Forrest once bought an Ultralight Aircraft... It did not last long... he wound up getting depressed.
The Ultralight was called a Snoop... it was Quick Silver Rip Off. It had a 35 h.p. Cuyuna two stroke engine .. marvels......
a single seat... single surface wing... and sat on floats... with the moment of datum aft.... it had two axis control Elevator and rudder... it has spoilerons on top of the wings.. but Forrest in his infinite wisdom chose to leave those disconnected.. as it had a significant amount wing dihedral and would just make wallowing turns... no big deal.
There was the one time he decided to shut the engine off on deep water... well expected the plane weather vane'd to the Breeze and the current in the channel was running opposed... the whole thing rotated like a wheel in a hamster cage... Forrest was the hamster climbing out of his canvas sling seat and up onto the bottom of the now inverted floats the whole airplane under him in the water drifting towards North Pine Channel bridge. Forrest held the appearance of walking on water from a distance much to the bewilderment oh his rescuers at first.. what is that under you? They thought it was a Hobie Cat or something.
Charming.......
After much labor he got it fixed and running again... renaming it the Salty Dog.
He used to thrill flying along U.S. 1 right at the height of the cars travelling across the land filled roadway that crosses between Big Pine and The Torch Keys.. it was a real attention getting .... to the Drivers and passengers driving by... it had ugly Maltese Crosses on it... Forrest never liked them.
One day he advanced the throttle in flight very quickly and the engine just stopped... he made a nice water landing... and restarted and took off....
another time he was crossing over the highway and the engine quit a simple wire had come undone... he managed to make a forced landing just the other side of the big powerlines.. and pull out his pocket knife and make a real quick repair as he was drifting in the water towards the rocks... powering up he made good his escape..
Forrest never felt comfortable in that machine it was a far cry from a Cessna or a Piper.. looking straight down between your legs at the earth and sea below.. 500' looks a long way.
and the way those rear wing tubes flexed under a load... was unsettling.. what if one broke?
So He started to fly low... at what he figured would be a survivable fall...... maybe.
That may have been a mistake.. in retrospect maybe he should of gotten a parachute and flown higher.
One day Forrest was angry about something.... and there was a thunderstorm not far off in the distance.. with its black curtains.........falling from the sky to the sea.
He took off in the general direction of the storm...
Came around and set up a poor approach coming down in a crab... in retrospect he figures he should have done a go around.. but he figured at the time it would just skid on those flat bottom floats...
Forrest had made the wrong decision again the right float buried itself in the water and Submarine'd.
This time he Cartwheeled and caught a snout full of water... strapped in upside down blowing bubbles...
Fortunately for Forrest he had the presence of mind to unbuckle himself and swim to the surface.
Some Good Samaritan came to the rescue.. Forrest came to his senses and realized he better stick to Pipers and Cessnas... and drug the contraption into the woods next to his house..where he left it.
and gave it up, He went inside the house for two weeks.
But on a happier note there was the day he was spiraling with Eagles Over Howe key with a buddy Gary Bullard in his Ultalight........ Now there was a guy that knew his Ultralights.
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