A loose cabal of ultralight builders and pilots, mostly from North Carolina and South Carolina, has gone by several indistinct names. On Facebook, they are the Phantom Ultralight Flyers Group. They have been jokingly called the Ultralight Thunderstorm Hunters. Lately, they are widely known as the “Shut Up and Fly” guys. More on that later.
In reality, the Carolina Phantom Flyers have no distinct organization, no dues, no official leadership, and, ultimately, no limit on their pure and unbridled joy of flying. Patient Zero in this movement is Shane Hammac, who lives in Landrum, South Carolina (the last exit on I-26 just before the North Carolina border). The second infected person was Eric McMahan, who lives in Leicester, North Carolina, just northwest of Asheville. One of the newer members of the gang is Waylon Woodall, from Horse Shoe, North Carolina. Shane, Eric, and Waylon all flew together from the Carolinas to Lakeland, Florida, to participate in all that is the Sun ‘n Fun fly-in.
If a starting point can be identified, it would be when Shane Hammac developed a longing to fly and started flight lessons as a teenager. However, after several lessons in a Cessna Skyhawk, his fervor increased, but his bank account could not keep up. For a few years, Shane tried to satisfy his flight appetite with radio-controlled models until he found out about a garage-sale ultralight (stop and think a moment about those three words: garage-sale ultralight; everyone can see you shaking your head). The possibilities started to whirl in his imagination. Luckily, Shane met pilot and A&P Lee Beckmeyer, who encouraged his interest. They became fast friends and quickly struck a deal. Shane would purchase the aircraft, and Lee would restore it to flying condition. After completion, they would own and fly it together. That self-same garage-sale ultralight was a Phantom X1, well known for its robust construction and a center of gravity that actually supported pilots weighing over 90 pounds.
Lee and Shane worked on their Phantom, going through the Kawasaki 440 engine and replacing the sails (the ultralight’s Dacron covering) and hardware until it actually became airworthy. Although Shane had some previous flight instruction, the Phantom was undeniably a single-place aircraft. What ensued was a long series of taxi tests, fast taxi tests, crow hops, and finally a full circuit of Sloan Field, his home base. Soon, Shane began looking for a more powerful engine and set his sights on a Rotax 503. He eventually found another Phantom with a 503 and adopted it for $3,500, replacing his garage-sale Phantom.
Eric McMahan, who as you may recall was our second person to join the movement, also had a real desire to learn to fly when he made arrangements with a flight school in Asheville to begin his training. Then disaster ensued as COVID hit the nation and flight instruction completely shut down. Eric was dispirited until one day a friend at work told him about a Phantom for sale that was disassembled but had many new parts in boxes. Eric purchased the project for $6,500 and began assembling the plethora of parts with only sparse instructions. After checking Facebook, Eric met Shane, who was brimming with Phantom information and assistance. Shane actually flew up to Hendersonville the next weekend. The rest has been friendship history. Eric’s Phantom was completed and, in true ultralight style, the self-instruction began with taxiing, wheelies, and a few crow hops. Before the first actual flight, Shane’s A&P friend, Lee Beckmeyer (who by that time had a Flightstar, which is essentially a two-place Phantom), took Eric up for a little dual time. Eric remembers that they quickly went through the basics of climb, descent, and turns before they gained altitude and pulled up into a stall. Lee said, “You see that airspeed at which we stalled? Add 10 mph to that and never get below that speed!” Words to live by.
Eric’s first flight around the pattern was carefully managed. In fact, Eric treated his Phantom like a live cobra, extremely wary of his airspeed and aircraft attitude. He spent months flying right over the Hendersonville airport, always in gliding distance of the runway. In the fullness of time, Shane flew up to Hendersonville and lured Eric out of the pattern to fly with him to the Lake Lure and Chimney Rock area, a beautiful and now legendary piece of airspace revered by ultralight flyers. Eric fell in love with flying over that region and flying with Shane to other interesting places.
Waylon Woodall has been a relatively recent entrant into the Phantom Flyers, but he had a wealth of aviation experience before entering the ultralight world. Waylon is a veteran of the Third of the 509th Airborne Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. He was not only a skydiver, but he had owned and flown paramotors for quite some time. One day, while casually cruising YouTube, Waylon came across videos produced by wild-man pilot “Carolina Kooley,” who did things with a Phantom X1 that would make you wince. Waylon thought to himself that the Phantom must have been one tough ultralight to withstand that abuse. He went looking for one for himself.
During his search, Waylon ran into Shane and Eric and was shanghaied into the movement. Waylon found a wounded Phantom in South Carolina with rotten sails, but a full replacement set in the box for $2,750. Waylon, Shane, and Eric hauled it to Waylon’s place in a trailer and then set upon getting it together. The squadron was now one aircraft stronger.
It is hard to tell how big that squadron is nowadays because there is no official roster or membership. Hendersonville now has about eight Phantoms flying and Sloan Field has three Phantoms and two Flightstars. Many others are scattered throughout the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia. Although there are no officially sanctioned events, word usually gets around about where people are going to fly on a certain weekend and many flyers just show up.
Someone started a WhatsApp group for the flyers, which has become their principal communications site. A while back, some members of the WhatsApp group became embroiled in petty complaints and discussions, which were starting to kill the joy of others. Shane, Eric, and Waylon finally had enough and told everyone to just “Shut Up and Fly!”. The sentiment stuck. All around the Carolinas, the Phantom flyers became known as the Shut Up and Fly guys. Lettering was placed on their cabin pods. T-shirts were printed. Just like in Forrest Gump, a movement was started.
Last summer, the Shut Up and Fly guys flew all the way down to Americus, Georgia, to attend a fixed-wing ultralight fly-in at Hodges Field. Five Phantoms in all made the trip, backed up by Tammy Hammac (call sign Car Bunny) in a support/chase vehicle. The trip was preceded by extensive planning and coordination. On the way to Americus, Waylon’s Phantom lost its cooling fan belt, resulting in everyone putting down at the first available runway. It turned out to be a private farm strip near Dublin, Georgia, owned by Bill Johnson. Farmer Johnson could not have been nicer, rolling Waylon’s stricken bird into his capacious hangar for repair. The group bonded immediately with Bill and have promised to return in the future.
Encouraged by their success at the Hodges fly-in, the Shut Up and Fly guys set out for Lakeland, Florida, and the Sun ‘n Fun event. It took the guys 11 hours and 11 fuel stops over two days to make the journey, supported by Car Bunny Tammy Hammac. Parked together at Paradise City, Shane, Eric, and Waylon have enjoyed (or suffered through) semi-celebrity status as people walk by and say, “Hey, wait a minute. Are y’all those crazy guys who fly Phantoms up in North Carolina?”
The answer is yes. Guilty on all counts.
If this kind of craziness interests you, go to the Phantom Ultralight Flyers Group on Facebook and to phantomaero.com (yes, they still sell kits) for more information.
