Elliott takes Flight!

On Saturday, Elliott and I drove to Warrenton airport for his Birthday present. I had got him a 30 minute flight on a WWII biplane, during which he would be able to take the controls and fly it himself. I knew he wouldn't want to do loops or screw drives down to the ground, like I would, and that was fine as it would have cost a good chunk of change more. Even so, despite the fact he's be on a mostly horizontal 'plane', 'scuse the pun, he was still a little nervous, and I wondered for a bit if I'd have to take the flight instead. But he rallied round and we met up with David Brown, the pilot and owner of the plane. I mentioned I'd had a flight at Bealton's Flying Circus in a plane just like his, and he said he used to do flights there. He did look kind of familiar but I thought it was probably just because he'd said that, but sure enough, when I looked up the old blog from 2005, it was the same guy, and the same plane! See my blog here.

I was allowed to remain on the tarmac while Elliott got ready, donning his cell phone, for videoing, and harness and then pulling on the helmet so he'd have radio communication with David. Within a few minutes they were strapped in and the plane fired up, a beautiful throaty thrum resonating from the engine. This is a 1941 Stearman PT17 that David has owned for 19 years. Over 2000 were built by Boeing as primary trainers in WWII. Even British pilots came over to train in them. After the war they were often used as crop dusters until the 70's. One sold recently for a mere $250K, and over 1000 are still flying. I think one would look marvelous on our front lawn with flowers and vines spilling out of the cockpit and roses climbing up the wings.

Up and away! I had no idea how far they'd go, but with a range of just over 500 miles, they wouldn't run out of fuel in their allotted half hour. They would get up to over 2000ft where David would level off and then Elliott take the controls. I climbed up to the balcony where I had a better view for when they came back in, and began my knee exercises to pass the time. I watched as they became a dot in the distance and the engine noise faded away. We'd had threats of rain and high winds for the previous couple of days and had been expecting a cancellation call, but the day was fine. It was a little windy and David was wondering if his 1pm flight would need to be postponed. But at least Elliott was getting his flight in.

The 30 minutes flew by, literally. I'd checked a few e-mails, had a chat with a pilot who'd just flown in and commented that the wind was getting up and was 29mph, too high for low level flying; apparently 15mph is the tops for under 300ft. And then I suddenly spotted the biplane coming in to land. I hadn't heard the engine noise at all and had been scouring the sky in front of me, but they had circled in from behind. I quickly snapped a couple of shots, juggling my iPhone at the same time as I videoed their descent. Here's a short wobbly video of them landing:

A smooth landing ensued and a slow drive by in front of me enabling me to zoom in from my balcony and get crisp shots. I got thumbs up and big grins from the pair of them as they climbed down to the ground. Evidently, the flight had gone smoothly and they now appeared to be best of friends! Elliott was ecstatic about his experience, and had flown the plane for a fair amount of the time that he was in the air, even controlling the foot pedals. Everybody posed by the plane and David was sweet enough to take a photo of me and Elliott. The wind was still picking up as we walked back to the car, dark clouds collecting on the horizon. We surmised that the poor guy who had the 1pm flight would have it cancelled, and momentarily felt bad for him, but that passed quickly as we drove back home, Elliott chatting about his flight and both of us looking forward to a celebratory beer.