Sun, Jun 26, 2005
Gyro Flight To Lower 48 Has Touched 24 States
We've written before about filmmaker Rob Dubin's flight around
the continental US. Starting from Arizona, Rob has now flown to
half of the lower 48 in his AAI-modified RAF2000 gyroplane. He
combines the trips with visiting friends and family, and visiting
historic sites.
He'd have a lot harder time trying to do it without his wife
Dee, who travels the roads below him in a motorhome. They meet at
the end of a day's flying and do a lot of sightseeing together, on
the ground, and sometimes from the gyro.
Rob sees a lot of America from ten to five hundred feet AGL.
Some days he visits five states. Some states (Texas!) take five
days. And along the way he meets a lot of interesting characters,
like the controller who got so excited about the gyro that he kept
asking gyro questions and neglected his landing traffic, or the
amazing mechanic in New York who, a local assured Rob, "could build
you an engine out of tinfoil."
Along the way Rob's had adventure after adventure: he's had an
engine failure, leading to a hard emergency landing in a busy
street; he's had the engine subsequently go completely bad, filling
the oil filter with granular aluminum and necessitating a field
engine change (enter the amazing mechanic).
He's taken his gyro over mountains and rivers and into the
Washington, DC, ADIZ (just shortly after the "Cessna 150 Terror
Plane" incident). Sometimes he gets lucky; sometimes, like on his
attempts to fly the VFR Corridor around Manhattan, he gets skunked
by weather or circumstances. But always he's having fun, and
showcasing the safe thrills of general aviation flight.
He recounts all his adventures on his website along with
photographs of some of the sights that only aviators see. Check it
out, but you might get hooked on following Rob's adventures. We
did!
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