This Side Up

‘Jumping’ at the chance to fly

John Howell
Posted 6/2/15

I was watching Olivia Fecteau. A moment earlier, she was pulling her hair back into a bun and seeing if she could squeeze the helmet over her head. She was smiling the whole time as the camera …

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This Side Up

‘Jumping’ at the chance to fly

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I was watching Olivia Fecteau. A moment earlier, she was pulling her hair back into a bun and seeing if she could squeeze the helmet over her head. She was smiling the whole time as the camera recorded the scene. She had already slipped on a tan flight suit with its many pockets.

This was the pre-flight information session, and the Channel 10 cameraman was anxious to get all aspects of the story about the Rhode Island National Guard Open House and Air Show at Quonset.

But now the smile was gone. Olivia was wide-eyed, attentive, and the color had left her face. The chatter over whether it would make sense to bring a cell phone and the nervous laughs when it was suggested it could slip out of your hands and land in the belly of the plane had ceased. We were inside a trailer. The door was shut. The flying team dressed in blue flight suits were gathered around. In fact, the only one talking was Steve Kapur. He spoke in an even, slow tone, enunciating every word.

This was nothing like the routine monologue about grabbing the oxygen mask when it drops down and pulling the elastic over your head.

“Reach over and release the belt first,” he said. Next, he advised to unplug the intercom, “otherwise it’s likely to come back and whip you in the face when you jump.”

Jump?

That’s right, Kapur was giving a crash course (perhaps an inappropriate choice of words) of how to jump out of a World War II vintage SNJ-2 aircraft. He next advised to aim for the left wing.

“You won’t hit it; the slipstream will carry you.”

I scribbled in my reporter’s pad, always a good thing to do when you don’t want to look like an idiot with your mouth open and an expression that can only say, “You expect me to jump out of a plane and try to hit a wing?”

Olivia just looked.

Just to be sure we had the sequence down, Kapur went through it again before getting to the parachute.

“Grab the D ring and spread your arms out like an eagle,” he said, throwing his arms as if we were at an evangelical revival. If I was going to be doing that, I was definitely going to be praying. I think Olivia was already saying her prayers.

OK, now I’m imagining myself rocketing toward the ground looking like I’m about to be crucified. That image doesn’t last. Kapur is on to what’s going to happen once the chute opens. He makes it sound so easy.

“You can steer it by pulling on the lines,” he says, reaching up in the air. He doesn’t yell alleluia, although I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had. I’m scribbling more notes. I want to be sure to remember this part. Olivia has an intent expression. I’m wondering if she has second thoughts about a demo ride with the Geico Skytypers. If she does, I doubt the cameraman will keep recording.

Kapur is on to the landing, about flexing your legs, as you’ll be hitting the ground as if you’ve jumped out of a second story window and rolling to further cushion the fall. Kapur likes going into the details. He’s enjoying his role.

I hadn’t expected this when I signed up for a demo ride. I’d read the basic set of qualifying questions, like being able to climb up a set of 24-inch high stairs and carrying 42 pounds – the weight of the parachute. I figured they’d have me sign a pile of waivers, strap me into what is basically an aluminum tube wide enough for your butt behind a very experienced pilot who’s telling me this is going to be a hoot, and we’d take off into the wild blue yonder.

It was that, and a lot more.

My pilot was Jim Record, who is probably not that much younger than the plane that was built in 1941. He’s been flying these birds, of which there are only 11 left in the world, since 1992, when he became an original member of the Skytypers. Jim flew an assortment of aircraft as a Navy man, is experienced in putting jets on the rolling deck of a carrier, and has done a number of cross-country flights.

Jim credits his love for flying to his father, who piloted bombers during World War II. On leaving the Navy, he became a commercial airlines pilot flying the Douglas DC-8, Boeing 747 and Aibus-330 for 30 years before retiring.

He’s hardly retired, though. When not with the Skytypers, Jim is an adjunct professor in the Dowling School of Aviation on Long Island, N.Y.

But what we were about to do over Narragansett Bay Friday morning was nothing like I’ve experienced. The closest came when the Warwick Rotary Club ran the air show more than 30 years ago, and I got a ride with the Canadian Snow Birds. We flew in what I thought was tight formation. Much of my focus was on keeping my lunch down if we flew upside down. I held on to my lunch.

When I flew with the Snow Birds, there was no talk about jumping out of the airplane and deploying a parachute.

“Don’t worry,” Jim assured me as he helped strap me in my seat, “there’s lots of water here. If I have to, I’ll put her down there.”

In moments we were taxiing in formation for the takeoff. The canopy was open. The air was fresh and pushing my head back. No, I didn’t have a white scarf. We bounced a bit. The engine had the fuselage trembling. We were up, banking over Wickford, lining up over the Jamestown and Newport Bridges and soaring over the mansions.

Compared to the Snow Birds, the Skytypers are really tight. I could have counted the rivets on the plane next to us. As few as six feet separated us at times as we banked over the Naval War College with a salute of white smoke that obscured the belly of the plane ahead of us.

It was about 30 minutes in the air, but it seemed a lot shorter.

“A day’s work,” Jim said with a grin when we got back on the ground. I remarked that we stayed dry – no water landing. He laughed. I’m sure he would have handled that just as capably. His passion for flying could be contagious.

I looked for Olivia. She was holding her helmet and animatedly talking with one of the Geico team.

From her expression, my guess is that she would “jump” at the chance to fly with the Skytypers again. So would I, as long as Jim is on the stick.

(A short video of the flight can be found on the Beacon’s Facebook page)

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