than 120 knots. The Powered Parachute flies at 30 mph and depending on the winds aloft, the ground speed can be much slower.

So, I got my facts together and reviewed what I found. The kit plane takes too much time to build. I want to fly something now, not wait a year or more. The used regular airplanes were more expensive that I was ready to spend, at least at this point, and I had no place to put one. Most ultralight and ultralight trainer airplanes looked too fragile and did not have the capacity to carry the load I wanted. The Trike concerned me with the emergency parachute recommendation and that left the Powered Parachute.

With all these facts in my hand, I decided on a Powered Parachute. I then looked at the Power Parachute manufacturers. Through the Internet, email and regular mail I obtained specs, options and pricing. Finally, I decided on a model. The manufacturer, who was also the dealer, appeared to be in a hurry to get my money. But, I was not ready to spend it.

You see, I did not have my money to spend yet. I was selling my house and I knew I would make a good profit on the sale and a portion of the money was going to the purchase of an aircraft. But, at this point, the house had not sold. When the house finally sold I contacted the manufacturer and discovered that they were out of business. Boy that was close.

I looked at other dealers and started looking at their business history, sales records, industry awards and other information I could obtained. This is information I should have looked at in the first place. I wanted a manufacturer and dealer that is well established and will be there for the future. I quickly narrowed the field down to a few manufacturers and models.

After all this research, day dreaming of flying something, and agonizing over the wait; I purchased a Powered Parachute. I purchased a Powrachute Pegasus. Yes, I spelled that correctly. The manufacturer is “Powrachute”. This is a 2 seat ultralight trainer that can be converted to an experiment light sport aircraft.

I have had my Powered Parachute for a few months now and I have logged more that 25 hours flying through the sky with it. It is a blast flying at only a few hundred feet and sometimes closer to the ground. I have watched the birds fly by in front of me and not worry about a bird strike. I fly so slow the birds have flown along with me.

I fly slow enough and low enough that I can see the people on the ground waving and smiling as I go by. I get to wave back at them to their delight. Sometimes I put on mini air shows by doing some simple maneuvers right in front of them. I did fly by a friend’s house this weekend. He has a large field in his back yard (he lives out in the country) and I flew down and skimmed across the grass to the delight of his two kids.

This is flying. Low and slow. Seeing the wildlife in the fields, seeing the people waving up at me and see the country, not little squares of colored ground from above the clouds but the individual plants growing in the fields.

I am a pilot. I am flying. Heaven cannot be better that this.