FLYING Magazine
The vast majority of Americans celebrated Independence Day and the nation’s 250th anniversary with barbecues and bombastic fireworks. One pilot got a little more creative.
Aviation geeks on Friday morning took notice of a bizarre flight path originating from Norwalk-Huron County Airport (5A1) in Ohio. Before long, the digital drawing being created by the pilot of a Cessna 182 Skylane RG began to take shape on flight tracking platforms.
The Skylane climbed to about 10,000 feet and first journeyed toward northwest Ohio near Lake Michigan, then made its way back toward Norwalk-Huron Airport while spelling out three block letters: U-S-A. It continued eastward, its path spelling out “250th” in a nod to the following day’s anniversary.
To create such an image, a pilot uses the screen of their GPS like an Etch A Sketch and simply follows a preset path.
Skywriting, by contrast, entails the expulsion of smoke to create visible messages in the sky, with pilots often flying inverted—essentially, the plane becomes a stylus and the sky a canvas. The smoke retains its form for only about 10 minutes, limiting skywriters to only a few letters at a time, and wind can cause the message to inadvertently dissipate.
The Skylane pilot did not need to worry about those constraints. Eric Genier, the owner of Ohio Flight Center near Cleveland, confirmed in an email to FLYING that he was at the controls for Friday’s flight.
After spelling out the message, Genier encircled it with an outline of the continental U.S. He headed south and then west, sketching out Florida’s peninsula and the southern tip of Texas before flying north up to Toledo. The Skylane soared over Lake Michigan to create the U.S.-Canada border and Michigan’s upper peninsula, then flew past Cleveland as it outlined Maine and New England.
With the map complete—with the exceptions of Alaska and Hawaii—Genier headed back to Norwalk-Huron County Airport and landed at 12:11 p.m. EDT. The spectacle took more than six hours.
On Sunday, Ohio Flight Center shared a montage of the flight path, which per an accompanying description totalled 800 nm and comprised nearly 200 GPS waypoints. Per the post, Genier burned 74.6 gallons of 100LL avgas and had about one hour of remaining flight time in the Skylane’s tanks. The RG (retractable gear) variant can carry 88 gallons of usable fuel and burns about 12 to 14 gallons per hour.
“Happy Birthday to my new home…AMERICA,” the post reads. “With this flight, I want to show my respect to the United States of America! I enjoy the fredom [sic] of flying and everything this big country has to offer!! THANK YOU!”
Per his biography on the Ohio Flight Center’s website, Genier immigrated to the U.S. in 2022. He previously worked as a mechanic for Pilatus Aircraft in Switzerland and later flew the Boeing 777-300ER for airlines.
The Skylane RG accommodates a pilot and three passengers in standard configuration, cruising at about 160 knots. Cessna produced about 2,000 Skylane RGs and its Turbo variant from 1978 to 1986, the model’s final year of production.
Flying Into the Fourth
The Skylane RG was not the only aircraft to make a celebratory flight this past weekend.
On Saturday, residents and visitors of Washington, D.C., and New York City were treated to massive flyovers.
In the nation’s capital, the “Salute to America” show over the National Mall featured the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, NASA, and a trifecta of bombers—the B-2, B-1, and B-52. Despite evacuations due to weather, the flyovers were capped off by a pass of President Donald Trump’s VC-25B “Bridge” Air Force One, a modified Boeing 747-8 donated last year by the government of Qatar.
To accommodate the flyovers, the FAA paused operations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA) for portions of Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile in the Big Apple, the Blue Angels led a Saturday morning International Aerial Review over the Hudson River. The review comprised more than 150 U.S. and international fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, flying in formation over a parade of ships. Organizers described the event as the largest gathering of U.S. and international naval vessels and military aircraft assembled in American waters.
Smaller but equally entertaining flyovers took place nationwide. Even Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, got in on the action with a flyover by the U.S. Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing over its Magic Kingdom and Epcot parks.
In addition, many of the country’s largest carriers—including United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Delta Air Lines—have introduced special America 250 liveries on some of their aircraft to celebrate the occasion.