The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

If you live in this part of northwest Iowa, there is a good chance you have seen a parachute plane.

The colorful chute is readily recognized with its brilliant colors including red, yellow, blue, black, orange and more. The plane has a sleek fuselage with equally bright colors. When describing it, my wife affectionately refers to it as a flying dune buggy.

Flying has never been a favorite pastime of mine, and the idea of being off the ground in an open-sided plane initially had no appeal to me. Of all the things I still want to do in my life, flying in a parachute plane was not on my bucket list. That, however, changed thanks to my friend Allan Mills. Allan farms in northwest Iowa and has the fascinating hobby of flying parachute planes. Not only does he have a passion for flying, he also enjoys sharing this pastime with others.

When I was talked into taking my first flight, I was not completely convinced that I really wanted to fly in an open-sided plane with nothing but a seat belt to secure me. To be honest, I prayed about it before I went, and at least part of my prayer was to ask God to talk me out of doing it.

I guess His answer to me was you might as well try it, for at your age who knows when you will get another chance. The result was an awesome experience that was both humbling and exhilarating at the same time.

On my first trip, Allan let me know what to expect – any time something would change that would cause some disturbance with the plane it would shake. He also took me all the way to Everly so my wife and friends could see me and take pictures. When we went over Scharnberg Park, I could see the different levels of the water. It was interesting. When we went over the windmills, the plane reacted by shaking. The same thing happened when we went over industrial buildings in Spencer and the plane reacted to the heat from the buildings. Each time Allan let me know in advance what to expect.

When we followed the Little Sioux River to Gillett Grove, we found 90 eagles feeding on the fish kill left over from the winterkill. After that we saw many deer.

Allan went over one of his friend's runways, went down and touched his back wheels to the ground, then came back up. He called that a touchdown, and I admit that I was a little shook up over this unexpected detour from our trip.

On our way back to Allan's place we were passed by three other parachute planes headed toward the river. Allan has been flying for many years, but in the last few years a lot of the planes have been sold. Allan has a radio in his planes so he can talk to others if they have radios. Allan also lets Spencer airport know when and where he is flying.

On my second flight Allan used his friend's plane, which was a little different from his. The wind was also up that day and the plane shook more than on my first trip. We went to Linn Grove and I was able to see the dam which looked much different from above. We also went over the Lutheran church where I used to do pulpit supply. We then flew close to the Sioux Central football field where it looked like a game was going on. We decided not to get too close where we might distract some of the players.

It's amazing how different everything looks from a couple hundred feet above the ground. I was greeted by a wonderful display of color. Although many of the leaves had already fallen, there was still an abundant supply of yellow, orange, red and brown on the trees for me to appreciate.

During my second flight I took better pictures until my phone ran out of storage. When I told Allan, we decided I would just have to go up again.

I would recommend this experience to anyone who is looking for something unusual to do. The view from above is indescribable; both beautiful and scary at the same time.

Dave Hoye lives in Everly with his wife, Cheri. He is a published writer with several different titles for sale on Amazon and WestBow Press.