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.