To access part 1, click here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WDHQMHED4g
and to access part 2, click here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwAGyS1P6LM
Do you want to have a “Stearman Crew” experience yourself?
Airports of departure: Hanover Airport, Hodenhagen Airfield and Celle Arloh Airfield
They’ve made the last leg! It was a long journey for the red airplane, from the vast American expanses to the North-German lowlands.
Here’s how the greatest adventure in the flying career of the Stearman Crew began:The three amateur pilots discovered a vintage aircraft in the USA and bought it on the spot, a 1946 Beechcraft D18. Thomas Schüttoff is on board as a planner and pilot. I‘m accompanying Enterprise Beechcraft as a video journalist for Hanover Airport TV on their trip across North America. But the crew is focusing on one thing: the Transatlantic crossing.
March 2015 – Lakeland, Florida Wilfried Brauckmann – Amateur pilot “You really have to make a lot of preparations. What matters most is getting the survival packages ready. You need a lifeboat and a life raft. And immersion suits. And you need a pilot who knows the route very well because I and my friends can’t do it alone. That’s why we opted for a ferry pilot.”
The preparations were finished in mid-June. The Beechboys flew their airplane to Duluth, Minnesota. Where they made test runs with their ferry pilot to calculate fuel consumption.
Wilfried Brauckmann – Amateur pilot “Then we discovered how unfavorable the weather is this time of year; we would have encountered constant headwind.” O-Ton Thomas Schüttoff – Aircraft expert “Thunderstorms and even really extreme storm systems would have kept us from flying. We would have always been flying in the wake of bad weather, or straight into it.” “And with four people and a lot of baggage on board, the plane was really heavy. We would have used up lots of fuel on the first ascent.”
The crew had to abandon the first attempt.
“What a disappointment. We really wanted to make the crossing, but safety comes first.”
If an engine fails, you have to make an emergency landing in the cold Atlantic. We needed a new plan, had to make some technical improvements on the aircraft and repair the defective oil cooler. A new attempt was made in mid-July.
“Thomas, who really knows the plane well, flew back to America alone.”
Thomas flew the red Beech to Toronto. From here Klaus Plasa, an experienced German air force pilot, took over. The weather was fine. The ferry pilot flew the Beech to Europe in only three days.
“It went so quickly. I really had my hands full preparing for everything like customs clearance and of course notifying Wilfried.”
“Now we’re in Biggin Hill. It’s early morning. We’re all set, ready for the last leg of the journey. Our friend Klaus Plasa did a great job bringing the plane over and I’m really glad we are finally reaching Germany. It’s time to go. We’re coming home. Coming home!“
They are all together now for the first time, the “newcomer” and the crew’s Stearman double-deckers. But the amateur pilots need to train for awhile before they can fly any air shows.
“Enterprise Beechcraft has really been worth it. See my smile? I usually have quite a serious expression on my face but I’m smiling now, so happy the aircraft is finally here.”
The long-awaited moment has come. The Stearman crew is in seventh heaven. Each in his own vintage aircraft.
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