06/03/2026
“It looks scary, doesn’t it?” Roy Pinner is pointing to a picture on the wall in his office inside the airplane hangar that sits a few dozen yards from his home. The in the picture, a Drifter ultralight, looks like the plane a daredevil stranded on a desert island with only a legless lawn chair, a couple of old wheelbarrow wheels, and some leftover fabric from a ship’s sail might build before flying cheerfully off on his next adventure.
In other words, it’s beautiful. Floorless, roofless, cockpit-less, and mostly made of air, it’s the closest a human can come to flapping his wings, getting a running start, and soaring into the wild blue yonder. It’s also the first plane that Vero Beach resident and Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA - The Spirit of Aviation) Hall of Fame inductee Roy Pinner ever built, and just beyond Pinner’s office, it’s hanging from the ceiling. Someday, it will be on display in the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Soar into the full story by reading “Flying High,” which is in the BRAND NEW June issue.
Written by Heather O’Shea
Photography by Steven Martine
