Thought that I would post this here.
I was on vacation last week with the family in Orlando and saw an ad at the hotel for Warbird Adventures in Kissemmee. It was right next the to Flying Tigers Warbird Mueseum. They allow you to fly the T6 Texan 2 seat trainer.
I was very interested to do this not only for the flying but also to get the perspective what is is like in a real single engine WW 2 style of aircraft. The visability etc.
What fun, you can take 15, 30, or 60 minute flights. I took the 30 minute with a aerobatics option. Basically the pilot walks you through the preflight, straps you in, shows you the emergency procedures (which catches your attention real quick) and then start to taxi, you cant see over the nose so it is a s taxi to the runway. He takes off and once you get to bout 2,000 feet the pilot says it yours and you take control. My first observation, the stick and rudder are verrrry responsive. You do things in very small movements and try to be very gentle with the controls.
The first move we make is a wingover, the does it first then tells you to do one. I have to tell you when he told me to do it, I told him "I don't think I can", but he walked me through it and I was fine after that. We did rolls, a barrel roll, a split S and a bastardised Immelman. What really struck me was the power of the G effects.
When we were first taking off there was a B 25J that was also taking off at the same time(the members of the mueseum association were up for a ride) and I saw them heading toward us about 500 feet below and the pilot asked if I wanted to see it up close so the next thing I know he takes control and whips over and does a hard diving turn to get close to the B 25, I dont know how many G's we pulled but I started to gray out and when he finished the turn "whoops sorry about that" was his comment. The funniest thing was that when we came out of the dive and were coming up on the B 25, all I could think was,"No No not on his dead 6 we are a sitting duck!"
Anyway sorry for the long post but it put many things in perspective for me. I think the web address is warbirdadventures.com
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Milo
3./JG2
"Horrido"
