A very special airplane ride

[Mr Kleb]

My dad was a pilot in World War II, flying the C-47 Skytrain in North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy (dropping paratroops before dawn on D-Day). Americans built over ten thousand C-47s; the plane is so robust that perhaps 200 still fly today. Yeeasterday I had the opportunity to fly in one.

The Yankee Air Museum in Willow Run MI owns a flyable C-47 and during the Thunder Over Michigan Air Show offered the opportunity for a ride. They needed a minimum of 8 paying passengers to make it worth their while. For some time they were stuck at 7. My brother (we attended the air show together) and I offered to buy the final seat so they could guarantee a ride, which is what happened. So there were seven passengers and one empty seat.

One person gave her boyfriend a ride as a birthday present but could not afford a seat for herself. Just before we were driven out to the plane my brother offered her the seat, no charge. She said "REALLY?!?!?" He said 'go sign the waiver and join us'. I was very pleased and proud that he did that.

So we took a magical ride in a truly classic warbird. I marvelled over and over at hearing the same sounds, smelling the same odors as dad did. It mattered not at all that the ride was bumpy - it was a windy day with thermals and turbulence, plus we flew at about 500 feet. Dad certainly had the same bumpy ride many times.

Here's a photo of the plane.


Yours truly.


Over Ann Arbor, MI.


A group photo back on the ground.


I am so very blessed to have had the experience of a lifetime, to experience even a tiny bit of what my did lived for over two years.

[labsnewfy]

wow what a wonderful opportunity for you and your brother along with the young lady that your bother helped along the way.

[POPTOP]

Fantastic opportunity! Thank you so much for offering the extra ticket you bought to the lady. It's a ride I'm sure all of you will never forget.

Chicago Air and Water show is going on today and although we are 30 miles north, some of the planes were circling up our way. Some do land at our local airport for the night.

My great uncle was in the RAF. Somewhere I have a picture of him in front of his plane with the load of bombs for the day's run. They were the kind of bombs that were dropped by hand! My brother has the propeller off his plane. Both blades are broken. If you crashed and lived, you got to keep the propeller; if you perished in the crash, the propeller was your tombstone. Uncle Len crashed and lived.

[Abulafia]

How cool!

[Scoutpout]

awesome! the weather yesterday was a bit "challenging", so glad you got to go! and super nice of your brother to give the seat to the lady so she could go and see what her boyfriend was seeing.
How long were you guys in the air for? and of course the start-up is impressive too, and taxiing in one of those is so vastly different than a modern jetliner.
The coolest thing is that you guys got to experience a portion of what your Dad did. so glad that it worked out for you all!

[barry581]

I don't want to say I'm jealous or envious, as they are not in my make up. I am truly happy you were able to do this, had to be an amazing experience!! As for me, I want to ride in a P51 Mustang, Spitfire, or F4U Corsair!! My dream flights!

[Blackboy98]

So happy you got to feel and experience the 'adventure' that your Dad did. Great of your brother to be so nice to the young lady, bet she was more that thrilled and glad to be with her boy friend.

It is incredible what the people when thru during that awful time in history.

[Snowshoe]

What a wonderful opportunity for you. I do find it a bit reassuring there are still so many of that plane still flying. A local antique plane, a Moth, I think is made of mostly new parts by now and has crashed twice. Once with paid tourists on board, one of whom was a young boy. Nobody hurt, not even injured. Cushioned by corn stalks.

[charliebbarkin]

Love this. What an opportunity!

[Mr Kleb]

labsnewfy, it was great. It's been on my to-do list for years and I decided to simply do it. (Thank you dear for indulging me. )

Fran, what a great story about your uncle.

Abulafia, it was cool. Except on the ground - no ventilation never mind a/c. I remembered my dad flying in North Africa which helped me realize that it wasn't that bad.

Scoutpout, we were up for about 45 minutes, longer than expected. The departure and arrival windows between aerial demos were short. I think we were up so long because we had to give way to the B-17, which gave us another 15 or 20 minutes aloft. It was a challenging day, the landing was somewhere between a landing and an arrival. Perfectly understandable.

barry581 those would be dream flights. The B-17 and B-25 were constantly shuttling passengers up and down as was the Waco biplane.

Blackboy98, thank you. Paying it forward was a good thing, the right thing, to do.

Snowshoe, fortunate that no one was hurt!

charliebbarkin, indeed!