As luck would have it I was offered a flight to ride slot with Jimmy Fordham in the #4 Team Aeroshell North American AT-6 “Texan” for a quick flight. Early in the mornings at the big air shows the team does short (20 minute-ish) flights for various passengers who the team’s sponsors send their way. Thanks to the gentlemen at AeroLEDS I got a spot on the 8:30 Thursday morning flight. After a quick briefing I strapped on my parachute and harness and watched as Jimmy cranked up the Pratt & Whitney R-1340 AN-1 radial. As an RV-10 driver with no radial time it was a different feeling sitting in the tandem aircraft as it churned out take-off power in close proximity to the other ships in the flight. After we took off in a 2 ship formation we joined the another Aeroshel two ship formation, then was joined by another 2 aircraft for a total of 6 in the flight. After a few minutes without any unusual attitudes the last 2 aircraft to join bugged out. That left only the Aeroshell aircraft. After a loop and a roll we headed back to the airport. It is something to see the team perform but it gives a whole new level of respect when you see how close the aircraft actually are to each other.
The back seat is better than NO seat!
Like I said, the briefing was short and had few spoken words.
Taxi to 9R for takeoff.
Another 2 aircraft joined the flight for a short while before they broke off and did their own thing.
Top of a loop.
Roll.
Roll.
Smoke worked well.
Jimmy flying the #4 aircraft with me in the back.
Thanks Jimmy!
