As I started my ultralight training, I realized that I wanted to record my experiences. So I originally conceived this site as a standard HTML web site created sometime in the year 2000. To tell stories and show pictures, I used an HTML function called frames. I got a lot of positive feedback on this method but, alas, the people who control the HTML language decided a few years ago to deprecate ‘frames’ and so fewer and fewer browsers support it. Only a few tablets or smartphones can view it at all.
I’ll freely admit: my primary purpose in recording these images and stories is so that, if/when I get to the point where I can no longer fly, I will at least have these memories that will, in essence, let me fly again.
I continued the original HTML website for about 8 years, but my banner year for stories and adventures was in 2002. And then in 2006, I was invited by the Houston Chronicle to start a “readers blog”, and I started writing more frequently about light aviation topics, but they were short blurbs and not really adventure stories. Those 155 articles went from February 2, 2006 until my last entry on October 30, 2011. (The primary link for those articles is http://blog.chron.com/lightflight, but many of the older articles are hard to access so here is a separate page with direct links to them all. (I wasn’t able to capture the photos or formatting that accompanied the articles, but at least you can read the text.)
The trajectory of the various aircraft I’ve owned from 2000 to 2017 also had rough patches where I didn’t fly much, so the string of stories paused in 2008. (2008, as you may remember, was also the beginning of the Great Recession, and it had a major effect on my life, resulting in a lot less flying.) My only regret was that I didn’t write anything about my experience with the Gyrobee. Yet I did write 3 articles about my gyroplane transition training, and those are included on this site. In 2008, I still had my Kolb but only flew it around the patch, thus no new adventure stories. I actually held on to the Kolb until 2017 but really put it away in 2016 until I could sell it. So, the apparent long gap between 2008 and 2018 was due to big life changes that started in 2008 and decreased my flying considerably. That gap was just a lack of stories, not that I quit flying. The only actual gap was only between 2016 and January 2018. That January is when I flew my Cavalon back to Houston from Maryland! I’ve been flying a lot since then!
The major aspect of the way that the old website worked was the method of displaying photos: frames, as I mentioned above. I used (to great effect, IMO) the frames paradigm, and put the stories on the left-side frame, and when a link in the story was clicked, the photo appeared in the right-side frame. I really liked the way this worked and got a lot of very positive comments about that method of storytelling. Because ‘frames’ were deprecated, when I started writing again (Dec 2017) I figured continuing the website using the old technology was a bad idea.
I have moved on from frames and am now using WordPress and a theme that struck me as being fairly good for storytelling. Now it reads more like a traditional magazine.
I don’t think it’s as good, but sometimes one does have to move on. 🙁
Here’s a table showing all the aircraft I’ve flown and owned.
| Date(s) |
Aircraft |
Owned |
Description/Comment |
Photo |
| ~ 1970 |
Cessna |
No |
Used in my PPL training |
 |
| Oct 15 2000 – Feb 3 2001 |
Challenger II |
No |
Used in my ultralight training |
 |
| Feb – June 2001 |
Quicksilver MXL |
Yes* |
*Co-owned with my brother Jim |
 |
| June – Nov 2001 |
Rossi Trike |
Yes |
Sold my half-ownership in Quicksilver to my brother |
 |
| Nov 2001 – Feb 2003 |
RANS S12-XL |
Yes |
This is a great aircraft! |
 |
| Aug 2002 – Sep 2005 |
Aventura II |
Yes |
Purchased it in and flew it back from Panama City, FL |
 |
Mar 2003
|
Cessna C172
|
No
|
PPL night cross-country training |
|
| May 2003 |
Buccaneer SX
|
No |
Ferryed from Minnesota to Houston |
 |
May 2004
|
Kolb Firefly
|
No
|
Performed test flights for Guy Morgan
|
 |
Nov 2005 – Mar 2017
|
Kolb MkIIIC
|
Yes
|
Drove to California and trailered it back
|
 |
| Aug 2006 |
Challenger I |
No |
Ferryed a plane for a friend |
 |
Jun 2009
|
Parsons
|
No
|
Gyroplane transition training
|
 |
Jun 2009
|
Sparrowhawk
|
No
|
Gyroplane transition training
|
 |
| Jun 2009 – Apr 2011 |
Gyrobee |
Yes |
Ultralight gyroplane |
 |
Nov – Dec 2017
|
Magni M16
|
No
|
SP Gyroplane training
|
 |
| Oct 2017 – Present |
AutoGyro Cavalon |
Yes |
Two-seat Experimental Gyroplane; purchased it in and flew it from Maryland
|
 |
Approx time-line of ownership
The following table is not comprehensive, but does capture many of my longest trips (over 200 nm), in order by distance:
I actually have quite a few “local” flights in which I exceeded 200nm, but the table above was derived from my blog entries, thus, some of my more memorable cross-country adventures.
