My Excellent Aerial Adventure

"Flying lawnchair" is one nickname for an ultralight trike. 

If you ask me, it's more like a three-wheel, two-person motorcycle with a rear-mounted propeller suspended from the delta wing of a hang glider. Or an amusement park children's ride that simply flew off its hinges one day.

Every July, if the weather is good, a variety of lightweight flying machines buzz the skies over the central and southern New Hampshire coast as the Yankee Ultralight Fly-In comes to Sanderson Field in Greenland.

On Sunday, July 10, one of two days with events especially for the general public (people who arrive by car, bike, or on foot, rather than in their own small planes), I signed up for a half hour ride in one of two trikes. I paid $60, donned a helmet with pull-down visor, looped my Sony A-55 camera safely over my neck, and got harnessed into the rear seat of an ultralight for the first time in my life.

The pilot, Tim Sullivan, is a retired airline pilot who used to fly jumbo 777s overseas but is happy to have downsized. "This is more like it. This is real flying," he confided after takeoff. Certainly, like a couple of birds, there was nothing between us and the air.

We could chat through our headsets and mics and did so, as I pointed out various familiar features below and he told me how the miracle of flight actually worked on this strange contraption. I was furiously snapping photos and shooting video and hoping my battery wouldn't run out and I would miss one second of this beautiful summer day in the skies over North Hampton, Hampton and Hampton Beach. And to think, my original plan for the day was weeding the garden and vacuuming the house.

I observe our little coastal corner of our little state, passing under me at about 65 mph. We are not yet too crowded with buildings and roads here; there are more woods and fields than I had realized. The coast is scalloped with rocky headlands and stretches of sandy beach. The ocean is blue but also surprisingly green and I can see down into it. We look for shadowy schools of fish. The beaches are crowded, at least by our local definition of the word. The ride is a little bumpy with turbulence at times, and it gets the adrenaline up. I am a bit dizzy when I look straight down.

We head back inland and swoop to land on the grass runway. I've always found the transition from the element of airy, endless sky to everyday terra firma kind of mind-boggling, even on big jets. After I thank my pilot and head to my car, I realize I'm feeling this weird combination of elated exhilaration and deep relaxation. It lasts for about an hour.

Here's a YouTube video of my little adventure: NH Seacoast from an ultralight trike 7-10-11.

More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination.  - Wilbur Wright