Plane Flight

For my birthday, Leann got me a flight on a Douglas C-47 based at Meacham Airport. The plane was built in 1941 for American Airlines, and was placed into military service the next year. At one time, the plane was owned by the President of Mexico, and it was later used by skydiving operators.

Walker got so excited when we pulled up at the airport and saw the airplane.


While waiting for the flight, we walked around the Vintage Flying Museum and took a look at all of the great airplanes they have, including the Pacific Prowler, a beautiful B-25 Mitchell.



The pilot was nice enough to allow Walker to ride along on my lap. Prior to the flight, the pilot told us the history of the aircraft, as well as a briefing so that we would know what to expect. As we climbed into our seats, we put on our ear protection. Walker was really patient, and sat in my lap as the engines warmed up for about 10 minutes.



Then, we taxied to the runway and waited another few minutes while the pilots did their runup and mag check. Finally, we lined up on the runway and took off. Those 1,500 horsepower engines were incredibly loud as we climbed.





Soon after we were in the air and the pilot pulled back the throttle, we were able to take off our hearing protection and walk around inside the plane. There are several large windows that were just the right height for taking photos and admiring the view. We flew around downtown Fort Worth, then did a couple of circles around Cowboys Stadium.







One of our fellow passengers was kind enough to film us for a couple of seconds.



Here's the last photo I took of Walker on the flight.



Those of you paying attention may have noticed that Walker wasn't exactly smiling in these photos and videos. He did in fact smile the first time he looked out the big window, but most of the time he looked very serious. I am obviously a terrible dad, because I didn't recognize that serious look as air sickness. About 30 seconds after that last photo, Walker puked all over both of us.

He seemed to feel better after throwing up, and we landed shortly afterwards. Mom was ready with the camera as we got out of the plane.