History takes flight

FORTY FORT – The butterflies didn’t arrive until Gina Moore, owner of Warbird SkyVentures said, “Oops, I forgot the parachutes.”

I expected her to chuckle, but when I looked up she was gone… fetching the parachutes.

When she returned to the World War II-era biplane in which I was going for a ride, she fitted me for the chute and then explained when and how to use it.

“If you hear (pilot) John yell, `Bail out! Bail out! Bail out!’ you need to take your helmet off and put it aside, unbuckle the seatbelt, then get out on the wing and dive head-first toward the ground.

No worries there, Gina. If John ever started yelling for me to bail out, I’m sure I would have passed out before I had a chance to open the chute inside or outside the plane.

Fortunately for my life insurance company, it never came to that. In fact, once the butterflies took off and the Boeing-Stearman N2S-5 did the same, my first flight in an open-cockpit airplane turned out to be one of the most pleasurable and exhilarating experiences of my life.

I’d flown previously in several types of private aircraft and even accumulated around 30 hours of solo time for my flight logbook. But I’d never been in a WWII-era plane and had never been in the air with only… well, air… around most of my torso.

The sense of actually being airborne in the biplane was greater than in any enclosed cabin plane. It was sort of like riding a motorcycle through the sky.

Pilot John Cornett Jr. guided the plane from takeoff at Wyoming Valley Airport to about 2,500 feet over Wilkes-Barre. Then he let me take the controls, encouraging me to do a few turns and then head back to Forty Fort.

The Boeing-Stearman biplane seemed as responsive in the air as my BMW motorcycle is on the ground. I learned later that is one reason it was used to train U.S. Army and Navy pilots to fly high-performance fighters. The plane was first built by Lloyd Stearman in 1935 and was used as a trainer until WWII ended in 1945.

Warbird SkyVentures also offers rides in another WWII trainer, the North American AT-6. It looks like a much more formidable plane than the Boeing-Stearman and reportedly saw some duty as a fighter and even a bomber, although it was designed and primarily used as a trainer. It has been credited with training more military pilots than any other plane in history.

But it’s a closed cockpit monoplane, and didn’t seem to have the same allure as the biplane for those who showed up at Wyoming Valley Airport on Friday.

“I’m going up in the biplane because I want the experience of the ‘outdoor’ exposure,” said 65-year-old Arthur Kibbe of Clarks Summit, who said he used to have a private pilot’s license.

Jack Loughney of Lehman Township has never held a flying license, but the former Secret Service agent said he has had the opportunity to co-pilot large Boeing 747 and 727 passenger jets, as well as a small Cessna 172 single-engine plane. But he’d never been in an open-cockpit biplane before Friday.

His son Andy and daughter Erin paid $380 for his 20-minute flight in the Boeing-Stearman – a Christmas present suggested by their mother Ellen.

“He really likes airplanes and is very interested in World War II, so I knew it would be something he’d really enjoy,” Ellen Loughney said. “He’s on dialysis three days a week, so there’s not a lot of other things that he enjoys that he can do.”

Her husband said he was really excited about his opportunity to fly a piece of history.

“These World War II planes are obviously still flying,” Loughney said, “but you know that they still have a limited lifetime. When they’re gone, it will be an era in our history that has passed us by.

That kind of sentiment, says Warbird SkyVentures owner Moore, is what inspired her to start the “barnstorming” company in 1995.

Based on the World War I pilots who used to travel the country giving customers rides in the 1920s, Warbird SkyVentures will visit 40 airports this year and give 1,500 to 2,000 rides. The company will average about 15 rides a day at the Luzerne County airport between Friday and Tuesday – before taking off for another town, parachutes and all.

Wanna Fly?

Warbird SkyVentures still has a few openings for its current barnstorming stop at Wyoming Valley Airport. The company will be flying out of the airport through Tuesday.

Prices are $230 for 10 minutes, $260 for 15 minutes, $380 for 20 minutes, $480 for 30 minutes, and $700 for 60 minutes in either a North American AT-6 or a Boeing-Stearman N2S-5.

Every flight includes an opportunity to pilot the plane. Aerial stunts such as rolls and loops are available on all flights longer than 10 minutes. The aerobatics add $50 to the cost of the 15-minute flight but are free on all other “SkyVentures.” An in-flight video capturing your airborne experience costs $50.

Flights are limited to passengers ages 10 to 100 and weighing under 350 pounds. They can be scheduled by calling 888-532-5787 or by visiting www.bluegrasswarbirds.com

To see additional photos from Scott Wasser’s ride in a World War II-era biplane, log on to www.times

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