It was quickly discovered by our own Intelligence Officers that the best of the German fighting squadrons were now patrolling our skies. On the aerodrome at Coincy, a large field just north of Chateau Thierry, was located the distinguished Richthofen Squadron, then commanded by Captain Reinhardt. Its machines were distinguishable by their scarlet noses, and by the extraordinary skillfulness of their pilots. It was now included in Jagdstaffel No.1, which comprised four Flights of seven machines each.*
It was time to fly with Hauptmann Helmuth. The Red Baron himself!
How do you board an ultralight? Very carefully, lest your foot punch through fabric or your butt bend an aluminum tube. When Herr Hauptmann and I strapped in, the gross weight of the entire contraption must surely have doubled.
The giggling says it all.
After thorough engine start and pre-takeoff checks, plus a quick scan for pesky Tommies in S.E. 5s or Sopwith Camels waiting to ‘bounce’ us during takeoff, we were off!
Achtung, wir fliegen!
Helmuth held us below 500 feet for a while. Ponds and trees zipped by. In my mind, I heard the music from Flyboys. Remember the scene when Rawlings (James Franco) took Lucienne (Jennifer Decker) flying?
As we climbed higher, I saw a city on the horizon. That couldn’t be Tarlac, could it?? Herr Hauptmann pointed to the GPS and confirmed that we had already exited the Clark airport traffic zone, were now abeam Tarlac City, and were well on the way to Nueva Ecija.
It was time for me to fly the airplane.
Herr Hauptmann’s brief: "Coordinate your turns. We are heavy. If you turn too steeply or cross-control, we could go into a spin. I’ve seen that before, and believe me, I don’t want to see it again!"
I glanced at the fabric wing flexing in the wind, thought about stalling and spinning at this altitude, and vowed to turn very, very gently indeed.
The aileron control forces were a bit stiff, my excuse for immediately unleashing uncoordinated turns on Herr Hauptmann’s butt, about which he loudly complained.
Pitch was responsive enough! A slight tug on the stick pointed us quickly toward the troposphere. Rudder pedals, as in every airplane I have flown and will ever fly, are pests for pilots!
The famous German Fokker held the skies in 1916 and 1917 for it combined more of these essential details than did any one fighting craft of the Allies. Then came the Spad which the French designed to out-speed and out-maneuver the Fokker, but still the Fokker had a higher ceiling and a swifter dive.
The British produced the S.E. 5 in 1918 which out-dove and out-maneuvered the Fokker, but could not overtake it on a flat race nor out-climb it. The Sopwith Camel likewise came from England and proved superior to the best German fighting machines except in the matter of diving and high-ceiling.*
My best impression was of speed. This airplane is fast! Even dawdling as we were, it took just half an hour to fly from Woodland to Nampicuan.
The Red Baron carefully kept me behind German lines. We patrolled over Nampicuan, now 30 nautical miles north of Herr Helmuth’s luftbasis. This was friendly territory for Der Fleigend Zirkus — the Red Baron’s Flying Circus.
Rolf, a German who has made this country his home, has built a grass airstrip here and introduced sailplane flying — soaring with the wind — to the Philippines! Surely I must write about that some day.
All too quickly, it was time to go home. I managed to keep the ball centered during my turn. Or so I thought. I tapped the ball, now immobile in the center of its tube, and haughtily pointed out to Herr Hauptmann that it must be broken 😛
He curtly replied to me that his butt, still sliding around as I stabbed at the rudder pedals, was telling him otherwise. If I had Photoshop I would paint a Kaiser moustache on Herr Hauptmann’s photo, above.
We flew low over the trenches under the Concepcion bridge on the Sacobia river, alert for ‘archie’. We quickly spotted Der Fliegend Zirkus luftbasis.
Achtung! Der Rote Baron!!
Flying down short final, Helmuth had that airplane right where he wanted it.
I thoroughly enjoyed flying with Helmuth. More than a true aviation enthusiast, a superb professional and a studious pilot, he has become a genuine friend.
