×

Altoona man’s heart soars while flying ultralight

Courtesy photo / Ultralight pilot Dean Marcaurelle of Altoona has been flying ultralights for 22 years.

Despite the cold, rainy weather, Dean Marcaurelle of Altoona took to the skies Oct. 1, one of more than 800 ultralight pilots worldwide to take part in the World Ultralight Fly-In.

Marcaurelle sat down at his Altoona home last week with Mirror reporter Greg Bock to talk about his passion for flying his ultralight.

Mirror: How long have you been flying?

Marcaurelle: I’ve been flying 22 years — 1,400 hours plus something like 1,800 takeoffs and landings. When you take off, you definitely want to land (smiles).

Mirror: Why did you get into ultralights?

Courtesy photo / Dean Marcaurelle of Altoona stands next to his ultralight. Marcaurelle says he flies his ultralight about once or twice a week on average.

Marcaurelle: I just heard there was an instructor in the area in Osterburg, so I thought I would stop down there one day when they were having a get-together and just kind of got interested, took lessons and got into it from there.

I think most kids, when they look up in the air and they see a plan … I think I’ve always been interested in aviation. Then this opportunity came up. We talk about it as sort of being the poor man’s version of aviation. You don’t need $50,000 or a $100,000 to get into it. You can get into it fairly cheaply, and then maintenance along the way isn’t terribly expensive.

It’s almost a combination of hobby and sport. Just the whole mechanical aspect of it makes it interesting for a gear-head like me. You know, people who love motors and all the rest, it’s a perfect combination of sport and hobby. Ultralighting is just a great, great sport, great activity — for a guy. We’re mostly guys, because we’re into mechanics. It’s just a great form of recreation, and you meet really great people in aviation in general. I highly recommend it. I don’t know that there are any ultralight pilots in Blair County. I know there are a number in Bedford and Cambria.

Mirror: How many ultralights have you owned over the years?

Marcaurelle: I’ve only had this one. It’s a 1983 Quicksilver. It’s what we call a two axis. Basically, all the controls are on the stick. Most conventional planes are three axis, your rudders are down here (points to indicate pedals).

You can find used machines around from $2,500 on up. My plane was actually a wrecked plane I located down in Shippensburg. A young fellow tried to fly it without lessons. He said he got 300 feet in the air, and all he wanted to do is get on the ground. He stalled — you know when the wing fails to fly because you are going so slow. That’s what we call a wing stall. He just pancaked it into the ground. He was fortunate, only 25 or 30 feet up. Anyway, my plane was a wrecked plane, and we basically took it apart and rebuilt it from the bottom up. My plane was $900 with a trailer included. Of course, I put a few thousand dollars into it to get it airborne. But $900 seemed like a pretty good buy at the time.

Mirror: Why doesn’t flying ultralights seem as popular as it once was?

Marcaurelle: I think partly the financial situation in the country. Then they developed a new class of aviation called sport aviation. That allowed you to fly a little heavier plane at a little higher speed. So some of the guys kind of migrated to that. But I think a lot of people just dropped out because of the expense. New ultralights on average are between $12,000 and $15,000. There are different types such as the powered parachutes, rigged-wing — like what I have, hang-gliders that are powered and that are called trikes — like hang-gliders that you sit in.

Mirror: How far can you fly in an ultralight?

Marcaurelle: I average two to 2.5 hours, upwards of 100 miles.

Mirror: How fast do they go?

Marcaurelle: On average, they cruise at 35-45 mph. So you’re just putting along, you know. Basically it’s a snowmobile engine, a 35-horsepower engine. My plane has a 35-horsepower engine.

Mirror: What altitudes do ultralights reach?

Marcaurelle: Usually, between 500 to 2,500 feet. When we have to go over a ridge, like if I was going up to Glendale Lake, we have to get up to 6,500 to 7,000 feet. The reason for that is if your engine quit and you were over that mountain, over all that forest, you need enough altitude to glide down off the mountain to a field. The fields are all down off the mountain. We have to always think in ultralight aviation: Is there a safe place to glide to if the engine quits right now?

Mirror: How often do you get to fly?

Marcaurelle: Wind conditions are important. We try to fly early in the morning, later in the afternoon or evening. I fly on average once or twice a week.

Mirror: What kind of upkeep do the machines require?

Marcaurelle: There’s not a lot of upkeep. You have to be careful when you’re doing your pre-flight check. Every 50 hours or so we examine the pistons and the rings to make sure everything looks good there. There’s a certain amount of changing the fuel hoses and belts, that sort of thing.

Mirror: What does your wife think of this?

Marcaurelle: She was very nervous when I started, but that was 22 years ago. And it really wasn’t until I had to do my first emergency landing when my engine quit — that happens in these planes – and I was able to glide it down and land it, then she started to feel more comfortable that I would be able to land it if the engine quit. From that point on, she really hasn’t had a problem with it at all.

Mirror: What happened there?

Marcaurelle: I was reaching up to turn a video camera on, and I accidentally hit the kill switch to the engine. And I didn’t know because I was maybe 800-900 feet off the ground, and I didn’t know what happened. All I knew was the engine quit so I had to land. When I discovered what happened I turned the switch on and found a flat spot again and took off from a farm field.

Mirror: What’s the strangest place you’ve had to land?

Marcaurelle: I’ve had seven or eight emergency landings. It’s been pretty much all farm fields. I wouldn’t say there were any strange places, but I did have to land one time in a plowed field. That was unpleasant. I also had to land in a soybean field. That tangled up stuff that is about 2 feet high.

Taking off out of that stuff was a real chore.

The Marcaurelle file

Name: Dean Marcaurelle

Age: 66

Residence: Altoona

Family: Wife, Betina, and four grown and married daughters.

Hometown: Salem, Mass.

Occupation: Retired physical therapist

Education: B.S. in physical therapy from Northeastern University in Boston

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today