Mike Sanfilippo always wanted to fly over his hometown of Weatherly with its rolling hills and cascading ridge lines.

He imagined what it would be like to see the Mrs. C.M. Schwab School, a focal point of the borough from its perch on Spring Street, from the sky.

“When I was a kid I always said I wanted to be a pilot,” Sanfilippo said, but his grandmother’s words grounded him fast.

“You’ll never be a pilot because you suck at math,” he recalled her saying.

He gave up the dream until he discovered something called a paramotor, after watching people parasailing while on vacation in Mexico.

A paramotor is basically an engine-powered paraglider, or large, curved wing, similar to a parachute, which is attached to harness and motor that allows the operator to take to the skies.

“I have to have one these,” Sanfilippo told his girlfriend, who he awoke from a dead sleep.

She agreed, but didn’t really realize what he was saying. But Sanfilippo had the green light and began ordering equipment online.

He knows now that was mistake - one of the many he made along the way to becoming a paramotor pilot.

But even amid equipment breakdowns, challenges and setbacks, the journey has all been worth it, he said.

Sanfilippo has not only seen his hometown from the sky, but numerous cities up and down the East Coast.

“We went all over the place. I got to see the country. We got to fly everywhere,” he said with an excitement in his voice. “We flew like the whole East Coast this year.

“Our favorite place to fly is Weatherly,” Sanfilippo said. “The fields are beautiful. It’s secluded. There’s not many rules here. We can fly as high or as long as we want.”

While soaring above Weatherly, Sanfilippo takes photographs and shares them on his Facebook page, as well as on a community page.

“The views up there ... it’s like I want to share them with everybody,” he said, noting that he even FaceTimes his mom, turning his phone around to share the view.

His flights above his hometown have not gone unnoticed, making him a bit of a celebrity in town, he said.

“It’s such a small town. I went to the trunk or treat the other day, and I had 15 people coming up to me saying, ‘I love the pictures,’” Sanfilippo said. “It was amazing. Everyone was asking me about it.

“I’m 36, and I got my 15 minutes of fame,” he said with a huge smile.

Others post photos of his bright green, chute-like wing sailing in the blue sky above, some wondering about his flight machine.

“By the time I land, I check my Facebook, and I see pictures of me all over Facebook,” Sanfilippo said, some asking, “What is this flying over Weatherly?”

Still others will text or send him photographs, asking if he flew over their house, or if he could see that they were waving to him.

Sadly, at 2,000 feet, Sanfilippo can’t see someone waving at him, he said with a laugh. One person called him while he was in the air, and told him what color shirt he was wearing, asking if he could see him.

The answer was still, “No,” he said. “You really think I can see your shirt?”

The view from above is much different from Sanfilippo expected.

“When I’m flying, it’s hard to see the school,” he said. “I could pick out my parents’ house by the baseball field in the park, quicker than I can pick out the school when you’re flying up there.”

All of the hills that surround the town, and the hills in the town itself, flatten out, taking away those distinguishing characteristics that serve as guides on the ground.

“You sit here and look at these mountains and everything,” Sanfilippo said. “You see how beautiful the area we’re in and the school.

“And then you fly over it, and it’s nothing like you think it was,” he said with another hearty laugh.

The panorama of Weatherly and surrounding townships didn’t disappoint, though - it amazed him.

Sanfilippo said he never realized the Lehigh River made a huge horseshoe bend - nearly a full oval at Rockport, as it winds through Lehigh Gorge State Park, and he’s rafted the river numerous times.

The views in fall are best, as lush green forest foliage yields to a blaze of autumn reds, golds and oranges set against green farm fields and stands of evergreens, he said.

Sanfilippo now looks forward to end of his work day, because a quick half-hour to hourlong flight can shake off the worst of days.

“Who gets to say, ‘I’m going to go home and fly’?” he said. “You know, when I was a kid, I wanted to be Peter Pan. Now, I’m 36 years old and guess what? I get to be Peter Pan.”