This year, EAA offered the Pilot Your Own Adventure Writing Contest, supported by Flight Outfitters. The Grand Prize of a teardrop camper on a campsite in Camp Scholler for the entire week of AirVenture 2021 is what ultimately caught my eye! Recommend you keep this opportunity in mind for next year, as there are 5 winners, each with an amazing list of prizes to be earned. All you have to do is write an essay, between 500-1,000 word length, that shares an aviation adventure of a lifetime that you have experienced with 3-6 pictures.
Check out my Pilot Your Own Adventure story below!
Back in November of 2016, I was an aircraft mechanic working for a maintenance hangar along the private side of Hector International Airport in Fargo, ND. On the weekends, I volunteered as a docent at the Fargo Air Museum and accompanied old-man Clarence in rebuilding a WWII Vultee BT-13 Valiant every Sunday morning. On one particular Sunday, I was welcomed into the air museum hangar with a hand-written note from Clarence hanging on the toolbox. As he was unable to make it in that morning, he provided me a list of things that could be completed on the Valiant’s airframe.
As I was putting tools away that afternoon, a gentleman by the name of Tim McPherson, requested some tools along with my assistance. Following him across the hangar, Tim leads me to Boomer, the air museum’s very own P-51D Mustang. Bright vibrant colors of red and blue, a strong and heroic-like aircraft posture, with an aluminum polish that reflected a mirror image of the sunset that was casting through the hangar door. There was just one thing out of place: a flat tailwheel. Tim, whose name was painted alongside the canopy window to strongly suggest “pilot”, would also come to find out that I conveniently had an airframe and powerplant license. As an obvious sign of “match-made in heaven”, I got the opportunity to change the tailwheel on an operational WWII P-51 Mustang with assistance from Boomer’s very own pilot!
After work on the tailwheel was completed, I go to shake greasy hands with Tim in a gesture of gratitude for giving me the opportunity to work on his aircraft. However, as if that experience wasn’t already any aircraft mechanic’s dream, Tim doesn’t shake my hand, but instead pulls out the keys from his jacket pocket and offers me a back seat ride on a “maintenance test flight”! Although I trusted my work, I was not going to pass up on this once in a lifetime opportunity. So as cool as a cat as I could be in that moment, museum staffed assisted in towing the warbird legend out onto the tarmac and I took back seat. I didn’t want Tim to notice my hands shaking with excitement as I fumbled to put my seatbelt on, although I know how blatantly obvious it was. At that point in my career, I had very little actual flight time in the air, yet alone a sunset cruise around Fargo, North Dakota in a P-51!
The flight around the city was incredible to say the least. Almost more intoxicating than the aerial sights were the sounds of the aircraft! I remember removing one side of my headphones away from my ear on several occasions just to hear the sound of the Merlin engine. It was a loud and stern growl that I could only imagine pierced the sky as it flew over European countries less than a century ago. I could close my eyes and feel how this aircraft impacted the war as the “knight in shining armor.” And although it may not be possible, I am convinced that sunset looked better through the aircraft’s canopy windows.
The test flight over Fargo seemed to only last a small portion of the actual hour of flight time until Tim needed to land before night fall. Opening the canopy door to disembark, I knew my aviation career took a big leap that day. I’ve never been happier to fix a tailwheel, and forever grateful for Tim’s generosity for my once in a lifetime experience of a sunset cruise in a P-51 Mustang!
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