The Accidental Aviator

My dad who is 94 1/2 years old is building an ultra light plane!! Aviation is not new to our family. My dad has been making different flying machines for most of my life! It started when I was about 8 years old. My dad, who is an engineer, decided he wanted to build a hot air balloon. So the journey began.

For years he made caculations and when we moved to Ohio, he would make trips to McKeesport Pa. on the weekends to measure , photograph and examine a friends balloon with his trusty sidekick in tow (that would be me!!). Dad would bring things for us to eat (oranges and hard boiled eggs) along our journey which was a little less than 2 hours of winding along the Pennslyvainia mountain roads to our destination.

This went on till he had enough information to finish his calculations and begin making the balloon. He made almost 100% of the balloon, gondola, burners and even sewed every inch of the balloon itself on a commercial sewing machine that we still have today! More about balloons later in another post.

One day this past year my dad approached me and needed my help to glue together the spars for the wings of his plane. We are making all the parts for the wings and alerons. We are almost at a point of being able to assemble a wing! This is how I have become “the accidental aviator”!!