A good friend of mine that I have known for the past 30 years and go flying with, and obviously knows I'm a warbird nut, bought me this flight
for my birthday on an snj-5 at Gauntlet Warbirds in Aurora Illinois. Now my birthday is actually in September, but maintenance delays, weather,
and my friends schedule didn't make this possible until this past May the 19th. He kept it under his hat all that time!
What was it like? Well my flying experience is very limited, having up to that point only flown Cessna's and my friends Grumman Tiger and the like..
The SNJ, or AT6 as some of you know it is much heftier and you feel it. On our flight to Aurora which is right in the Chicago area was somewhat gusty
and we got shoved around a bit, but flying in those same conditions in the snj you really didn't notice it at all. The stick pressure was heavier than I
expected. It was a lot like flying a farm tractor. A rather agile and athletic one, but a big fat happy farm tractor none the less. And, this was my first
time doing aerobatics.. Whoa!
That's me. Don't let the swank fly boy expression fool you. I had just got the briefing on how to use the parachute, and we are going to now put
I don't know.. 3 or 4 g's on a 70 year old airplane. What could possibly go wrong? Despite being very excited, my knees were knocking!
No going back now. It's fly or die time!
The resultant grin from having done my first loop. This grin I'm afraid is permanently tattooed on my face.
That's me on the left, and my pilot/instructor Vess Velikov on the right. Vess is a great guy and great pilot!
