Flying the T6-Texan
If you ever go to Orlando, Florida; make sure you plan a visit the Kissimmee Gateway Airport as it a wonderful place for aviators like myself. In summer 2016 I went to visit the Kissimmee air museum which holds 22 stunning aircraft's, both flying and static as well as WWII artefacts, stories, weapons and various other aircraft related items. As good as the museum was, this wasn't the best part of my trip to the Kissimmee Gateway Airport... I also had the chance to take to the skies the beautiful T6-Texan aka the PILOT MAKER. This truly was an unbelievable experience which i would hugely recommend.
"it's an aviation enthusiast's temple!"
The flight was a birthday gift for me to redeem on a holiday to Disney world, Florida and it sure didn't disappoint. We arrived at the Gateway hotel to be greeted by the lovely receptionist. She showed us through to the museum hangar where we had the chance to have a look around before I head up in the T6. The museum was great, there were plenty of historic aircraft (MiG-17, 1928 Arrow Sport, Boeing N2S-5 to name a few) along with some aircraft power plants. Somehow they managed to fit all these aircraft, fixed wing and rotary into a relatively small hanger, it's an aviation enthusiast's temple! They also had fixed to a wall WWII working examples of firearms used by the US, UK, Japanese, German and Russian military. After I had looked around the museum it was time for me do what I had been waiting 5 months for...to jump in the front seat of the T6-Texan.
"It roared like a lion"
I met Neal, the pilot in command of my flight, who is a experienced all rounder. We had a quick chat about my previous flying experience and decided that we would include some aerobatics in my flight as I have plenty of experience flying the basic manoeuvres so could get straight into the fun part. He got me seated in the front of the aircraft and strapped me into the parachute followed by securing the harness and then went through the different instruments. The T6 instruments were very old and very basic but it enhanced the historic feel of the aircraft and each scratch, dent and scrape told its own story. He jumped in the back and fired up the 600HP Pratt & Whitney radial engine which roared like a lion and then proceeded to taxi to the runway.
"I felt so alive"
We held short of runway 15 and performed the power checks. As the engine spooled up the aircraft shook and you could feel prop wash rushing into the cockpit through the open canopy. We lined up on 15 and the clearance for take off was given. The yellow bird hurried down the runway and gracefully lifted off the ground before the landing gear hummed as it was raised. It was now my turn to take over and have my chance to fly. I continued the climb out to 2000ft and headed towards Lake Tohopekaliga. The first manoeuvre Neil showed me was the steep turn at 60° angle of bank. This was to check that the airspace we are flying in is clear. Neil showed a 360° turn to the right and I performed one to the left. The "nice little g warm up" turn was pulling 2g; I was sinking into the chair and my face started to sag. It was a feeling that I absolutely love. Airspace clear we moved on to performing wing overs. Neil pitched the aircraft down to gain speed, then rapidly pulled back on the stick and the aircraft climbed vertically. Just before the point of stalling, he rolled the aircraft to the right and dived towards the ground increasing the speed. He performed one to the left and then it was my turn. This was my first experience with aerobatics so I was very excited to have a go. My first attempt wasn't perfect but my second and third I picked up the hang of it and managed to get a good clean figure of eight in the sky. Manoeuvre one done it was time to move onto manoeuvre two, the aileron roll. Again Neil walked me through the first one where he pitched the aircraft down to gain speed, then pulled back to 30° before rolling hard to the left. He levelled out of the roll and then It was my turn to perform one to the left. This was my first experience being inverted in an aircraft and the feeling was incredible. I felt so alive. I pitched down to gain speed then pulled back on the stick to 30° and slammed the stick to the left. I was surprised at how responsive the T6 was and how little effort it took for it to roll in the skies. Smiles all around we decided to do a bit of sight seeing of Orlando before heading back to Kissimmee Gateway Airport.
"Orlando looks even more incredible from up here"
After already spending a week in Orlando and loving every minute of my time here it would be hard to make Disney World look even more incredible. But seeing Disney World from the air was quite spectacular. This is what flying is all about. Seeing the world from a different perspective, make you appreciate the complexity and shear beauty of the land we live on. We flew over towards Disney World and then started to head back to base. Following the 192 highway I started to recognise the landmarks on the ground and soon realised that I was flying along the road that I have travelled down everyday during my time in Florida and managed to find the villa that I was staying at. This was a great treat to combine some aerobatics along with some sight seeing of the famous Orlando Disney Parks, something that I was definitely not expecting. Neil directed me in and I set up the aircraft for the final approach. He took over for the landing as landing a tail wheel is very different from landing a fixed tricycle configuration that I'm used to and we glided down to the ground touching on all three wheels; then taxied back to the hangar and shut down the engines. That was it, the flight was over... what an experience!
"One line in the pilot’s logbook but one giant important memory in my flying career"
I'd like to thank Neil and the team at Warbird Adventures for making me feel so welcome and for such a great experience. If you are out in Orlando and would like to fly the T6, the website to book it is here. I hope you enjoyed this blog about my time at the Kissimmee Gateway Airport and I hope you all have the opportunity to fly such an iconic bird as I did. Please feel free to check out my photos and comment below with any questions, feedback or if you have also flown a historic aircraft like the T6-Texan.
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