AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 60

" AIRSPEED IS REL AT I VE . FLY I N G A J E T
DOESN ' T FEEL FAST
WHEN YOU'RE AT HIGH
ALTITUDE, AND SURFACE
IS A BLUR IN A SEAPLANE WHEN YOU'RE
RIGHT ON TOP OF THE
WATER. "

ormer astronaut Story Musgrave has looked down on
Earth from orbit at more than 17,000 miles an hour, and
he's raced above it in supersonic NASA T-38s at 700 miles
an hour. But the perspective he's getting now is vastly different. It's low, slow, and exquisitely detailed-and it comes at a mere 60 miles
per hour from an amphibious AirCam Musgrave spent three years building
with high school students in central Florida.
Musgrave recently began pursuing a multiengine seaplane rating-one
of the few certificates he hadn't obtained during more than a half century
in aerospace.
" My head is swimming, " Musgrave, 85, said after his first hour aloft in the
front seat of his AirCam. " Sure, it's got a slow cruise speed, but things happen unbelievably fast. The takeoff on land or water only lasts a few seconds.
And airspeed is relative. Flying a jet doesn't feel fast when you're at high altitude, and surface is a blur in a seaplane when you're right on top of the water. "
Musgrave is an academic overachiever with multiple doctorates. He's a
surgeon, and a supremely accomplished pilot with instructor ratings in aircraft ranging from gliders to jets. He's the only astronaut to have flown on all
six space shuttles, including the Enterprise trainer.
If Musgrave had only wanted a change of pace, he could have gone out and
bought an AirCam. But understanding why he sought out a group of teenagers to build his airplane requires going back to Musgrave's youth. The future
astronaut was born during the Great Depression and grew up on a farm in
western Massachusetts in what he calls a " profoundly dysfunctional " family. Musgrave left home in his teens without finishing high school and joined
the U.S. Marines. The military recognized his intelligence and facility with
machines, then sent him to Korea where he served as a crew chief on Douglas
AD-1 Skyraiders during the Korean War.
" As a crew chief, that [Skyraider] was my airplane, " Musgrave said. " I did
the preflight inspection. I set the switches, and I walked the pilot out and put
him in the cockpit. "
The first time Musgrave set foot in a briefing room at age 18, the pilots
laughed at the " mere child " who carried all that responsibility. And the fact
that so many of the pilots Musgrave cinched into their harnesses never came
back made a deep and lasting impression.
Those searing experiences, and technical skills, set Musgrave on a course
for future accomplishment. Even though he hadn't finished high school, he
talked his way into Syracuse University, where he became an academic superstar. By exposing today's youth to hands-on aircraft construction and leading
them through the process of building and flight testing an airplane, he hopes
to provide them with motivation similar to his own-without the heartbreak.
" To complete this airplane, they had to learn about design, engineering,
and project management, " Musgrave said. " They learn teamwork and spirit.
They're on a project together, and they choreograph the whole process. Those
are the same things I did at NASA, and throughout my professional life. And
that brings a tremendous sense of satisfaction. "

STORY TIME

Musgrave has taken up temporary residence in a hangar apartment at
Lockwood Aviation in Sebring, where AirCam kits are produced. He makes
his way down a wooden staircase at 7:30 a.m. with a stack of manuals and a
travel mug brimming with coffee, then he sets them on top of one of the floats
while preparing to climb into the cockpit.
60 | AOPA PILOT January 2021

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021

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