My ride in a Stearman......:-)

[HuckinChikn]

Last christmas, my in-laws bought me a ride in a stearman biplane. i decided to wait until it was warmer until i set the appointment to go flying, but i just had one of the busiest summers of my life this summer, so i never had a chance to go fly. well i finally had some free time this weekend, so today i finally did it!
i went out to Creve Coeur Airfield in maryland heights Missouri at 2 PM today.
After waiting for about 15 minutes, i saw the blue and yellow stearman on aproach from the south,
land on the small paved runway. The stearman taxied back to the fuel pumps and parked, shut down the engine, and the pilot helped the passenger out of the front seat. It was my turn!!!
I stepped way up on the large wing, reached up and grabbed hold of the handles on the trailing edge
of the top wing, stepped in to the cockpit, and took my seat. I then strapped myself into the 4-way harness, and put on the headset. we were ready to roll! the pilot yelled "CLEAR!!!" as he fired up the giant rotary engine. The massive powerplant sputtered a bit, then roared to life. The smell of the exhaust rolling back from the engine smelled better than the best cut of steak on a BBQ Grill.
We started rolling, and began our taxi out to the main runway. The pilot steered the plane lightly from left to right, so he could see where we were heading since the plane's nose sits very high on the ground.
Finally, there i was. at the end of the runway, ready to take to the sky! i was THRILLED! this is what i've been waiting 10 months for! Advancing the throttle to full, we began rolling down the runway.
at about 35knots, the tail lifted off the ground, and finally we could see in front of us.
right about 60knots, the large plane jumped off the ground, and the ground seemed to fall away ever so gracefully. i was in the air! The pilot dropped the right wings and pulled back on the stick to head east back towards downtown st. louis. it is so amazing to see 30 miles away from the air!
we made a couple of turns, and headed south. A very tight left 180 degree turn brought ud back in line with the runway, where we dropped a couple hundred feet and did a full speed fly-over the runway at around 120knots. at the end, we pulled up, bank her over to the left, and dropped back down right above the trees. We set up for a landing aproach on an eastbound course, to the grass landing strip 90 degrees from the paved runway on the north end. the pilot performed a very nice sideslip down to the ground, and set the Stearman on the grass so gently that you could barely even tell the tires had touched the ground. AMAZING!
We turned around and headed back to the hangar, but on the way back, we noticed a group of pilots standing at the end of the runway with 2 small electric R/C planes! One was a small cub, and the other was an electric ducted fan jet wich was buzzing around the sky at the time.
we taxied back between the hangars, where i saw many old restored Wacos, a curtis Jenny, An AT-6 Texan, and several other beautiful airplanes parked in their hangars.
The pilot applied the brakes, and shut down the engine. I climbed out of the cockpit, and my journey
was over (until next time!) next time, i will be flying myself! well, after i come up with 7000 dollars for my pilot training anyway...
This has been one of the best days of my life! I LOVE FLYING!!!!!
here are a few pictures of the Stearman i rode in, the AT-6 Texan, and a couple other beautiful aircraft that were parked in the hangars.
until next time!

[HuckinChikn]

a few more...

[wizard]

Sounds like a blast.

[66stang]

Jared, sound like a dream.. Nice to be you today!!

[aviti]

Fun time Jared. Last Sunday we were driving by Creve Couer Airport and stopped by to look around. Looking in some hangers, I saw Greg Poe's MX2 tucked away in a back corner behind an old Aeronca. Apparently he left it there after performing at the Scott AFB airshow the previous weekend. You never know what aircraft treasures you'll see at that airport any given day. There is a guy with a silver and blue P51 that is amazing. His daily driver is a yellow T-6 Texan.

[RCHUGHES]

There is a guy that has a Stearman at the airport I work at and I go flying with him all the time in it, and everytime go it is so relaxing, I'll tell ya, If you have never rode in a Open Cockpit Biplane, Find a way to get in one!! you will not Forget it!

[phippsj]

Wow. My in-laws only got me a stupid flashlight.

Sounds like a real experience. I'll have to do something like that for myself as part of a "mid-life crisis". Haven't made it there yet.

[Mokken]

	Quote: Originally Posted by phippsj
	Wow. My in-laws only got me a stupid flashlight.

That was the funniest post I've read in awhile!! I actually laughed out loud!!

[HuckinChikn]

Yes today was definately amazing! I hope to do it again soon! Tony that's awesome, I wish I would have walked around a bit longer, maybe I would have seen more cool stuff! I did see ALOT of hangars with r/c planes in them though. That was pretty cool. And a dude was leaving the airport driving a Ferrari...rich dudes and their toys....;-)

[wizard]

I like you avatar. It reminds me of a photo I took. It's always nice to know where they keep them.

[HuckinChikn]

Hahaha thats great wiz! We pass that hooker storage every time we go to the lake, and I still laugh everytime I see it!:-)