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Ice Cream

By Nick Scholtes
Photos by Alex Varv and Jeff Goin
Dec 19, 2001, flight July, 2000

I had a very memorable flight last night that I'd like to share. It wasn't a flight, but a collection of flights.....

I live on a little farm in rural Illinois, about an hour SW of Chicago. I have a pasture behind the barn that is 625' x 400', that I keep mowed and I let the llamas (yes, I have llamas) graze on. Its the perfect PPG "airport"  (although sometimes it doubles as a heliport when fellow PPGer/Southwest Captain/helicopter pilot Jeff Goin flies his helicopter over so that he and I can PPG together). This "airport" also does duty as a Radio Controlled airplane and helicopter field, which are amongst my "other" hobbies.

Anyway, last night it was perfectly calm and the thermals seemed to have dissipated very early. I prefer PPGing in glassy smooth air, and judging from the many windsocks I have dotting the pasture, it was going to be glassy smooth. Normally it doesn't get smooth until an hour before dark (about 7:30 this time of year) but last night at 5:30 it looked perfect.

With a full tank of fuel, I launched into the still air. (For those of you who debate the merits of zero-wind launches, I can say, with well over 100 no-wind forwards under my belt, that they are possible, and pleasant, and the rewards of flying in those conditions are immense). With no destination in mind, I headed north to buzz a neighbor's house because he had expressed an interest in PPGing and I wanted to keep reminding him of what he was missing! I continued to head north over a neighbor's farm.

This farmer has a whole menagerie of animals, from Clydesdale horses, to llamas, mules, monkeys, ostriches, emus, peacocks, and just about anything you can imagine. I spent a few minutes looking down on the "zoo" and watching all of the animals look up at me in wonder. I recognized one of the llamas as the father of one of the llamas at my own farm. His name is "Elvis". I waved to Elvis!! He flapped his ears back at me. I flew over the ostrich pen. 

All of a sudden I had an urge to toss ping-pong balls at the ostriches (inside joke, long-term list members will understand!) 

I then turned west and headed to a neighbor's grass airstrip. I was hoping I could catch him outside. I planned on landing and talking airplanes. But he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there were a few trucks midway down the strip and pulled off to one side. I went in for a look. Just then an R/C airplane passed me, and I realized it was a bunch of guys flying R/C. After a few fly-bys, I landed and bullshitted with them for a while. Somewhere through the conversation it came up that I flew R/C helicopters, and one of the guys lit up and said, "Wow, could you fly mine and trim it out for me? I just got it and I don't know how to fly it yet!" So I flew his heli for a while, and had a great time. Finally it was time to go, so I launched down the grass strip. The R/C pilots were truly impressed with the PPG!

The corn here in the midwest is getting tall, and in some fields its about 8' tall now. The field near the airstrip had a few runoff strips in it. These are long, winding strips in the cornfield that aren't planted with corn. They are kinda' like a creek, but they just carry surface water away to the nearest drain pipe known as a tile. The distance between the corn planted on either side of the strip is maybe 15'. I descended into a nearby strip, and proceeded to "butt-skid" and fly along at only a few feet of altitude. The corn on either side was well over my head. It was like flying down a tunnel! The strip curved to the left and to the right. This was truly awesome!! Finally the strip ended; a brief application of throttle and I popped out the top over the corn. I went back to visit the R/C guys. After a few low passes, the guys started waving and pointing north. I looked up to see what they were pointing at; a powered parachute off in the distance. Off I went, hoping to fly with the powered parachute.


The powered parachute was coming my way, and we converged in a few minutes and both turned to head east. Right in front of us were two hot-air balloons just taking off. In a few minutes we were circling the hot air balloons at about 300' AGL. We all climbed together to about 750'. After circling the balloons for a while, I looked down and saw two blue herons flying along. I dropped down next to them and flew alongside the herons for several miles. This was truly a great experience, as they would look over at me and then look at each other. I could almost see them saying, "What the heck is that thing? It sure is noisy!" to each other.

Before too long, I glanced at my elapsed time, and it told me I had  about 5 to 10 minutes of fuel left. I can judge, to within a few minutes of accuracy, when I'll run out of fuel just by looking at the elapsed time. I enjoy PG as much or more than I enjoy PPG, so I routinely glide in after a good PPG flight. So I got on the throttle and started to climb as high as I could anticipating a wonderful glide down. I fly a very early model DK Beat direct drive, and with me at 165lbs, my climb rate is not great, but I was able to get to over 2000' AGL before the fuel supply ran out. What followed was an absolutely wonderful, peaceful, quiet glide that lasted about 10 minutes. (There were certainly no thermals to exploit, but it was still a great glide). I landed 50' from my workshop door, inside of which waited my full fuel can.

I fly with FRS radios, and my wife and I routinely chat while I'm up flying. Out in the rural area where I live, there is no other FRS radio traffic. I informed her that I landed, and I informed her that I was going to fuel up and fly again. By now it was about 7:30, and she said that she and Morgan (our 15-month-old daughter) wanted to go to the nearby town and get some ice cream. I said I'd meet them there. So I once again launched into the still evening air, and flew circles at about 200' as I watched my wife load herself and my daughter into the car, and pull out onto the road. I aimed the aircraft toward the nearby town. There were some clouds out on the west horizon, obscuring the setting sun, so the lights were coming on in Minooka (that's the nearby town). It looked like a Christmas display. The nearby interstate highway (Rt 80) looked like a string of Christmas lights. My wife and I chatted, and I enjoyed the glassy smooth air, the wonderful feeling of being airborne, and the wonderful feeling of the cool air at 1000' AGL. I searched for air traffic, but I was the only one anywhere in sight. "Oh well, their loss" I thought to myself. "I'll bet Jeff wishes he was here".

Minooka is a small town, and I know a lot of the people in it. My brother and his family live on a farm nearby, and they and others know what channel I use when I go flying. And all of them have FRS radios of their own. Well, all of a sudden I hear, "This is Minooka International requesting a flight plan from "The Wing-Thing"". Rapidly processing the information, I quickly recognize the voice and say to my brother, "Hey, how'd you know it was me?" He said, "Who else would be that crazy? Where you headed?" Unknown to me, he and his family were driving into Minooka to go to the Kreamery (the ice cream place) also. I looked down and identified their van. Before long, my wife and daughter, my brother, his wife and three kids, and several other folks I knew were at the Kreamery looking up at me and they all had radios and we were all chatting. A crowd was gathering in the Kreamery parking lot. I continued boating around in the smooth evening air, and radioed my order down to my ground crew. "I'll have a large turtle sundae, with whipped cream and nuts!" 

Finally, the impending darkness, as well as the elapsed time, indicated that it was time to land. My wife indicated that I should land at the high school, across from the Kreamery. I came in for a perfect landing, greeted by a crowd of about 20 people. As I unhooked from my motor, I was handed a large turtle sundae, with whipped cream and nuts. And then I watched as my nieces and nephews argued over who got to fold up my wing.

As I ate my ice cream, it occurred to me that its great to be alive. And its great to be a PPG pilot!! Last night's flight was the cherry on top of my Sunday evening!!

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