I FLEW a WWII airplane!!!!

MDFrench · Apr 17, 2006

Hey all,

Just had to let you guys know I finally got some yoke-time with a vintage aeroplane! I was doing a story for the paper about a guy here in Marietta, Georgia who runs a biplane service, only this isn't a repro Waco or anything (as fun as that was). As a matter of fact, this guy owns an immaculately restored Navy N3N-3 Biplane built in May 1941 with a huge Pratt and Whitney radial engine - all aluminum construction!

Well, he offers to take me for a ride after he hears I have some flying experience. I show up at the airport with my RAF Battlejacket (now complete with RAF wings over the pocket), my RAF blue MKVIII flying goggles and my 1936 "straight-zip" pattern RAF flying gloves. I was set for a great open-cockpit experience!

Anyway, we get into the air, and he's talking to me through the flying helmet and suddenly he says, "Hey, Mike, you see how the yoke is wobbling like that?" I look down from my front seat position and say, "Yeah." He says, "Well, that means you'd better take it then." I looked up into the rear view mirror only to see him with his hands waving in the air above the cockpit!

I grab the yoke and get my feet on the rudder controls and hold her steady before taking her into a graceful banking left turn. He gave me control for a good ten minutes I'd say. It was awesome. After we landed, he said, "I figured since you'd had flying experience you wouldn't have a problem."

Now I DO have a problem! I want a WWII airplane! Sheesh. I'll post some pictures when I can get them. His business is called "Bi-Plane Adventures" out of McCollum Airfield in Kennesaw for anyone who wants to do a cyber-search and see the plane.

Mike

ITG · Apr 17, 2006

This yellow bird?
http://www.biplaneride.com/

Sounds like you had an amazing experience that you will never forget!

MDFrench · Apr 17, 2006

YEP! That's the one!

John in Covina · Apr 17, 2006

DC-3 desires!

I have been a long time fan of the DC-3 and hope to get to ride in one sometime. If I remember down at Long Beach California is a company operating one.

Sounds heavenly!

MK · Apr 17, 2006

!

Congrats Mr. French!:eusa_clap

Maj.Nick Danger · Apr 17, 2006

P-40

I gotta get behind the wheel of a P-40,.....I am obsessed! lol
And speaking of flight,
I just heard of the ultimate safety device for flying. Sort of a whole plane parachute,......from what I understand, it's a device that can be fit to any small aircraft. A kind of parachute that deploys when a plane is in danger of crashing. Heard it was pretty much fool proof and it saves the aircraft itself from certain destruction, not just the pilot.

Barbigirl · Apr 17, 2006

We didn't fly it, but we did get to fly in a biplane a couple of years ago. I took Maintcoder's as a suprise for his birthday in 2002. The surprise didn't work out, the plane needed a repair on super short notice so we had to postpone but it was a tremendous experience anyway, past Seattle over the Puget sound on a hot August evening. What a rush! I am being lazy by only adding the link. Maintcoder took some awesome photos while flying if you are interested in seeing them let me know!

http://www.oldethymeaviation.com/airplanes.htm

The red and yellow plane on the link.

Speedster · Apr 17, 2006

Congratulations. I also tried it. In a Waco biplane in Kissimee, Florida on a vacation in 1991. Would very much like to try again.

Speedster

MikeyB17 · Apr 17, 2006

OK, apologies to the boys on the jacket forums who are probably sick of me and my holiday exploits by now, but I here I go again anyhow. I had a hour's flight in a T-6 Texan/Harvard/SNJ a couple of weeks ago when I was on holiday in Florida. I got to fly it myself, and did several aerobatic manouvres including lazy-8's, aileron rolls, barrel rolls and loops, plus some formation flying with another T-6 from the same company, and a low (ish) pass over Fantasy of Flight at Polk City, who were having an airshow at the time. Definitely the highlight of my trip! Would recommend it to anybody, and Warbird Adventures at Kissimmee airport is a fascinating place in itself-they have a number of old aircraft there which you can wander around, including some wrecks. I believe they used to have a museum there, which is now being transferred elsewhere due to hurricane damage, but when I was there there was a Mig-21, an F-104 Starfighter, a C-47/DC-3 and several others I didn't recognise. Also when I popped back a few days later to pick up my DVD of the flight, a pair of P-51's came in to land and taxied in. Beat Disney into a cocked hat any day of the week!

MB-17

Mojave Jack · Apr 17, 2006

MD, that sounds like a real blast! You'll have to post a link to the article you wrote on the experience.

Radioflyer · Apr 17, 2006

Though I'm not a pilot, I did put over 1000 hours in a Navy P3 so I love the air. This past autumn, I purchased a flight for my wife and I, our two kids and my father-in-law in a Ford Tri-motor. Funnest flying I'd ever done! And something the kids will remember for the rest of their lives.

After getting back on the ground my father-in-law was in tears, only to tell us that he remembered the first time one really landed outside the small Indiana town where he grew up. His family had no money for a ride (50 cents he recalls) and had always dreamed of flying in one.

