There is a 1983 movie, High Road to China. Cranky pilot Tom Selleck reluctantly accepts a two-biplane charter by feisty flapper Bess Armstrong who is on an urgent search for her missing father. A romantic 1920’s swashbuckling aviation adventure from Istanbul to Waziristan, Nepal and China. Just now on DVD after 30 years.
Nichole is a champion gymnast and a winning debater. She is also an aviation enthusiast. For a school science project she flight-tested various airfoils for distance and endurance. Another school project recreated Amelia Earhart’s last flight, with charts, photos, and a model of the missing mystery airplane. A costumed Nichole herself played the leading role.
Nichole’s first flight in a small airplane was with me in RP-C1513. Sitting on pillows, she could barely see over the instrument panel. Later she earned a Young Eagle certificate in a Bonanza at San Carlos airport in California.
Last year we did something special. The plan was aerobatics in a circa-1942 Stearman biplane at Sonoma-Schelleville airport. It was a cold, clear February day. Stearmans have open cockpits. Death by blast-freezing. A great plan.
We wandered the taxiways as the sun struggled to warm up this vintage aircraft heaven. There were precious aviation jewels in every hangar — Luscombes, Pipers, Globe Swifts, Stearmans, lovingly restored from the 1940s.
And we discovered an airplane I flew in my childhood 1/72 scale World War II missions in China. Never thought I’d see and touch the real thing!
We decided that death from frostbite in an open cockpit at altitude was better than dying of suspense. Nichole lithely flipped herself and her parachute into the Stearman’s cockpit. Pilot Tom Morris scrambled aside.
I bumbled every handhold and nearly punched a few more in the fabric.
Bundled up like Scott and Amundsen, we blasted off in a blaze of radial engine glory. We slipped over the China Slough and sailed downstream, rolling into S-turns along the twisting stream to San Francisco Bay.
We climbed to aerobatic altitude over the Infineon racetrack.
A gentle aileron roll tested Nichole’s fortitude. Then – BOOM — up into a vaulting loop, earth and sky flipping, the horizon rotating around the wingtips.
Wings glowing, sun-shot struts and braces sparkling with white fire.
Pitch up to a hammerhead, my favorite maneuver. Up, up into the clear blue, our spirits soaring with the Stearman. Stall turn at the top — left rudder, stick right and forward against gyroscopic precession. Headed straight down now, airspeed building, then up into a full Cuban Eight. Breathlessly.
This video, in two and a half minutes, is why I fly. It’s all here. The sparkle, adventure, romance, and contentment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17CHKEs_tos
A year later Nichole flew unpowered aerobatics in a glider, the purest form of flight. This month she test flew herself as an airfoil. One day Nichole will design a supercritical wing for Airbus or Gulfstream, or a spaceflight company that doesn’t even exist today. She is the future.
Posted from Bangkok, June 21, 2012.
Some photos by Rebecca Rivera-Lim. Happy Birthday to you!
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oh, how very beautiful….big sigh….goosebumps….aerobatics in a Stearman….
what’s the soundtrack, it’s gorgeous and so fitting?
And to Nichole: you go girl, you ARE the future, clear skies, always!
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Hi Christina. The soundtrack is the Main Theme / Love Theme from the movie High Road to China. John Barry. It has been compared to his very similar work in the movie Out of Africa (Grammy and Academy for Best Musical Score), especially in the scene where Robert Redford takes Meryl Streep flying in a de Havilland Moth, in a brilliantly filmed aerial sequence over spectacular scenery in Kenya. John Barry is one of those soundtrack composers who you wish would live forever. Alas, he died on January 30 last year, just a month before Nichole and I took this flight. It is a perfect match for this video 🙂
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What a wonderful experience! And to have it at Nichole’s age—-le sigh…
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Yes, sir, a very wonderful experience! That’s the word for it indeed — fills one with wonder, and happiness. I wish someone took me flying like that when I was her age.
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what is it tonet.
i don’t understand.
the video.
i’ve played it back several times already.
i keep choking each time.
i can’t pin it down exactly what is it my emotion is telling me.
one thing i know though. you were able to convey the true gracefulness and serenity of flight.
louie
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Louie. My sister, Nichole’s Mom, had the same reaction. I have the same reaction every time I watch it. It’s the damn video, and the music. This video is what I want to watch on my last day on earth, before that day ends.
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Wow.. Just recently I sort of fulfilled my dream of flying a biplane, albeit it was only a remote controlled one 🙂 Someday when I grow up, I hope to fly a real one 🙂 Thanks for sharing the video, it was one refreshing-to-the-soul ride sir!
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Hi Suerte, long time no hear, sir. There’s a Stearman at Woodland airfield sir, 8 DME on the 080 radial from Clark 🙂 Fully authentic, beautifully restored 1942 PT-17 Boeing Stearman. Strangely enough, I got to fly it today!! 🙂
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Yes sir, I know about that Stearman! I also wish to someday fly Rolf Dunder’s glider! And ultralights too! All of which you’ve flown already 🙂 No wonder you can keep up with your very busy schedule, what with all those de-stressors that you have 🙂
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Suerte, come visit Woodland with me when I am in the Philippines. You may get to do all three, sir.
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Yes sir, will do that one of these days! Thank you 🙂
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Just love this post. You’re really a cool tito, Tonet. When are you going to adopt me? Hahaha!
You know, that P-40 has a spare seat…
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Too late to adopt you, I have three sons already! Now if you were a girl… . At $900++ for 20 minutes you would have to adopt me so I can afford that P-40 🙂
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Tell Nichole to keep persuing aerospace design, I can vouch it’s worth it.
Also letting you know I’m based in Ortigas now, mate. Finally made the move. 🙂
Dave.
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Hey Dave! You’re in town? Woot!
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Fun times are here! 🙂
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Dave, amigo, my number has not changed. SMS me your current phone number. Nichole is visiting the Philippines in a few weeks, maybe we can have lunch, or ice cream, or fly.
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Hi Tonet, Nichole. You just summed it all up for me after watching the video and its beautiful soundtrack; “This video is what I want to watch on my last day on earth, before that day ends.” It gave me that soaring feeling, flying into the sunset, and leave all my earthly cares behind.
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Samie, I’ve put this video on my BlackBerry. When I run into real stress at work, I plug in my earphones and escape into Cuban Eights and Hammerheads. “Leave all my earthly cares behind,” indeed, sir! I am serious about wanting to watch this on my last day on earth, before that day ends 🙂
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Great blog!! If you guys would ever head this way (London, UK) We’ll go up flying!!
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Thank you, sir! We WILL take you up on your offer when we find an opportunity to visit the UK. My Dad spent a year there, long ago, and was completely charmed by London and England. It would be cool to fly over what is really a beautiful country. Keep coming back here for flying stories 🙂
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[…] Comments « High Road to China […]
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I enjoyed reading your posts Sir Tonet. Your niece is craving for more adventures. 😀
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She is actually visiting me in Bangkok this week. I am stressed out trying to think of what to do that won’t bore her!!
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