Official: Gyrocopter pilot did nothing illegal at Gettysburg airport

(Gettysburg) — Helen Hockensmith had her hands immersed in the dishes in her kitchen sink when she saw the white truck pull a “funny looking thing” on to the tarmac.

Living just a few feet from Gettysburg Regional Airport, 82-year-old Hockensmith and her housemate, 90-year-old Sam Green, see plenty of small aircraft take off.

This one, though, caught their attention. It was a small craft with a large propeller on top, like a helicopter, and an unenclosed seat for the pilot. The tail had a U.S. Postal Service emblem.

They watched out their back window as a man untied the craft from his trailer and let it run for a few minutes. Hockensmith turned away, and, when she looked back, he was gone.

“I thought, well, that was funny,” Hockensmith said.

Hockensmith and Green didn’t realize they may have just watched Doug Hughes embark on a flight to the White House.

U.S. Capitol Police arrested Hughes, a 61-year-old mailman from Florida, after he entered restricted airspace around the National Mall on Wednesday.

Hughes was charged Thursday with violating restricted airspace and operating an unregistered aircraft, crimes that carry penalties of up to four years in prison and fines, according to the Associated Press.

Hughes told a Tampa Bay Times reporter before his stunt that he intended to deliver letters to all 535 members of Congress to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.

Cumberland Township police assisted the Secret Service with retrieving a vehicle and trailer from the airport around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, about three hours after the Secret Service initially contacted local police, said Tim Guise, a lieutenant with Cumberland Township Police Department.

That vehicle was still impounded with Cumberland Township police Thursday afternoon, he said.

Guise referred further questions to U.S. Capitol Police, who did not return phone calls. A message left with Secret Service’s public information office was not immediately returned.

Public airport

Gettysburg Regional Airport is a small public airport at 1130 Chambersburg in Cumberland Township, just outside Gettysburg Borough.

Like many public airports, the space has no control tower and no on-site staff, said Scott Miller, spokesman for Harrisburg International Airport. Pilots are free to come and go as they please.

The space is run by the same airport authority that manages Harrisburg International, Miller said. All administrative operations are handled in Harrisburg, and another group from outside the area performs property and building maintenance as needed.

Airport officials didn’t know Hughes flew out of their Gettysburg property until they received a phone call from the Secret Service informing them they would be searching the airport, Miller said.

As far as Miller can tell, Hughes was like any other pilot that has flown out of Gettysburg until he flew into restricted airspace in Washington.

“Nothing that happened yesterday at Gettysburg was illegal,” Miller said Thursday.

The 47-acre airport includes four hangar units, capacity to store up to 14 planes and a 3,100-foot-long runway, according to information on the airport’s website.

Quiet day

Hughes’ takeoff — and the subsequent seizure of the vehicle presumed to belong to him — created only a small stir at the Lincoln Heights neighborhood next to the Gettysburg airport.

After Hughes left, Hockensmith and Green went about their day as normal. They didn’t know anything unusual had happened until a neighbor knocked on their door and told them what he heard on the news.

“Well, I was shocked,” Hockensmith said.

Hockensmith and Green later watched what she described as a large group of police officers drive into the airport and drive out with the SUV and trailer that had towed the gyrocopter earlier that afternoon.

“I never seen as many police officers in my life…” she said.

Many of her neighbors, though, didn’t find out about the incident until reporters started knocking on their doors.

Betty Cook was inside with her baby when police took the vehicle from the airport, she said. She couldn’t recall anything unusual happening around the time of Hughes’ takeoff.

“When you live this close to the airport, you get used to the noise,” she said.

When police arrived, she said, she heard the news secondhand. She didn’t hear sirens or notice the law enforcement vehicles.

Jason Howe, who lives about two miles away on Knoxlyn Road, drove to a parking lot abutting the airport when he heard news of Hughes’ flight on the TV.

He never heard or saw a gyrocopter take off, he said, and he didn’t realize police were in the area until he saw it on the news.

“It’s just crazy. I don’t see how anyone could think they would get away with anything like that,” Howe said of Hughes.

Gyrocopter

So what was that “funny looking thing” Hockensmith saw the man unload at the airport?

National media sources have reported the device was a gyrocopter — a small, light, single-seated aircraft. Hughes described it as “flying bicycle” in an interview recorded by the Tampa Bay Times before his flight.

The craft’s small size, combined with the fact that Hughes stayed at a low altitude, allowed him to fly into Washington “literally under the radar,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told the Associated Press.

“They’re a pretty neat little flying machine,” said Henry Hartman, president of Gettysburg Barnstormers, a local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Some gyrocopters qualify as ultralight crafts under federal guidelines, Hartman said, meaning they weigh under 254 pounds and carry fewer than 5 gallons of fuel. Such crafts do not require a license to operate.

Pilots usually purchase gyrocopters as kits, he said, and assemble them themselves.

Hartman has seen a few gyrocopters fly in and out of Gettysburg in his time with the Barnstormers, but the crafts are uncommon enough to garner attention when people see them, he said.

Miller was one of many people who had never heard of the crafts until Hughes’ flight. After some research, he said, he discovered the craft was small enough that it could have taken off in any open space, even a park or parking lot.

“He could have taken that thing off anywhere he wants to,” Miller said.

As to why Hughes chose Gettysburg, he said, “we have no idea.”

---

This article comes to us through a partnership between York Daily Record and WITF.