thedrifter
03-28-08, 09:10 AM
March 28, 2008
A mind-bending experience in the wild blue yonder
By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff Writer
DELAND -- My first upside-down flip and roll in the sun-warmed cockpit of a T6 Texan World War II trainer plane was mind-bending.
On Thursday, Chief Flight instructor John Makinson let me take the controls from the front seat of a plane that once sported 30-caliber machine guns, 1,000-pound bomb racks and rockets and was nicknamed "The Pilot Maker."
The scary thrill above DeLand Municipal Airport of watching the horizon tilt to the left and the right jangled my nerves and kicked up my endorphins.
Then he took back control and began some aerial combat maneuvers and aerobatics.
Right-side rollover . . . the landscape became the sky, and for a brief second a weak stomach threatened to empty.
Back flip . . . the earth disappeared and my ears popped.
After that, it was all -- well, woo hoo wild fun -- and for the next three days folks can do the same thing: take a 15-minute tax-deductible $245 in the T6 flight with the 2008 Barnstormer Tour. If you think you can last 30 minutes, go for the $395 flight.
Other adventuresome packages include the option of flying in an open-cockpit Stearman Biplane, beginning at $225.
But this is much more than crazy amusement for the adrenaline junkie. The proceeds to help finance an important historical mission: History Flight, a project of searching for America's Greatest Generation's 78,794 MIAs -- the military persons missing in action during World War II.
"It's a ludicrous number," said Mark Noah, History Flight director, in a phone interview from Washington D.C., as he explained the project.
"I started with the objective of doing historical preservation with the aircraft, but to underwrite the expense of the MIA project," Noah said. "The issue had pretty much remained dormant since 1948 when they shut down the search program.
"Sixty years later, private groups like ours go out and make discoveries. It proves they shut down the search too soon," he said.
Since Noah began with the program about five years ago, he has researched and searched, discovering more than a dozen crashed World War II planes, missing air crew and graves.
His most recent discovery was at the site of the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific during February.
"It's the biggest thing we did, after years' worth of research -- discovering 62 lost people on the Island of Tarawa," Noah said.
He explained that during the battles for Pacific islands, Marines buried their dead where they fell.
"After the war the Army went back but did not have original burial information from the Marines. They only found 49 percent of the people buried on the islands," he said.
Noah's trips involve nothing invasive. Findings are presented to the government and recovery teams are sent in.
audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com
The 2008 Barnstormer Tour will be at The Jet Center, 955 Singleton Dr., DeLand through Sunday. To reserve a History Flight call 888-743-3311.
Ellie
A mind-bending experience in the wild blue yonder
By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff Writer
DELAND -- My first upside-down flip and roll in the sun-warmed cockpit of a T6 Texan World War II trainer plane was mind-bending.
On Thursday, Chief Flight instructor John Makinson let me take the controls from the front seat of a plane that once sported 30-caliber machine guns, 1,000-pound bomb racks and rockets and was nicknamed "The Pilot Maker."
The scary thrill above DeLand Municipal Airport of watching the horizon tilt to the left and the right jangled my nerves and kicked up my endorphins.
Then he took back control and began some aerial combat maneuvers and aerobatics.
Right-side rollover . . . the landscape became the sky, and for a brief second a weak stomach threatened to empty.
Back flip . . . the earth disappeared and my ears popped.
After that, it was all -- well, woo hoo wild fun -- and for the next three days folks can do the same thing: take a 15-minute tax-deductible $245 in the T6 flight with the 2008 Barnstormer Tour. If you think you can last 30 minutes, go for the $395 flight.
Other adventuresome packages include the option of flying in an open-cockpit Stearman Biplane, beginning at $225.
But this is much more than crazy amusement for the adrenaline junkie. The proceeds to help finance an important historical mission: History Flight, a project of searching for America's Greatest Generation's 78,794 MIAs -- the military persons missing in action during World War II.
"It's a ludicrous number," said Mark Noah, History Flight director, in a phone interview from Washington D.C., as he explained the project.
"I started with the objective of doing historical preservation with the aircraft, but to underwrite the expense of the MIA project," Noah said. "The issue had pretty much remained dormant since 1948 when they shut down the search program.
"Sixty years later, private groups like ours go out and make discoveries. It proves they shut down the search too soon," he said.
Since Noah began with the program about five years ago, he has researched and searched, discovering more than a dozen crashed World War II planes, missing air crew and graves.
His most recent discovery was at the site of the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific during February.
"It's the biggest thing we did, after years' worth of research -- discovering 62 lost people on the Island of Tarawa," Noah said.
He explained that during the battles for Pacific islands, Marines buried their dead where they fell.
"After the war the Army went back but did not have original burial information from the Marines. They only found 49 percent of the people buried on the islands," he said.
Noah's trips involve nothing invasive. Findings are presented to the government and recovery teams are sent in.
audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com
The 2008 Barnstormer Tour will be at The Jet Center, 955 Singleton Dr., DeLand through Sunday. To reserve a History Flight call 888-743-3311.
Ellie