Evan Flys
adventures!
The Best Day Ever
January 1, 2009
“Clear Prop!” yelled Eddie Andreini. I couldn’t believe it at first – but my friend, the famous stunt performer Eddie Andreini, was taking me for a ride in his modified Super Stearman! Clang - Clang – Clang - Clang… VWOOSH!
As Eddie started the 450 horsepower engine, my body tensed up. “If I’m going for a ride, in a fully aerobatic capable Stearman, with a veteran aerobatic extremist – then won’t we do some – uggh – AEROBATICS???!!!” I thought. I was extremely afraid of aerobatics because I’d never done them before. Will I barf all over the inside of his plane?
It got worse when he ran up the engine in the run up area. Will I fall out of my seat, through the canopy that Eddie added, and DOWN?
As we took off, I got very tense, and thought: “Just calm down, Evan, maybe he’ll forget, or only do a roll…”
“Okay!” shouted Eddie, “I’ll do a roll and a loop.”
My muscles were so tense, that I thought I’d literally explode!
VWOOOOO… VWOOOOSHHH!
“Hey, how’d ya like that, huh?” asked Eddie.
I thought, WOW, this is what it’s like to be a combat aviator! “That was great, how ‘bout another one, Eddie?”
“Okay! This time I’ll do a hammerhead, too …”
VWOOOOO… VWOOOOSHHH!
“Great, Eddie! That was awesome!” I really liked it!
Then, we headed down the coastline with me at the controls. The Stearman felt gentle in my hands, like a big bird. The controls were smooth and steady, but not unresponsive. I couldn’t reach the rudder pedals, so Eddie helped coordinate my turns and followed along with my movements on the stick. All the modifications that Eddie made have turned this big bird into a real sport plane. Once there, we did a loop, roll, and hammerhead over the fancy Ritz Carlton Hotel. What a comparison! A fancy hotel and a rugged duo of barnstormers leaving smoke trails in the sky!
After that, we flew at wave top level along the coastline, seagulls scattering all around us as we zoomed along. It was very beautiful; there were half submerged rocky islands with tiny little waterfalls on them. The seagulls looked so proud on those little island-rocks, until we scared the poop out of them!
Before I knew it, we were about directly in front of the runway, and landing.
As we taxied down the runway, I saw in front of us my dad frantically zooming out of the way after snapping photos of us.
“Oh, there’s ya dad.” Said Eddie casually, like my dad ran out of the way of airplanes every day!
When we pulled up to the hangar, well, if only I could have seen my face. My dad later said that I looked so triumphant, that I could tame 10 tigers all at once.
It was the best day in my whole life. I loved doing the aerobatics and can't wait to get to do it again. Thanks so much to my best pal Eddie Andreini for my best day ever!
You can see the video of us taxiing back from our flight here:
http://www.youtube.com/timnevan
