By George Karamitis, EAA 144192
This piece originally ran in the March 2025 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
Folks, I am going through a most difficult time. I am grounded. After almost 80 years of an intense love affair with airplanes and flight in general, I have been lectured by several doctors. One doctor, in particular, while pointing his finger at me, said, “The reality is, George, you are suffering from the disease of old age.” And he defined it as such: My brain may think I am young, but my body is not.
We had an intense discussion. The reality is, he is correct. Approaching 84 years of age, my body and brain are years apart. I am not going to live long enough for the body and brain to merge. That’s the reality. So, how do I handle all of this? Eighty years is a long time to be married to my love of the sky.
One might ask, “So, how did this 80-year affair begin?” I was a little boy sitting on the grass under my mother’s clothesline. It was after the war when many small towns had an airport. There were benefits that returning veterans received, and one of them included flight training. It seemed that the sky overhead was one of the practice areas. I was mesmerized from that point on.
I was going to fly no matter what. Living just 20 miles west of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, I talked my mother into dropping me off by the 20th Street fence of the then Winnebago County airport while she went shopping downtown. As I grew older, I would save money from my paper route and have Warren Basler take me up for 15-minute rides.
After high school, I enlisted in the Navy. When one of the officers asked if there was anything that I liked to do, I said I love to fly. He said, “We have just the job for you.” That job happened to be an integral part of a U.S. Navy flight crew as a radar operator in VW-11 — a squadron providing early warning for the East Coast of the United States — flying in a Super Connie from Argentia, Newfoundland. Not bad for a 17-year-old. And while in Newfoundland, I was instrumental in forming a flying club where I soloed in September 1961.
After the Navy, I went to college in Oshkosh, and, again, I was instrumental in the formation of a flying club. After my graduation and my marriage to my wonderful wife, Anna (of more than 60 years now), we moved to The Ohio State University where I was a flight instructor. After a year and a half, I was hired by Trans World Airlines. I had a wonderful 32-year experience with TWA. In TWA, we were family. I retired in December 2000 with ratings on the Boeing 727 and Boeing 747.
Folks, I think I know what I am talking about. I became hooked on ultralights in the mid-1980s. But, before that, let me be clear, I had owned several airplanes. It was in the mid-1980s I became interested in the ultralight way of flight. I just wanted to go up! After one flight in a two-place version, I was hooked.
It is difficult to describe the ultralight way of flight. From the mid-1980s to the present time, I have owned several ultralights. My favorite is my 1983 Quicksilver MX. I have flown that airplane for more than 450 hours. Some folks didn’t like the fact that it was two-axis, but I thought it had advantages over the present day three-axis with ailerons instead of the spoilers fitted on my 1983 MX. On my MX, the stick controlled the rudder and the pedals controlled the roll. If pressed together, they would allow a more rapid and steeper descent. No matter what the weather conditions were, I always landed on the centerline.
These last couple of months, two factors came up at the same time. First was my failing health. Oh, I am well aware that there are no requirements to fly an ultralight. No certificate, no medical, and no training. In fact, the FAA considers an ultralight not an aircraft, but an air vehicle.
The other factor was getting help to do several maintenance items. When folks would say, “We will get to you in a couple of weeks,” they don’t understand that, to an 84-year-old, a couple of weeks is an eternity. Even though I built my airplane twice with new hardware and sail cloth, my advancing age necessitated the need for help to proceed.
So, after my doctor’s strong advice, along with my family and several pilot friends, I made the decision to give it up. Not entirely, though, I will pursue looking for folks who have a two-place ultralight to get an occasional ride. So, what to do with my little Quicksilver? I made the decision to give my little airplane to a friend who, along with his father, had helped me over the past 30 years. If he lets me, I’d still like to take it up one more time.
I want to be an advocate for the ultralight way of flight. Looking back the last 30 years, what I should have done is purchase a nice 5 acres of land and build a house, a hangar, and a nice backyard that I could land an ultralight in. I would have been perfectly happy with such an arrangement. But the reality is, I did not go that route. I was located near a nice airport with nice hangars, and that’s the path I choose. During the last 30 years, the hangar rent went from $45 per month to more than $400 per month. The cost of having a certified airplane is costly as well. The annual inspection and complying with possible AD notices are what I believe are key reasons why all across the country so many hangars are never opened.
Each of us have to ask ourselves, what do we use our airplanes for? Is it just for going up, or do we use it for cross-country flights? If it’s the latter, the equipment requirements are much more than what was years ago. If it’s the first, just to go up, one cannot beat an ultralight.
Folks, how can I help in getting those hangar doors to open more? I know what I am talking about. To all of you pilots that just want to go up, an ultralight can’t be beat.
Some of you pilots have high-performance aircraft, including some light twin-engine aircraft. In some of our conversations, you talk about having an ultralight for just some simple flying. I encourage you to pursue it. To all you newcomers to the aviation world and present-day pilots, go off some place all by yourself, close your eyes, and give the ultralight way of flight some serious consideration.
I want to work with everyone to promote all forms of aviation, and the simple ultralight in particular. The ultralight is a well-engineered aircraft. Imagine sitting in a single-seat ultralight, lined up with the runway, the throttle fitting comfortably in your left hand, the stick in your right hand, and your feet on the pedals. It’s go time. Advance the throttle and, in a short time, with just a little back-pressure on the control stick, you are airborne. There’s the wind in your face, the visual feeling of the ground passing so clearly beneath you, and the smell of wide-open flight. You fly the pattern, crosswind, downwind, base, and then final, and lining up with the centerline, you land. I will guarantee you will think, “How could I have been missing on this way of flight for so long?”
Folks, I know that I have a rough road ahead. But I am not going to give up on my long affair with flight and, in particular, the ultralight way. I feel that together we can get those hangar doors to open more.
George Karamitis, EAA 144192, is a retired TWA captain, holds an ATP with B-727 and B-747 type ratings, and has been a CFI for more than 50 years. In 2013, George received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for more than 50 years of accident-, incident-, and citation-free flight.