50

The big five-oh has finally hit me. I feel fine but it does make one pause to wonder where all the years could possibly have gone. But everyone knows all this so I'll speak of something more interesting. This morning I had a little time and went out to a small airstrip I had passed every time I went out to the condo. I love little airports so I just wanted to go nose around a bit. As it happens it is the home office/factory/test facility for Aero Adventure aircraft, makers of several kit airplanes the featured one of which is the Aventura II. It is a strut-braced, two seat Kevlar hull seaplane. The guys there welcomed me warmly and showed me all around and told me all about the airplane. There is an instructor on-site there, an ex-career air force, airline, has-flown-everything old salt. His name is Bob and he's a really nice fellow. They give demonstration flights for a certain sum of dollars the mention of which brought my normal knee-jerk response of “I can't afford it.” Then I got to thinking, “Hey, it's my birthday!” With that I decided I needed to supply myself with a birthday present. So out went Bob and I to the demonstration airplane. After a bit of briefing on the simple systems, we fired up the 100hp Rotax 912ULS engine and did the customary checks. A short dash of about 150 feet down the pavement was followed by quick levitation. It doesn't take much room to get this thing into the air. It's a nice, roomy airplane with great visibility. Very easy to fly. Even with no doors it was considerably quieter than I was expecting. A few minutes flying got us over to a little lake and then the real fun began. I have all my life wanted to experience water flying and this morning I finally got my first taste. The wind was up a bit and the water was getting choppy. Bob said the look of the water told him we had at least 15 knots wind. That was not making him happy as this thing is absolutely the best toy on the planet on smooth water. But he was game and we made a couple of landings. I didn't think it was too rough. It's really something to be flying along in a plane one second and then motoring along in a boat the next. I can see how it could become quite the addiction. Back in the air I tried some different maneuvers to get a feel for the ship and then made the approach and landing back at the strip. There was a pretty good crosswind but I managed. Bob seemed to be impressed that I did so well after so many years out of the saddle. Guess it was all those “wasted” nights on the X-Plane simulator. I won't go into a big pilot report here as that is available elsewhere if you are really interested in this airplane. But I must say I was impressed by a lot of what this design has to offer. So here we go again, another kit airplane on my short list of candidates. And I do believe that was the best birthday present I ever bought myself.

The one I flew is the red, white, and blue one in this shot.