I retired in 1994 in central Texas and just never left. After about a year of hanging around, I got the urge to again fly, this time for the fun of it. General aviation fixed wing were just too expensive to operate and maintain so I looked at these little go carts with wings, as I envisioned them to be. Was I wrong! Today's ultralights are built with safety as the number one consideration. With a friends help I searched for the perfect ultralight. For me it ended up being a Quicksilver MX II Sprint, located in California. Easy to fly, forgiving and open to the world.  

My friend, an owner of a Quicksilver Sport, advised me to wait until he could fly with me before I tried to venture out on my own. I thought, why wait, I've got so many thousand hours in helicopters, and a commercial in fixed wing, what can someone who has only flown ultralights show me? But he was my friend and so I agreed to wait. I was very glad I did. Flying an ultralight is so easy, and SO different from anything I had flown before, that I think I may have bent my lil' red Sprint if I had not waited. The feeling is hard to describe, somewhere between a fast hovering helicopter and a very responsive little airplane. After about 30 minutes of touch and goes without me trying to come to a hover I ventured out on my own. 

From there it was downhill, I took the tests, flew the hours, passed the check rides and became a USUA instructor in ultralights. Then economics reared it's ugly head. Teaching people to fly ultralights will never make anyone rich so needing to earn a little money, I took a job flying tourists over the Grand Canyon for a season. When leaving there I had the opportunity to travel and live in Europe for a while so my Sprint had to sit and wait for a bit. But now I'm heading back, and the little red Sprint will again cruise over the countryside, being passed by the cars on the central Texas highways, but never will it be surpassed.