IMLAY - If you live in the Imlay/Mill City area you may have seen a strange looking airplane flying around in the early morning or evening hours.
Don't be alarmed. It's not a drone. It is just Freddy Arrieta in his Eipper Quick Silver MX ultralight plane.
Arrieta got the flying bug in 2010 at El Mirage OHV (off-highway vehicle) area in California. A friend began teaching him to fly the ultralight plane in the recreation area's dry lakebed.
He first began crow-hopping, then flights 30 to 40 feet in the air. When he took his first real flight he was hooked, he said.
"I would always have to take it apart and put it in the RV and trailer it home. It would be maybe two or three weeks in between flights because of the hassle of having to break it down and put it back together every time. That's one of the reasons I bought land out here. Now I can fly when ever I want, as long as the weather is good," Arrieta said.
"My dad graduated from BYU. He was a chemist in chemical engineering. He always had the dream to fly but he never got off the ground so I'm kind of accomplishing the dream for him," Arrieta said.
Arrieta has the flying bug pretty bad. In 2011, he began looking for property that would allow him the freedom to fly when ever he wanted.
In 2012 he left his position at a successful IT networking company and bought property at Cosgrave. He had a 550-foot landing field put in and flies whenever the urge strikes him, which is almost every day, depending on the wind.
He said he still does trouble shooting for some of his old clients and picks up a few IT jobs around the area, but his main focus these days is his desire for flight.
Needing only 40 to 75 feet to land and take off, Arrieta said he can go most anywhere.
Star Point Trading Post, about six miles from Arrieta's property, is a small community store and restaurant in Mill City. He saw that it had a small landing strip for flying RC airplanes. After getting permission from the owner of the establishment, he began landing there.
"Now I can go from here to Star Point, pick up my milk or have dinner, and visit a while and come back. That's a lot of fun," he said.
During his daily flights, Arrieta is always looking for places to land. He can stay up around one and a half hours on a five-gallon tank of gas. With a top speed of about 65 miles per hour, he can see a lot of the countryside in an hour. He said he can land and take off from just about anywhere.
"All I need is a clear spot where there is no traffic," he said.
Arrieta said the ultralight falls under the FAR Part 103 regulations so he is not required to be licensed, nor is his ultralight required to be certified or numbered.
According to agency's website, faa.gov, the Federal Aviation Administration does not require the pilot of a single occupant ultralight plane to have a pilot's license, and depending on the weight and type of plane, it is not required to be certified or numbered.
Arrieta said that one of the requirements for his type of plane is that he has to stay out of regulated flight areas around airports without getting clearance from the flight tower.
Arrieta said he is looking for others with ultralight planes to go flying with.
"It's always better when you have someone to fly with," he said.
He had heard there was an ultralight club in the Winnemucca area and is hoping to meet up with some of the pilots if they are still around.
"My field is open to anyone who wants to come out here and land," he said.
Arrieta can be reached at (323) 719-8649, a number that receives text and phone calls; or (909) 685-4728, a phone that receives only phone calls.[[In-content Ad]]
