galveston
A Day at Galveston Beach
This was originally written in early 2000 for the newsletter of the Recreational Aircraft Association of Calgary.
The day dawned humid and hot. Typical for early summer. After 4 months in Houston, Avril and I had finally found what looked like a good place to paramotor - the sole source of my aviation fix since leaving Calgary and the Maranda nearly 4 years ago.
It's been over a year since I last flew the paramotor, so it was with some trepidation that we loaded the machine into the back of our newly acquired car and found that it wouldn't quite fit.
Those of you who might remember my last note, might recall me boasting about being able to
fit the "airplane" into the trunk of your car. Unfortunately, it seems this doesn't apply to sports coupes . . .
Somewhat saddened by the requirement to buy a new vehicle, we set out anyway and pointed ourselves south to the coast, where we had heard of occasional paramotor sightings. We were not to be disappointed.
As we approached the Eastern limits of Galveston, I spotted the distinct shape of an elliptical wing. At first, I thought it might be a mirage, brought on by the heat, but when the BOSS confirmed the sighting and I realised that the shape was not losing altitude, nor over the water, I realised it had to be a real, live paramotorus raucous.
Stepping on the gas, we sped to the location of the last sighting and soon saw not one, but two - and then a third! This was indeed a lucky day.
Not long thereafter, as we stood by the fluttering ribbon tied to the antenna of a pickup truck, the paramotorus' came to roost.
Those of you who are familiar with paramotorus raucous will know that it undergoes a strange transformation when it roosts, sprouting legs, smiles and launching into the excited calls of an aviatorus jubilantus.
The aviatorus jubilantie were quite friendly and one of them, obviously the leader of the pack by his quick willingness to display his prowess, indicated that he would like us to videotape his impression of a hovercraft.
Not quite knowing what to expect, we agreed and set ourselves into position next to a small inlet of ocean water on the beach as the aviatorus jubilantus once more became a paramotorus raucous and took off towards the waves before turning and diving down to skim the water surface with its feet. This was quite exciting, but as we sat and filmed, we realised that the paramotorus was dragging its feet rather low and kicking up rather more spray than we thought healthy when suddenly, with a great gush of water, paramotorus raucous displayed its ability to imitate a genuine murkus depthus.
Walking on water . . ..........................................................Then sinking...
It was with great mirth that Avril and I greeted the Aviatorus Sheepus which emerged from the depthus. Fortunately for the Aviatorus, the depthus was only about 12 inches.
I can't wait to get a bigger car.
