DREAM FLIGHT
“Did you get your ride yet?”
I am Bart Graham, your Membership Chair of WAI Tampa Bay. Yes, I got talked into this role by Yvonne and Mariah ;-) !
But I am also a proud volunteer for Dream Flights. We are a nationwide non-profit organization with a fleet of six Boeing Stearman aircraft. We fly all around the country giving free twenty minute flights to our WWII, Korean, and Vietnam War veterans.
No, I am not a pilot or even a current mechanic (although I do have my A&P and experience changing 144 spark plugs on a “Connie”). I am an assistant crew chief for Dream Flights and help the crew when our planes come to Florida to give flights. “Grandpa’s Plane”, an eighty year old Stearman, was just in Florida for a month and I spent most of the month following her around the west coast of Florida. In that time I calculated that we gave close to sixty rides to veterans from Naples to Brooksville.
I joined Dream Flights in 2021 during Operation September Freedom when we had all six of our planes flying for a two month period and gave rides to 891 WWII veterans during that period. As a volunteer,
one of the perks of being with Dream Flights is to eventually get a ride yourself. All last year I was forever being asked by my crew members if I had gotten my ride yet. And the answer was always no.
Early in April I was in Kissimmee with my crew, a husband and wife team, giving rides to five veterans. We got done around noon and my crew chief, the pilot’s wife, asked the question “did you get your ride
yet”. I asked back “why do you ask” when she proceeded to answer that her husband wanted to know and that I was going to get my ride! The first thing I did was said “YES” and looked at the trees. Light
breeze. Good! Keep in mind that a Stearman is an open cockpit tail dragging bi-plane and I have never been on a flight in a bi-plane so I had all sort of thoughts racing through my head. After managing to get up on the lower wing and into the front seat I was ready to go.
The ground portion of the flight was nice as we taxied like a snake on the taxiway as the pilot cannot see straight ahead. And we lifted off at sixty miles per hour.
The flight itself was uneventful except for a few things. One, you come to realize that there is only a shoulder harness and lap belt holding you in to the plane. So, whenever we hit an air pocket my right hand went to “death grip” mode on one of the frame rails. Two, my crew chief said she always held her cell phone with a “death grip” as the phone can either end up a thousand feet down or in the belly of the plane. So, my left hand assumed the “death grip” on my new cell phone. And to add to the excitement of the flight, my pilot, a retired Air Force officer who flew the U-2 spy plane and fighter jets but is now an American Airlines check pilot, decided to see how fast we could climb from 900 feet at 90 miles per hour to 1,200 feet and then do a wing over. Hello roller coaster! Yes, the Stearman is a great aerobatic aircraft. After we leveled back out and I opened my eyes he asked me over the intercom if I was okay! And I found out that closing my eyes was the worst thing I could do!
Anyway, the rest of the flight was normal and he stuck the landing and I let out a raised arm “YES”!
Enjoy my pictures and if you ever get a chance to ride in a Stearman take it!
To learn more about Dream Flights or to donate/volunteer:
DreamFlights.org
