A Sky Gypsy

There are individual pages on The Sky Gypsies blog about who and what is a sky gypsy.  Here is an individual who truely represents the spirit of the sky gypsies.  Dave Skyes, a paraplegic who took up flying microlights (he is British and in Britian they are microlights while in the US they are weight shift controlled light sport aircraft), has started an epic cross country flight.  His goal is to retrace the steps of an early aviation pioneer from Britian, Amy Johnson, who was the first women pilot to fly from England to Austrialia.

Dave's site, solo flight global, has links to his blog which is a record of the trip and an interactive map based on GPS recordings that is a record of the flight.  Follow along as Dave crosses Europe, the middle east, India, and points east in his trek to Austrailia.

The interactive map does not seem to work in IE9 but does work in Mosella's Firefox.

From North to South

A while back 3 pilots flew down from northern New Mexico to check the place out, anything north of I-10 qualifies as the north to us since Amigos del Cielo airpark and the Sky Gypsies complex is in the bootheel of Mew Mexico close to the border with Mexico. Jeff Gilkey, Frank Dempsy, and Rick Cooper flew down from Double Eagle and Balen New Mexico for a couple of days visit and some flying. Jeff wrote up their adventures and the article was published in "Light Sport and Ultralight Flying" magazine last October. Jeff finally received the pdf of published article and it can be read here or on Jeff's Flight Log. There is also a link in the side bar under "Sky Gysies in the news".

Ring around the Mountains, Aerotrekking in Arizona and New Mexico

A group of 3 aircraft left at dawn for a couple of days aerotrekking around the basin and range region of southern Arizona and New Mexico. The plan is to fly up the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains and cross at Apache Pass into Sulphur Springs Valley then on into Wilcox. The next stage will be to fly across the Wilcox Playa and around the Dragoon Mountains on the way to Tombstone Arizona. From there the proposed route continues to Bisbee and then southeast to Douglas. The final leg is then north through the San Bernardino Valley into the San Simon Valley and back to the Sky Gypsies complex at Amigos del Cielo. The proposed route and predawn preparations are shown below.

The Route


0 dark 30 preparations


In Front of the Hanger


Departure from runway 17


Click photographs to enlarge