Ultralight Pilot Roger Dunham Was Born To Fly

‘Flying!” exclaimed Roger Dunham. “It’s like nothing else.”

From his home in Athol, Dunham teaches, flies and sells ultralight aircraft.

Ultralights - originally modified hang gliders with a two-stroke lawnmower-style engine attached fore or aft - have come a long way since Dunham first flew one on a bet 15 years ago.

At 254 pounds with five gallons of gas, an ultralight is not considered an official aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration. The addition of parachutes and floats for water landings are not included in the weight limitations.

And because it is under weight limits, a pilot’s license is not required to fly an ultralight.

But Dunham believes flight experience should be required.

“The worst myth is that because you don’t need a license, you don’t need training,” he said.

Dunham sells an award-winning ultralight called Sky Raider. Purchasers of the aircraft through his company, Rare Air, are entitled to certain privileges as guests at the company’s flight training and builder’s workshop facility at Hackney Airfield in Athol, Idaho.

When he sells a plane, Dunham requires the purchaser to take a course of 10 lessons as part of the deal, he said. He throws in an 11th hour for free.

Dunham is an FAA certified flight instructor with more than 3,000 hours teaching in the traditional FAA-approved taildragger aircraft and the newer ultralights. He uses a Vagabond Piper Cub, a two-seater certified aircraft, for training Sky Raider pilots. He uses a two-seater ultralight RANS for training pilots of rear-engine, pusher-type ultralights. He and other instructors, as well as official ultralight organizations, try to ensure that no one gets up in the air without learning the basics.

“We want to police ourselves,” Dunham said, “and we really appreciate the way FAA is working with us.”

Several months ago, the designer of the Sky Raider, Ken Schrader, died in an airplane accident in southern Idaho.

“It was not the fault of the plane,” said Dunham firmly. “When accidents happen, it is usually a result of a growing series of situations, like weather, that close in around you.”

Dunham grew up near his father’s airfield in New Medford, Conn. His mother soloed in an Aeronica Champ in the ‘40s. His father soloed in a Taylorcraft in the ‘50s, and sold Taylorcrafts in addition to farming and running a law practice. All three kids learned to fly and worked in the family business.

Dunham met his future wife, Belinda, when both were flight attendants out of Kennedy Airport in New York. In 1986, they purchased a 1937 WACO (rhymes with taco) in Seattle and flew east. They stopped by the old Henley Aerodrome at Silverwood and met Joe Taylor, a pilot known as Double O Joe for his stunt flying in James Bond movies such as “Octopussy.”

When Taylor learned the Dunhams, especially 7-months-pregnant Belinda and 2-year-old Blair, planned to sleep under the wings of their bi-plane, he invited them home. The Dunhams stayed three days. They fell in love with Idaho.

After Taylor died in a plane accident over Flathead Lake, Dunham and Belinda, who also flies, purchased the Taylor property. They moved west in 1990 and never looked back. Belinda still works as a flight attendant, flying the Pacific Rim, while Dunham runs Rare Air and shares responsibilities for Blair, 15, Jesse, 13, and two dogs, Shaka and Buddy.

The WACO sits in a big hangar on the property. “There’s only 20 of these left,” said Dunham, whose enthusiasm for the sky is undiminished by the deaths of Schrader and Taylor.

“The thing about flying,” he said, “you can’t blame anyone else if you screw up. The world needs more of that.”