This September, Larry Crumpler, a research colleague at the New
Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and I were able to
fly in the back seats of two weight-shifting ultralight aircraft
during a two-hour flight over the McCartys lava flow in central
New Mexico. This flow is 3,000 years old and over 47 km (29
miles) long, one of the longest fresh lava flows in the
continental United States. It has been the subject of on-going
research by Larry, other colleagues, and me as part of my
research grant funded by NASA through the Planetary Geology and
Geophysics program. Larry made contact with the ultralight
pilots through his museum in Albuquerque, and following some
field work on the McCartys flow this past April, Larry and I
were able to make the first ultralight flight over the lava
flow. Pilots Jeff Gilkey and Paul Dressendorfer are very
experienced ultralight pilots, both having flown hundreds of
times over the many natural wonders that abound in New Mexico
and neighboring states. The April flight con