Day 19 - Pilot's Paradise

We love an early-morning, although Anna-Klara sometimes needs to be coaxed into it. We prepared the trike and got away just as the sun was rising. Visibility was not great although there was a nice tailwind giving us an extra 5 knots.Tail winds are beautiful!

After the weeks break from flying everyday, we had just put in a nice two and a half-hour flight . We landed on the nicest grass strip, and what turned out to be a piloting neighbourhood.


Bayou la Batre airstrip (5r7) is set up with a 2000ft Turf runway surrounded by pilot’s houses and their personal hangars. The funniest thing we found is that they drive around in golf carts from house to house and around the strip. All of them had golf carts!!!

After fuelling up with the MOGAS that was available from the pump, we borrowed the manager's car and went down to the local store for breakfast. Then we had a sleep in the sun.

During my sleep I was a woken by a pilot doing a very low pass that buzzed me out of my morning nap. How nice I thought. All I saw from there was a biplane shooting up 3000 to 4000 feet, diving 3000 feet, doing rolls, hammerheads, spins you name it.
Both Anna-Klara and myself became extremely excited when he did all the acrobatics known to man, landed and taxied into his hangar on the strip. Excitement overcame shyness, and we ran over and introduced ourselves to Keith, the pilot.

Keith is a cool guy, very cool. He was from an aviation family and was actually rebuilding his grandfather's plane that his grandfather also rebuilt . Keith did air shows and was one of the most passionate aviators I have ever met, a real inspiration. We hung out all day there and Anna-Klara was very happy being accompanied by Keith's very cool wife and their cute toddlers which was a nice change. Burgers and beers in the afternoon were offered along with a bed for the night and the chance to SHOWER !!!


The highlight undoubtedly of this great day was going for a SPIN in the EAGLE stunt bi plane with Keith. With calm clear conditions in the afternoon, I was strapped in and was more than ready to experience a new perspective on flying.
During the flight we experienced 6 G positive and 2 G negative, did an eight point roll, a hammerhead stall which saw us shoot vertically up into the sky until the airspeed reached 0. I definitely came down shaking full of adrenaline and elated at having the chance to fly upside down. Thanks Keith again!!