In an expanse of quiet farm fields off K-7, a sort of flying contraption roars down the runway of corn husks, creeping into the air before finally reaching the same level as the clouds and flocks of birds.

That guy is flying it. The one whose flying contraption can be seen above Shawnee on fair weather spring and summer days. The machine, called a Power Parachute, sends 61-year-old Oakmont subdivision resident Dave McKibben into the air on Sunday, April 18, this time with junior Jeremy Spalding in the passenger seat behind him.

“[The flight] went fine,” McKibben said. “The weather was good, there was a light breeze and it was real smooth.”

McKibben has been flying his Power Parachute, classified as an “Ultralight” machine, for seven years now. The machine, which resembles the frame of a racecar with a giant fan on the back of it and held up by a wing-shaped parachute, cost McKibben $11,000. The machine reaches around 32-34 miles per hour and can travel about 4 hours or 20 miles on a single tank of gas.

McKibben keeps the machine outside of his house and flys about every other week.

A love of flying and the outdoors led McKibben to buy the machine he has now.

“When I was young, I was going to be a helicopter pilot,” McKibben said. “My goal in college was to be a second lieutenant in the Army. I had taken ground school but I never did join the Army.”

His older brother, who was fighting in the Vietnam War at the time, told McKibben it was too dangerous to be a pilot in the war, and his father, who was against the war, told him he was too immature to go.

“I thought the cheapest way to fly would be to join the Army,” McKibben said.

Instead of flying, McKibben got married, had kids and started a landscaping company.

Spalding, who has worked for McKibben since the end of his sophomore year, has flown with him one other time.

“Dave is an individual,” Spalding said. “I wouldn’t call him crazy; I think he likes to have fun. He’s safe when he’s up there and he’s a good pilot.”

Eventually, McKibben bought his flying machine and took training to receive his FFA license, which is required to use a flying vehicle independently. In training, McKibben said he was trained for the problems like high winds, loss of power and other emergencies.

“You don’t learn how to fly until you run into a problem and you have to fly the plane through that problem,” McKibben’s flying instructor Ernie Hillsman said.

McKibben chose to buy the Power Parachute because it “takes the least amount of training and is the safest to fly.”

While the machine is mostly for fun, McKibben takes aerial photos of some of his landscape company’s completed projects and posts them on his website.

McKibben is also a member of the Missouri Ultralight Club, where members will often meet for breakfast and then participate in a “fly-in” where members will take off together, flying in formation in the sky.

Craig Georing, a friend of McKibben’s who flies a single seated “PPG,” first met McKibben after spotting him in the air and later following him to his landing spot. He says flying is safer than most think.

“My life means as much to me as anyone else’s,” Georing said. “It’s as safe as you make it.”

With safety precautions in place, McKibben is not afraid to fly.

“I really don’t have a fear of heights,” McKibben said. “I am afraid of climbing trees and towers but this machine doesn’t scare me because it’s pretty safe if you follow the rules.”

For now, McKibben will continue to run his landscaping business while flying for fun.

Once retired, he plans to buy a newer and faster machine called the S-trike and move to Jamaica where a friend of his runs a hotel resort. There he hopes to charge people for rides in his machine which is not allowed in the U.S.

“It’s really good money,” McKibben said. “I want to fly people from the top of the mountain and back.”

Until then McKibben will fly when the weather and the wind is right.

With inspiration from the movie “Out of Africa”, McKibben explains his love of flying.

“I want to see what everything looks like from God’s point of view,” McKibben said.