Monthly Archives: September 2010

I went for a little plane ride yesterday. And by “little,” I mean that the airplane was a small one…that can fly upside down.

My wife is friends with a commercial airline pilot who happens to own a Pitts S-2C aerobatic biplane. A year or so ago, he invited us down to a pancake breakfast put on at a local airfield by the Young Eagles of EAA Chapter 1229. That first time, he took our family up in a Mooney 4-seater (model unknown to me) that he “borrowed” from a pilot friend of his. The second time we went to the breakfast, he had his Pitts available and took other members of my family for rides in it, one at a time. My dad posted some videos clips of the aerobatic ride Bill provided him. Unfortunately, we ran out of time that day and I missed the opportunity for a ride of my own.

Bill made sure that I didn’t miss the opportunity at yesterday’s pancake breakfast. After getting our fill of blueberry pancakes, eggs, and sausage (should I have eaten first???), Bill took me up for an amazing ride!

I too captured some video clips and photos. I also fired up Google My Tracks on my android phone to capture the route of our flight. I’ve tried to blend the three into a integrated view of the outing using Google’s My Maps:

In case that doesn’t work so well in your browser, I included links to the pictures and video here as well.

Thank you Bill for the amusement park ride in the sky. Continue reading