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Taking to the skies

By Jess
Paul and I got to fly in 70-year-old Stearman biplanes with the Red Baron Pizza Squadron last Thursday! They were in town for Summer Heat, Muncie's big summer festival and air show, and the Red Barons were giving media rides. Roger was stuck working his day job in another county, so he offered Paul and I the opportunity of a lifetime!

In truth, I was a bit apprehensive about flying in a "little plane" -- not to mention a little plane belonging to a squadron known for their aerial aerobatics!

As the pilots introduced themselves, Travis nonchalantly asked if we were up for some "loops and rolls" today. We must have appeared hesitant because he quickly added that the ride is gentler than a roller coaster. Hey -- if you're going to fly with the Red Barons, you might as well fly with the Red Barons. After all, we were assured that they hadn't lost anyone that day.

The ride was extraordinary and exhilarating. The Stearman has an open cockpit, but the seats are down fairly low in the body of a plane, so in a way, it wasn't much worse than driving with the windows open. (Of course, I snapped the goggles down over my glasses, so that might account for most of the "calm" I remember.) Simply amazing! We watched their routine at the festival, and were still mostly in awe that we were up in those skies turning some of the same tricks. As soon as I digitize my footage, I'll get a picture up here.

Unfortunately, I had to tape the ride, so whatever I saw was primarily through the viewfinder, rather limiting the experience. The camera's pretty heavy under normal gravity conditions, but I was unprepared and unable to hold it when subjected to 3.5 Gs through the loops and such. I ended up hugging the camera close to my body (I didn't want to explain to Roger why I lost the camera somewhere over I-69) and those shots are mostly of the upper -- and opaque -- wing. That's one of the things that makes formation flying in a biplane so challenging: The first rule is "never lose sight of your parters", but one often loses sight of the other planes because the top wing is in the way.

Some Red Baron trivia:
  • The Squadron is the longest-running, non-military air show act in history, performing since 1984.
  • They promote Red Baron frozen pizza (who knew? I had to buy my first frozen pizzas in a show of support), and a nickel of each pizza goes to a local charity (Deep Dish Minis and Breakfast Pizza came highly recommended).
  • Once in the air, the team communicates primarily by hand signals.
The best part is that the pilots were super-nice and made an already memorable experience all the more enjoyable.

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