Beaver RX 550, Beaver RX 550 Plus, Basic Canadian two seat ultralight aircraft.
Beaver RX 550, Beaver RX 550 Plus, Basic Canadian two seat ultralight aircraft.
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Flying an RX 550 two place ultralight aircraft from Alberta to Oshkosh Wisconsin.
It's funny when I first got into ultralight aviation back in the mid 70's a cross country flight meant heading out into the wind for 15 minutes, traveling about a mile and half and then turning around and heading back home. With the wind behind you the return trip took half the time.
Well Joe Harrington of Lethbridge Alberta made the trip to Airventure 2003 not in 15 minutes but in 15 hours over 3 days, flying one of the original Canadian designed and manufactured RX 550 Beavers, along with his friend Ken Lum flying a Challenger.
According to Joe the trip was just "a bunch of short cross countries." His first jog was from Lethbridge to Regina where he picked up his friend Ken Lum in his two place Challenger then on to the International Peace Gardens in Manitoba to cross the border. "The folks at the border were super friendly - because we didn't have transponders we just had to sign a waiver and we were on our way"
"We tried to start out at first light each day - and flew about 2 hours between stops." "We were prepared to camp out under the wing and had Granola Bars, Trail mix and a small camp stove, but everywhere we landed there was someone offering us help."
"At Devil's Lake in North Dakota we landed at a crop sprayers field, he gave us his truck to drive into town, and the use of his hangar overnight - the people on the whole trip were just amazingly friendly."
"We could have made the trip in two days but stopped at 7 one night and weren't able to take off because of low clouds until late in the afternoon the next day."
Talking to Joe you realize this will not be his last cross country, he would like to fly across Canada, and possibly circumvent it. Joe is a member of EAA Chapter 923, and COPA Flight 24, and invites any other "cross country ultralighter" to give him a call if they are flying through Lethbridge.
