David Bleakney This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Page Title

   www.miamisailing.org/mainsheet - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/5/2005   Last Visited: 3/5/2005

   David Bleakney has joined our staff of instructors. Recently arrived from Canada, where he worked with The Victoria Sailing Foundation as their instructor. We welcome him and hope he will quickly get used to our weather.

2. 2. thefacts.com

   www.thefacts.com/story.lasso?w - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/13/2003   Last Visited: 11/13/2003

   Angleton's David Bleakney has been flying since 1972 and got started in ultralights in the early 1990s.
   
   "It's just an incredible feeling of freedom," he said. "It's like riding a motorcycle in the air."
   
   Despite their flimsy appearance, Bleakney said, ultralights are actually quite safe, thanks in part to technological advances in design. But he also warned that people should seek professional lessons before taking up the sport.
   
   "You have to be careful, you're still in the air," said Bleakney, who like Morrison, is an instructor. "A lot of people in the past have, for whatever reason, decided they wanted to teach themselves to fly. Several people have lost their lives."
   
   Bleakney, whose focus now is experimental aircraft, said the danger worried his wife a bit.
   
   "She's gotten kind of used to it," he said. "She's said, ‘Whether he flies in experimental aircraft or ultralights, the boy is going to fly.'"
   
   Morrison's wife often goes up with him and serves as his ground crew when he goes to shows across the nation.
   
   He remembers the days when he was almost alone in the skies. His first ultralight, which he bought in 1978, cost $1,795, about a tenth of the cost of a new one now. He took it up for the first time on Thanksgiving weekend.
   
   "I saw the ultralights and saw that it was simple to get in the air," he said.
   
   A bout with melanoma in 1997 left him grounded because the tumor affected his orientation, and he wasn't able to fly for a year. Since then, he's had a different outlook on the sport, which is also a business for him.
   ...
   Bleakney calls Morrison a legend in the ultralight community.
   ...
   "He knows this business better than anyone else," Bleakney said. "He's been kind of an icon in this business."
   
   Bleakney said costs are pushing private pilots out of the air. Ultralights are a way for people to leave the earth relatively cheaply.
   
   "Flying is something that should be experienced by as many people as possible," Bleakney said.