Maybe you’ve experienced a UFO sighting before. For better or worse, I never have. A couple of times I’ve seen some odd things, but they always ended up having a concrete explanation: a rocket of some sort blasting off or returning to earth; a shooting star or a comet. I’ve never seen anything I couldn’t explain, but a few weeks ago, I did see something in the sky that I hadn’t seen before.
It was a rowing morning, so we were out around 7 am in Seton Channel just behind Tampa General, a little bit before you get to the Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Island. We often see little planes coming and going as we row past, but on this particular morning in the distance was something that just kind of looked like a drone. That’s no big deal, there are drones flying over the river at various times, so at first we just sort of ignored it. But then it kept getting bigger. So then we were wondering if it was some sort of larger delivery drone. The port and cruise ship terminals are nearby, not to mention MacDill AFB. As it got closer, though, it was really big, like the size of a small car. From a distance it looked like a typical drone with a propeller in each corner, but as it got closer it actually had a row of propellers on a top bar or wing . . . I’m not sure what to call it. And a row of propellers on the bottom. And in between was a person-sized capsule, and this one sure enough had somebody in it!
It’s actually a type of Personal Aircraft – the one we saw was created by a company called Pivotal. Apparently, you can fly one without a pilot’s license, you just need some basic training, and I don’t think you have to file flight plans either. People in Florida can’t handle traffic in two dimensions, I’m not sure what would happen if we added a third!
Now I have to modify my bucket-list trailer. This is a trailer that I’ve designed in my head that will hold all of the things that our family likes to do so that we can cruise the country and do all of our favorite activities anywhere. In addition to holding two single rowing shells, a double rowing shell, mountain bikes, camping and mountain climbing equipment, and a horse (and of course room for our dog Pearl, too), I now need to figure out how to make space for a personal aircraft. I guess having an extra $195K lying around would be helpful, too (that’s the starting price for a basic personal aircraft from Pivotal), but a guy can dream.
In the end, it wasn’t a bird, it was sort of a plane, and it was really cool to see it flying through the air. A very Jetsons moment!
One thing that changes in the sky this week is the sun. We’ll reach the longest daytime of the year on the summer solstice, this Friday, and afterwards, our daylight hours will begin to shorten. Join us at Kerby’s with Keystone Yoga as we honor this change of seasons and usher in the summer with 108 Sun Salutations. Our video has the details, here. Get your tickets here, and note that it will begin at 7:30 am, before our typical opening time of 9 am. Let’s create some amazing energy to move us into the second half of 2025!
