( CNN ) Before landing a gyrocopter on the Capitol lawn Wednesday , Doug Hughes wrote about his intentions and the reasons behind them on a website called the thedemocracyclub.org . `` The point of the flight is to spotlight corruption in DC and more importantly , to present the solution ( s ) to the institutional graft , '' the 61-year-old Florida postal carrier wrote in an online post titled `` Your Pilot . '' `` My flight is not a secret , '' the post says . `` Before I took off , I sent an Email to info @ barackobama.com . The letter is intended to persuade the guardians of the Capitol that I am not a threat and that shooting me down will be a bigger headache than letting me deliver these letters to Congress . '' Hughes ' friend Michael Shanahan told CNN that Hughes called him Wednesday morning and told him to check out the website . Although the post is not signed , he lists an email address of `` dhughes @ thedemocracyclub.org , '' and the information in his self-description matches information about Hughes in public records . He refers to having multiple children -- the youngest an 11-year-old daughter -- and grandchildren as well . It 's unclear exactly when the post published . Shanahan told CNN that when he searched for the site Wednesday morning , he was unable to find it . `` The purpose of it was to call attention to the United States concerning our campaign finance laws , or the lack thereof , '' Shanahan told CNN 's Brooke Baldwin . Hughes had his first appearance in court scheduled for Thursday . On Wednesday , he took off in his gyrocopter from Maryland and traveled through restricted airspace over Washington , landing on the Capitol 's West Lawn . Inside the small personal aircraft he had letters for every member of Congress urging campaign finance reform . `` There 's no need to worry -- I 'm just delivering the mail , '' Hughes wrote in his post . The incident shut down the Capitol for part of the day . Hughes ' main purpose `` was not so much to alert Congress to something they already know , but to make a statement , so that America would take notice , '' Shanahan said . The two men together run a website and nonprofit corporation called The Civilist Papers , which focuses on such issues , Shanahan said . In his post , Hughes wrote of his time spent in the Navy and described his family . Although he did not mention it in the post , one of Hughes ' sons committed suicide 2 ½ years ago at the age of 24 , the Tampa Bay Times reported . `` Something changed in me , '' Hughes told the paper . Public records show Hughes had a son named John Joseph Hughes who died . `` He told us that he felt like his son did something stupid , but he had made a point , '' said Ben Montgomery , the Tampa Bay Times reporter who broke the story of the gyrocopter flight . `` He learned a lesson out of that . And it was : If you want to make a point , you 've got to do something big , as sad as that seems , '' Montgomery told CNN 's Jake Tapper . `` He 's been thinking about this for 2½ years . He 's pictured every scenario you could possibly imagine , '' Montgomery said . Shanahan said Hughes mentioned the idea when the two were brainstorming a couple of years ago . Having grown up in Washington , Shanahan opposed the idea . `` I told him that , no , that was an insane plan because the chances are he was going to get killed . '' `` Doug is like a pit bull when he gets an idea , '' Shanahan said . `` He 's very stubborn . And he finds ways around it . ... The word got out because he was telling people of his idea . And the Secret Service heard of it . So , they interviewed the two of us . And after that , he said he was going to sell his copter and figure out something else to do . But then I noticed he did not sell this copter . '' When Hughes called Shanahan on Wednesday morning , Shanahan said he did not try to talk Hughes out of the plan , but `` he was talking real quick , and I did n't know exactly what he meant by a lot of things . ''
Doug Hughes , 61 , said the idea was to present solutions to corruption . he mentioned the idea a couple of years ago , his wife recalled . Hughes had a son who committed suicide , he recalled .