TAKING WING
AIR
LIFE
IN THELONG STRANGE TRIP
THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL LIFE OF SYLVIA GRANDSTAFFBy Sam WeigelO
ne of the happy byproducts of a
life largely spent flying, riding,
sailing and exploring all over North
America and beyond is that I have a
great many friends scattered to every
corner of the country and, indeed, the
globe. Sometimes this means going
years without seeing people, staying
in contact by phone or social media,
but it makes the eventual reunion that
much more enjoyable. Meeting up
with a beloved old friend after a long
absence feels as comfortable as putting
on a favorite pair of jeans rediscovered
at the bottom of a drawer on the first
chilly day of fall. That’s exactly how it
feels tonight as Dawn and I reconnect
with our dear friends Sylvia and Hugh
Grandstaff after a three-year interlude.
We certainly could not have hoped
for a much better evening for the occa-
sion. We are sitting in Sylvia’s fragrant
garden—overflowing with a wild pro-
fusion of luminous poppies, roses and
herbs pollinated by Hugh’s own bees—
as the day’s last light fades over the hills
of northern Alabama and a nearly full
moon peeks over the eastern tree line.
Bullfrogs croak from a nearby swamp,Sylvia’s proud brood of laying hens
cluck softly, and fireflies flit across the
3-acre homestead that Sylvia and Hugh
fondly call “Cloudbase.”
It’s not much more than a grassy,
tree-lined field set to the side of a
turf airpark runway, but to Sylvia and
Hugh, it offers the stability and tran-
quility that is missing from their busy
careers and the dream of the airborne
life they are building together. In a few
years, they plan to erect a farmhousehere—and a hangar. For now, they
reside in a handsome 230-square-foot
tiny home, practicing a functional
minimalism that rather parallels how
Dawn and I live aboard Windbird.
I’ve known Sylvia (nee Szafarczyk)
for around 20 years, since she was an
awkward, gangly teenage glider pilot
and I was an equally awkward aviation
nerd working through my professional
ratings. We bonded over our mutual
passion for aviation but became good
friends because we have a very simi-
lar outlook on life and a pretty serious
shared case of wanderlust. Our relation-
ship was always platonic, but our close-
ness did cause some tension between
Dawn and I when we first started dat-
ing. I was thrilled when Sylvia found her
perfect counterpart in Hugh.
He’s basically a much cooler version
of myself: alumnus of the United
States Merchant Marine Academy
who served as an officer on the
space-age HSV-2 Swift, a keen sailor
with ocean-racing experience, and
an experienced pilot and instruc-
tor in every thing from gliders to T-28
Trojans. Hugh’s great-grandfather24 | AUGUST 2019 FLYINGMAG.COMMEETING UP WITH
A BELOVED OLD
FRIEND AFTER A
LONG ABSENCE FEELS
AS COMFORTABLE
AS PUTTING ON A
FAVORITE PAIR OF
JEANS REDISCOVERED
AT THE BOTTOM OF A
DRAWER ON THE FIRST
CHILLY DAY OF FALL.