Glad I could do that for him and worth every penny!!!

rf

Tony in Tarzana · Apr 17, 2006

Boy, I'd love to get a T-6/SNJ, there's a group of guys out of Van Nuys airport who have about 6 of them and I see them flying in formation on a regular basis.

It is just so darn expensive, though, and high-octane avgas is getting scarcer and scarcer. Not to mention maintenance and the cost of buying the bird in the first place. My contingency plan if I hit the Powerball is to get a T-6, finish my flying lessons (discontinued 25 years ago after soloing and passing the FAA exam) and then find a Spitfire and lose enough weight (now there's motivation!) to fit into it. My Dad (1906-81) was an engineer for Supermarine in the 1930s and 40s and worked on the Spitfire.

My closest experience so far was flying a Stinson L-5 when I was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol about 30 years ago.

MDFrench · Apr 18, 2006

Spitfires? Now you're talking my language! My dream flight is in the Spitfire MKII - Of course, there's only one of those left flying in the world, so I'll have to win MegaMillions and then replicate one 1:1.

A man can dream...a man can dream...

penfencer · Apr 18, 2006

A few years ago I flew in a B-17 - the "Nine-o-Nine" that tours the USA every year along with a B-24.

It was one of the best experiences of my life. I'm not a pilot but I did get to crawl around the whole plane (except for the tailgun) during the flight.

There are three DC-3s at my local airport. I have to figure out a way to get a ride in one of them!

Speedster · Apr 18, 2006

That's where i was...

MikeyB17 said:
OK, apologies to the boys on the jacket forums who are probably sick of me and my holiday exploits by now, but I here I go again anyhow. I had a hour's flight in a T-6 Texan/Harvard/SNJ a couple of weeks ago when I was on holiday in Florida. I got to fly it myself, and did several aerobatic manouvres including lazy-8's, aileron rolls, barrel rolls and loops, plus some formation flying with another T-6 from the same company, and a low (ish) pass over Fantasy of Flight at Polk City, who were having an airshow at the time. Definitely the highlight of my trip! Would recommend it to anybody, and Warbird Adventures at Kissimmee airport is a fascinating place in itself-they have a number of old aircraft there which you can wander around, including some wrecks. I believe they used to have a museum there, which is now being transferred elsewhere due to hurricane damage, but when I was there there was a Mig-21, an F-104 Starfighter, a C-47/DC-3 and several others I didn't recognise. Also when I popped back a few days later to pick up my DVD of the flight, a pair of P-51's came in to land and taxied in. Beat Disney into a cocked hat any day of the week!

MB-17

That's the same place i flew the Waco from. Back in 1991 it was Tom Reilly's Warbirds Museum. They also had a Harvard back then, but it was too expensive for my wallet so i only got to try the Waco. Have been regretting ever since that i didn't break the budget and just went for the Harvard as well. Been there, seen it, done that and even got the t-shirt.

Speedster

Jake · Apr 18, 2006

Congrats, French, Speedster, Mikey they all sound like wounderfull experiences, I'm glad you all got to spend some time behind the stick. I bet you were all grinning from ear to ear the whole time. The closest I've come to that. other than the Varga of course, is a ride in the back seat of a BT-13. Fly on....Jake

Andykev · Apr 18, 2006

It's beautiful, but $$$$$$$$$

Those are real fun airplanes. I used to have one. No, two actually. But they were disassembled, and we began to restore them. Unfortunately, at the time, I was unmarried and had no house. Married and then a house sealed the deal on plunking $100,000 into restoration (needed engine O/H, all new gauges, radios. Cover, wood work, ribs, new Cabanes *center braces*, flying wires, tires, prop).
I had the main pieces and all the hardware. But restoring a vintage plane of that size (bottom wing hits most average size men mid chest), with four wood and fabric/dope wings....is a true labor of love. Plus when you are done, you have a two seat open cockpit 80 mph plane that gulps oil and burns 13 gallons of fuel per hour. However, it is a fun airplane. Notice the prices on the web page for the link...yep, he's not making much per hour flying passengers. With maintenance and fuel, and insurance..you're lucky to be able to fly one today.

Twitch · Apr 19, 2006

Here's the Strearman N2S I had a few minutes in out of Long Beach. After feeling how easy it was to fly I could see how just about anybody could learn in WW 2.

Jake · Apr 19, 2006

Twitch said:
Here's the Strearman N2S I had a few minutes in out of Long Beach. After feeling how easy it was to fly I could see how just about anybody could learn in WW 2.

It's not the flying part thats hard, It's the contolled collision with a Planet (landing) thats the hard part...Jake

Marv · Jun 18, 2006

Chipmunk

Not really WW2 aircraft but near as dammit built in 1946, during my time with the Air Training corps when I was in my teens, I logged plenty of hours in the De Havilland Chipmunk which was quite an expierience having my first taste of piston driven areobatics.
The RAF pilots at the time who would take us up looked like they should have retired years ago so as a nervous teenager it didn't fill you with much confidence as you waddled to the areoplane in flying helmet an seat type parachute thinking oh my god the pilot looks as old as the aircraft, but they were fantastic guys and very good pilots.....the good thing they use to let us cadets haave control for most of the flight apart from the take off and landings, good times.

I FLEW a WWII airplane!!!!

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