Autumn Peace & Aviation Inspiration
By Scott Spangler on October 5th, 2011Here in Wisconsin the maples are beginning their fall fashion season. Their shimmering coats in shades of reds and yellows blaze in the afternoon’s low, saturated light. It is a quiet refuge of peace in a world increasingly unable to give and take and coexist without hypocrisy and rancor.
To escape this incessant and self-inflicted turmoil I would give anything to go flying right now, to admire the trees from the still sky. Rather than grow sour about the circumstances that make this now impossible, I sought vicarious refuge in YouTube and found salvation in Photoguy73.
Flying over southeastern Minnesota in the fall of 2008, a powered parachute is the perfect getaway machine. It takes off, climbs, cruises, descends, and lands at the same speed in the mid to low two digits. Add power to climb and reduce it to descent.
You steer with your feet, so your hands are free to take pictures or, as Photoguy does midway through his low-level flight, wave to a farmer pacing a corn field in his combine. Think of it as a La-Z-Boy with a seat belt and shoulder harness hanging under a ram air awning.
What makes this flight special is the soundtrack of vocal tunes that tell of a better time, of what America has to offer its citizens, if they weren’t so busy trying to get theirs at the expense of others. Huh. Maybe I should go for another flight with Photoguy. –Scott Spangler
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