It was a close call. I almost didn’t make it. Thanks to the National Park Service, and my family’s support, I got to fly a plane at the exact, and I meant exact, spot where Wilbur and Orville made their first historic flight. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

My plane went right down the exact location where the Wright Brothers sent their historic if not fragile gossamer.

It was in the evening, and we were almost out of time for our launch window. All of the tourists were out of the area, except for a Japanese couple. My support team literally ran to the launch site. There was a lot of shouting and high energy prior to the flight, knowing how significant this would be.

We checked the landing gear, and wings in those final moments.

My kids couldn’t believe I was going to actually do it.

Time was running out

The first flight went better than expected. The Japanese couple snapped photos as if we were doing the first manned flight. I ended up crashing the plane in the weeds about 80 feet from launch.

Then we drug the plane back to the start, checked the wings, and wound up the rubber band until we got double knots. We did one more flight before the Park Rangers kicked us out for the night.

I love flying balsa wood airplanes. I really do.