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Three wheels, one big sky

PAULA DAVENPORT
Staff writer
September 17, 2008

(JESSE TINSLEY / THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW) Video: Flying trikes over the Inland Northwest

Cheney transplant Denny Reed, 33, is only half joking when he says he’s “just another guy who hates his full-time job.” A former design engineer at Seattle-based Bayliner boat manufacturing, he now supports himself making construction loans.

But you should see his escape hatch.

Backcountry Aerosports is Reed’s business passion. Opened seven years ago, the company offers guided aerotreks – a new take on adventure travel done on flying tricycle aircraft, or trikes to aficionados.

“They’re like a snowmobile with wings,” Reed said after touching down at his private airpark overlooking the vast Palouse Prairie in rural Spokane County.

Popular in Europe, aerotrekking is really starting to take off in the United States, he said.

Reed is working toward a full-time career leading flights on overnight jaunts, renting accommodations in his Skylodge to drop-in trekkers and selling trikes from his hangar atop Prosser Butte.

He also teaches people to fly trikes and hosts introductory flights and parties for groups that want to give them a whirl. Reed said he’s logged 3,000 hours teaching others to fly and countless more hours “just chasing coyotes” on his own.

Devotees from around the region flock to Reed’s airstrip and have formed the Backcountry Aerosports Club, he said. When the weather’s good they take to the skies and when the weather’s bad, they sit around and “hangar fly.”

On a still evening recently, Reed lifted off before dusk, soaring 500 feet above wheat farms and over hawks and grazing deer for a birds-eye view of the Eastern Washington University campus, its lush football field and arena.

Below, neat rows of miniature houses, streets and lawns lined up like pieces on a Monopoly board.

“We just inked a deal with ESPN Outdoor for an aerotrekking episode,” Reed said.

It was a serendipitous development. Seems a freelance travel videographer stumbled upon Backcountry Aerosports while looking for a vantage point from which to capture the sunset. He got so excited by what he saw he sold a television production company on the pilot, Reed said.

Filming could begin this fall, depending on weather and others’ schedules, he said. If it flies, it could spurn a new series pitting aerotrekking teams against each other as they navigate often difficult conditions to reach various locations.

Meanwhile, average aerotrekkers are seeing short strips popping up on both coasts, Reed said. And absent them, “we can land these things almost anywhere. And everywhere I’ve ever set down, people have asked us to come and stay” overnight.

Reed’s flown frequently to the West Coast and also over Spain, Austria, France and Australia. He’s hoping to organize future expeditions to Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Canada and Mexico.

Trikes aren’t the flimsy flying contraptions that took off in the 70’s when daredevils strapped lawnmower engines to aluminum lawn chairs and lifted off on large homemade wings, he said.

Now, “we are flying machines that have been designed and built with today’s technology and expertise. I like seeing titanium, Kevlar, carbon fiber and exotic alloys on the bill of materials,” Reed added.

Ultralight design, safety gear, navigation and communications systems have never been better, he said.

“The sport chooses you. You know it as soon as you take off for the first time,” he said.

That’s not to say it’s risk free, he acknowledged. He relies on a GPS unit, heated suit when necessary and an intercom.

“Everything is calculated. But if in doubt, we don’t go out.”

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A few facts about Backcountry Aerosports and ultralight trikes:

• Reed specializes in “low and slow” flights at altitudes ranging from 50 to 300 feet; trikes can fly as high as 12,000 feet but on-board oxygen would be required.

• Average flight speed is between 40-60 mph.

• Trikes burn about three gallons of regular gasoline an hour.

• Maximum flight range is roughly 200 miles.

• Single-seat ultralights are unregulated; two-seaters fall under the FAA’s light sport aircraft designation and must be federally registered and flown by licensed sport pilots or flight instructors.

• Trikes cost anywhere from $7,000 to more than $60,000.

• Safe takeoffs and landings require 300- to 400-foot-long runways, roads or flat ground.

• Trikes can be outfitted with skis or floats for snow and water landings.

• Special parachute systems, able to deploy as low as 100 feet, are designed to save pilots, passengers and their aircraft.

• Payload is about 500 pounds, including pilot’s weight.

• Trikes may be partially dismantled for transport in small utility trailers.

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More information on Backcountry Aerosports can be found at www.backcountryaerosports.com or (509) 456-8900.

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