If you saw a bi-plane doing loops on Thursday, you were witnessing an innovative way of raising funds for Airport Day. Several individuals paid for a ride with Kelly Pietrowicz in her aerobatics plane Thursday evening and funds were used to help sponsor Airport Day.
Kelly’s plane is a Pitts Special–a two seater bi-wing plane. Riders were given some instruction in what to expect and how to keep from blacking out. They had to empty their pockets to make sure nothing would fall out that might get stuck under any of the controls and were strapped into the front seat of the plane with a parachute attached to their backs.
The rides lasted about 20 minutes and included inverted flight, loops, rolls and stalls.
David Sachau was one of the riders. He said the ride a lot of fun and it wasn’t as hard on the stomach as he thought it might be. However, David earned his pilots license when he was 17, so he might not exactly represent the experience of an “average” person.
Kansas Senator Bob Marshall was the other rider. As a former AirForce pilot of the F-4 Phantom and the F-8 Crusader, he is probably a bit more conditioned for aerobatics as well.