Its funny how Facebook will pop up things based on your search criteria and the things you like on your timeline. This is true for a notification for a local event involving some old war planes that would be flown in for an exhibition and to offer rides at a cost. The original plan was to fly in a couple bombers, a B29 and B24, along with four other planes, a T6 trainer, a T34 trainer, a Stearman Biplane and a Beech RC45 twin engine utility plane. These planes are owned and operated by what is called the CAF, Commemorative Air Force, an organization that restores to full working condition old warplanes and flies them across the country for exhibitions as well as offering flight tours at a cost, which obviously goes towards the upkeep of the planes. When we showed up at the airport, it was pretty windy already. Unfortunately the two bomber planes didn't make it due to mechanical issues grounding them. This is a good thing since we don't need to see any incidents with these 80+ year old planes going down because of a mechanical issue. That left the four smaller planes. This was fine as any of these planes are always cool to see, especially when they're fully operational. It's always cool to see these planes in museums but to have them fully running is like going into a time machine. Because of the high winds, they were not offering rides in the Stearman biplane as this was an open cockpit plane and besides the nature of the aircraft itself, rides would be rather uncomfortable in those conditions. They only offered rides in the two trainer planes and the RC45 utility plane. After reviewing the costs, we decided to go for it and take a ride. We ended up doing the RC45, as this plane is like an old school private executive plane, with seating for four, plus pilot and copilot. Since the plane was used as a trainer for bombardiers as well as utility, there were window ports on the floor where equipment once sat for bombardier training. Glass inserts in the floor allow one to look straight down to the ground below, even when up in the air. Once we were in the plane, we were shown how to fasten the seatbelts and safety harness, as was the case with the cockpit seat. Once the pilot was in, he done several pre-flight system checks and prepared the plane for startup, one engine at a time. The simplicity of the system was apparent when he had to operate a priming plunger to push fuel to the engine before hitting the switch to operate the starter, which cranked the engine off pretty fast. Once started, he took a moment to get the engine warmed up and observe the gauges as he worked the engine controls to set the RPM and fuel mixture. Once that was all done, the plane was free to start taxiing down the runway and wait for clearance for takeoff. As we started the takeoff run, picking up speed, the pilot pulled the tail off the ground first, with the plane essentially floating horizontal for a few seconds before he finally working the ailerons to pick the plane up off the ground. It's not like a commercial jet where the plane suddenly darts up to speed then seems to immediately jump up at a 45 degree angle. The plane gradually climbed, fighting the wind as it shimmied around. We only climbed to around 2000 ft, not really that high, all things considered, as we only flew maybe 10-15 miles out from the airport, circling around the county, out to the reservoir and around. All the areas that we normally drive through on a daily basis we were able to see from a bird's eye view, seeing how small everything looks. It's totally different compared to flying in a commercial jet, as one really doesn't get to see things from this lower altitude for long before climbing so high that the clouds typically blot out the ground below. We were able to see things from a vantage point that can only be experienced in a plane like this, or maybe from the observation deck of a skyscraper. Of course with a plane like this, one can only imagine that the noise was pretty high. The passengers in the back got earplugs to use, while the pilot and I used noise canceling headsets. These allowed us to communicate with one another while also hearing any radio chatter coming through. The hum of the engines without hearing protection would almost vibrate your soul after a while. It's not a high pitch nor a super low rumble, but more in the middle, leaning towards the low rumble, but highly amplified, if that makes any sense. After around 30 minutes or so flying around, enjoying the chance to ride in this 80 year old plane, we made our way back to the airport, with the pilot carefully staging us and softly touching us down, taking into account the wind and its effects on the small plane. We essentially came in at a slight angle, with the plane touching down with one wheel first and the second right after, then softly letting the tail touch down. Once fully on the ground, we taxied along a couple long stretches of taxi ways before finally making our way back to the spot where we were parked at, staging the plane as it was before we went for the flight. Once the wheels were choked, the pilot ran the engines dry of fuel and shut the plane down, officially ending the flight. Even though we weren't at the airport that long compared to other similar excursions at museums and the like, this was still a cool experience, as we were able to witness these old planes running and flying, as well as being able to actually fly in one of them, something that most people will probably never do or contemplate doing, given some people's mistrust for something like an old airplane. But even if you don't fly in these planes, just being able to climb on them and look at the cockpits and interiors of these planes is something that one wouldn't even be able to do if they were able to see these planes inside a museum setting. With that, we were able to log in another memorable experience that will last a lifetime.
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