The BlackFly lands at Eagle Crest Road

My second Flyboys of Summer story has to include my friend John Chirtea. I first met him at the fire hall during the Milton Holly Festival a few years ago. He is usually accompanied by an entourage of friends, neighbors and aviation enthusiasts. He reminded me right away of my long-ago friend and patron Ignatz Sahula-Dycke, a well-known painter around the Santa Fe art scene in the 1960s.

Of Eastern European ancestry, Sahula-Dycke claimed to be descended from the Dutch painter Anthony van Dyck. John Chirtea comes across like he did – ebullient, brilliant and warm – a Renaissance man. He lives in a house with a separate airplane hangar nearby, and he is surrounded by his planes and the metal sculptures he creates.

I warmed to him right away. I created a painting of him flying his yellow biplane. Fortunately, my observant husband Jeff said, "What is missing here?" It was the motion lines of the propeller turning! I am sure John really needs that motion to stay airborne.

I was already writing my stories of local pilots, but John’s wife Cindy advised me to wait until his latest plane, powered by electric batteries, arrived. It’s called the BlackFly. This was very fresh and interesting news, so I followed her advice. She is full of good advice, including the fact that she told John it was necessary to adhere to one of her rules, "You need to recycle your assets, and you can't buy another plane until you sell one you already own."

His love of aviation began as a youngster, when he managed to build many balsa wood model airplanes, and was unable to resist looking to the sky when he heard an airplane overhead. His school was located next to a small crop-dusters’ field in his native Ohio. School concentration was lost as he gazed out with elbows on the windowsill, watching the pilots fly over.

His highlight as a model builder was winning a competition with his handmade model replica of the original Wright Brothers double-winged plane that is credited as the starting point of modern-day aviation. The trophy was presented to young John by aviation legend Chuck Yeager soon after he had broken the sound barrier. Now, that was an award ceremony a budding aviator wouldn't soon forget!

After high school graduation, John entered Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in September 1955. There, with 15 other students, he formed the Chautauqua Flying Club. His first solo flight came a few months later, with the private flight test completed Dec. 6, 1956. It is worthy to note that the total cost for flying in the late 1950s was $2.53 per hour for the plane and $5 for the instruction. John's flight instructor was Lloyd Struke, a man he will never forget.

John’s plan for an aeronautical engineering career was downed by the complexity of calculus, and he soon shifted to business. He went on to other successful careers and moved around with his wife Cindy; they now reside on Eagle Crest Road outside Milton. On his lot is the hangar that houses many interesting planes and mementos. Among them is the Aeronca Champ, NC83515, the very same plane in which he took his first flight lesson 50 years earlier! He found the current owner and acquired it in June 2004.

He was introduced to Ye Anciente and Secret Order of Quiet Birdmen and became a member. In a decade with the QBs, he has acted as the Beam Man, reporting in their monthly meetings. The United Flying Octogenerians invited him to join when he turned 80 on Jan. 13, 2018.

In more than six decades of safe flying, John says it is still impossible to describe the exhilaration felt upon "slipping the surly bonds of earth," as mentioned in a famous poem, “High Flight.” He has now completed the three basic things a pilot strives to achieve in their lifetime: to own the plane in which they took their first solo flight, live in an airport community and have an airplane in a barn.

John has many airplanes in his barn, and now the amazing, futuristic BlackFly eVTOL has joined his collection as of this July. I recently drove to his property to view this impressive acquisition. John's very attractive and energetic daughter, Heather, joined us for Eagle Crest's inaugural flight of the BlackFly. Matching the aircraft’s sleek black exterior, she wore a black leather sheath laced up the back that looked like it had been sketched by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier. It even accented the eight black carbon-fiber propellers. Heather has truly inherited her father's love of flying and mechanical skills, and she can pilot the BlackFly herself. The plane looks like a very large drone; it can be taken apart and transported by trailer, which she helped him to do.

Pivotal, the company that designed the BlackFly, is located in high-tech Palo Alto, Calif. John flew there for a memorable sushi dinner to celebrate his purchase of the plane. The day I visited his home, the pilot to thrill the small crowd of friends, neighbors and other aviators who gathered was Tim Lum from Washington state.

We moved away from the plane before he started the eight battery-generated propellers and watched it lift off with just a quiet whirring sound. Up it went, over the green soybean fields of Eagle Crest Road to perform several maneuvers. It hovered like a helicopter, flew like a plane, turned with ease, climbed up, came down, hovered again and landed safely.

I have to admit I felt especially privileged to witness this flight. I remembered learning about the world's first flight of a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine Dec. 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, N.C., by Orville and Wilbur Wright. Only five people besides the Wrights witnessed four separate flights that cold day long ago. The longest was by Wilbur; it covered 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds. Was I a witness to the future of aviation that day off Eagle Crest Road? Was I a witness to the future of electric airplanes?

John plans to soon perform these same maneuvers and attain his chance to contribute to the history of aviation by piloting his own BlackFly. It is truly fitting that he will be admitted into the Delaware Aviation Hall of Fame this year.

Congratulations, John. Well deserved, and you fly safe, my friend!