Steve Pinkham

In Remembrance

To fly is to realize a dream,

to position body, mind and soul in a perfect balance on wing,

there is peace, there ever aloft in the winds I will be, 

for I am a pilot.

So the next time your flying and all of the days reality has passed,

look to your right and give me a smile, as I will be forever in the winds.

I am a Pilot.................Tom Eichhorn

If Tim Wells hadn't sold Steve Pinkham his plane, they would not have flown to Dick Baner's, had they not flown to Dick Baner's...

My first encounter with ultralighting and ultralighters was right after I began mowing my landing strip in order to fly my first ultralight, a hiperlight biplane.  My attention was brought by a lot of buzzing one day on the strip even before I had tried to ever fly my plane there. 

I discovered that two helmeted guys and their planes (which I later learned were called Kasper Wings) had landed on my field.  The one called Tim Wells, claimed that he had approached from the south and had landed with little difficulty.  The other one called Steve Pinkham, had landed from the north and had discovered to his discomfort that I had a dog wire strung from my second floor deck out to a high pole in the tree line on the east side of the runway (and it is still there today).  Steve managed to hit the wire dead center on the front down tube on his plane resulting in an extremely short landing run and a broken dog wire.  

The strangest part of the event was that if anyone would be expected to hit something it would have been Tim rather than Steve.  After meeting these fellows I decided to join the club and went to the next meeting at Elton's home.   

 Dick Baner

As we celebrated Steve's life there was a completeness, a final and fitting weave, that is just a part of the fabric of life. Life should be looked at as a celebration, every day being double lined before rest. I appreciated experiencing what I have always wished as my parting...a gathering of friends in an un-choreographed flow to share smiles, tears, hugs, laughter, food, drink and music...a celebration of life, and the completion of a circle.