Now I’m hooked on this, and will want to take ultralight lessons soon. Curse you, Red Baron! 🙂
Posted from Amsterdam, January 29, 2010.
*Excerpts from Fighting the Flying Circus, copyright by Edward V. Rickenbacker, 1919, and Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.
Photos by Flying in Crosswinds, Prince, Rolf Dunder and Tim Maceren.
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Tonet – your writing just gets better and better. And you’re having enough fun that I’ll bet your work is sufferring!
Best – from Australia – Ron
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Hi Ron, nice to hear from you again!
Oh, man, you are warmer than you think, but in a totally different way. 2009 was a great year for me — my team and I started the year determined to see how high ‘high’ was. We set out to beat every key performance indicator.
The year glowed, the planets aligned and the angels sang, and we generated excess profits that rivaled a small country.
I really got burned out, and came to the conclusion that ‘high’ can indeed get very high, but unless you’re working for yourself you don’t really get any richer.
And the goal is to get rich.
So I flew very hard, in any aircraft I could get my hands on, during my home leave in December. And now I at least feel very rich. In experiences, stories and new friends.
You are so close to the mark with your comment, but so far. I actually wanted to write an article on this.
Maybe it’s time to retire and just fly. Meanwhile, Meng of Wings Over Asia has invited me to the Singapore Airshow to give a talk about flying in the Philippines!
There are nice stories to be had, even on the ground 🙂
Tonet
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So, Tonet, you could write an article, or develop a life coaching business! The world is your oyster.
Let’s stay in touch and hope to meet up in Hong Kong or Australia.
Enjoy the Singapore show – it’s been a few years since I attended, but I recall it fondly.
Best – Ron (going to Oshkosh next July – have you been?)
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I don’t feel much like a life coach nowadays.
Hey, I have a gazillion miles on Cathay Pacific, and Shirl converted some of them to 90 minutes in the B-737 simulator they have!! They already sent me the claim certificate, plus lots of briefing materials online — POH, cockpit procedures, Hi/Lo charts, all that airliner stuff.
😛
I intend to loop the damn thing.
Life’s too short. I’ll let you know when I’ll do it (probably March) so you can come to Hong Kong and watch the instructor clean up his breakfast after I put him through 6Gs. Meynard and I have done 5.5Gs in his Decathlon, and I figure that all those jet engines and hydraulics can top a taildragger!
Maybe I can do the entire 2009 US National Aerobatic Primary Sequence on that. Should be fun if you can video the big-iron instructor try to walk afterwards.
🙂
Tonet (like Meynard, saving Oshkosh for when I grow up)
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hello!
i’m jette gonzales, resident of dumaguete city, a tagalog romance writer known in that world as edith joaquin.
i’m just doing a bit of background research on flying, fort magsaysay and the philippine army airborne regiment for one of my upcoming heroes and i came across your blog.
may i just say i love what you write about. i read through some of the entries and being the iyakin me, your entries about family and stuff brought tears to my eyes.
i love what you do. it’s something i won’t ever be able to
do largely because i’m myopic. i have a character who’s a pilot – the manuscript is awaiting publication. wish i’d come across this blog sooner.
anyway, i hope you won’t mind if i would sometimes leave messages and comments or ask for some information especially when i start writing about my hero skydiver/airborne military personnel. would be forever grateful.
thanks so much in advance!
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Jette, thanks for visiting Flying in Crosswinds.
I spent a lot of time with the Philippine Army skydiving team last weekend. I was the Air Boss at the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, and there were a lot of skydiving activities on the program.
Thanks for your kind words about the blog. The intention was not to make the readers sad, but I fully understand what you mean.
Ask me anything about flying — will be glad to flesh out your character. Please do leave messages and notes — Carlo and I enjoy hearing from our readers. Really.
Thanks again, and more power to your writing (Carlo teaches English at St. Paul’s and both of us are always excited when a fellow writer drops by our blog). We wish you the best of luck on your writing career!!
Sincerely,
Tonet and Carlo
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