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Living, April 2007 Up, Up and Away The
pilot points out a seemingly flimsy flap over the plane’s
wiring. “Oh, did he show you the Duct tape?” asks
his wife as she joins us in the airport hanger. I’m sure
I turn the same shade o He and his
son, Alan, an automobile mechanic, built Cloud Chaser.
“There are only 100 of these planes flying in the world,”
Ron says of the open cockpit, twin-engine machine. Designed originally
for National Geographic for photography over the African Congo,
the 1,054-pound plane uses premium unleaded automobile fuel. It
flies as slow as 38 miles an hour and as low as the terrain allows,
Ron sits at the very nose of the open cockpit for balance. With no struts, wings, or windows blocking his view, nothing comes between him, the shot, and the wild blue yonder. “People think I’m cheating death everyday,” says Ron of his open-air transportation, “but I don’t think what I do is risky at all. I feel safer in the plane than I do on the ground.” On
the Road and in the Air Ron served as the primary pilot, logging in 14,000 miles. The actual trail consists of about 9,000 miles round-trip, but Ron repeated flight paths, zeroing in on the best lighting and angles. Mary traveled mostly by RV, interviewing locals for the book’s text. Sue traversed the highways and byways of the journey in another RV. Ryan, the youngest of the Lowerys’ five adult children, accompanied Sue, as did the family dog, Jack. A novice RV driver, Sue became an expert after 12,000 miles. “I ended up falling in love with it,” she says. Ron adds, “The way we operate, if you need to do something, you do it. You just don’t say, ‘Well, I can’t do that.’” Team rendezvous points ranged from airports to fields. Up before dawn each day, Ron would take off in Cloud Chaser to capture early morning light for the images. “Then I would land the plane, tie it down, and walk into the RV for breakfast,” he says. Sue, a graphic artist, maintained a Web site in the RV that was equipped with an Internet satellite dish, which outlined their daily progress. “While I would eat, the images were downloading,” Ron explains. “Then we would do a preliminary edit.” Sometimes a particular shot took days to obtain. “I do scouting up and down the river before I decide when I am going to shoot,” he says. During harsh
daylight hours which are murderous for obtaining quality pictures,
they edited shots, conducted interviews, talked to the media and
did basic maintenance on the plane and RV. Ron credits a supberb team effort for the trip’s success. “There was no way I could have done it by just getting in the plane and camping out along the way,” he says. A
Beautiful Book My
Own Moment of Truth “Want to take the controls?” Ron asks. I can only see the back of his head, but I know he’s grinning mischievously. I glance down at the control stick. “I don’t think so,” I reply, unwilling to admit my hands are too busy gripping the seat. Yet when Ron asks if I’m ready to land, I reluctantly answer, “I guess.” We soar toward the airport and start our descent. Seconds before
the wheels touch down, Ron maneuvers the plane up, up, and away
once again. I shriek in surprise then laugh uproariously, ridiculously
happy to return to this lovely, lofty world I never knew existed
except in the realm of dreams. To order Chasing Lewis & Clark or for images from the photographer’s other projects, visit www.ronlowery.com.
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f John Deere green as that of the tiny
plane. But I rally when I realize the intention of Ron and Sue
Lowery is to joke away my nervousness. Soon I’ll ride shotgun
while Ron pilots the plane over hill and dale in Harrison. |
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