AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2014 - 48

PILOT BRIEFING
Fly-outs made possible by ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR

VIDEO EXTRA

Tour Plymouth with us.

FLY-OUTS

Unusual attitudes
Plenty of pilots in Plymouth
BY JAMES MOORE
BOB TRINQUE might be the reigning champion
of fly-outs. Would that records were kept on
such things: Trinque, a retired Delta Air Lines
captain, is now in his twenty-fourth year of
flying regular breakfast runs, piling friends
into his 1953 C-45 (a Beechcraft Model 18
variant made for the U.S. Air Force) painted
in 1941-vintage U.S. Army Air Corps blue and
gold. A "Chow Hound" logo (Disney's Pluto on a flying hot dog)
decorates the nose, a tribute to a World War II bomber-and as
apt a moniker for an aircraft as there ever was.
Trinque fills the seats and departs Plymouth Municipal
Airport (PYM) every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in all but the
worst weather, bound for airports within a roughly half-hour
hop-and there are many to choose from. Announced by the rumble of twin Pratt & Whitney radials, the group arrives hungry. Over
the years, those breakfast runs have whetted many a passenger's
appetite for pilot training as well.
"The flight schools really like it," Trinque said, smiling. Two
local flight schools are just steps away from Trinque's hangar,
prime real estate for those in the business.
Both Alpha One Flight, a flight school, maintenance shop, and
aviation consultancy that has operated about as long as Trinque has
flown breakfast runs, and Pilgrim Aviation, a relative newcomer
to the flight training market, offer
JOIN US
the range of certificates and ratAOPA Fly-In takes place
ings. For pilots looking to build or
at Plymouth Municipal
Airport (PYM) July 12,
sharpen upset recovery and aero2014. RSVP online to join
batic skills, Bill Crawford has a
us (www.aopa.org/fly-in).
hangar of his own, a school called

CRANBERRY COUNTRY
John Ryan can still remember
the first time he saw a Bell
47 overhead, spraying the
cranberry bogs. He decided
on the spot that was the job
he wanted.
That was 1987, and Plymouth Municipal Airport was
home to a fleet of a dozen
helicopters that supported
cranberry growers who
collectively produce much
48 | AOPA PILOT July 2014

of the nation's total supply
(Massachusetts is second
only to Wisconsin in cranberry production, with 2.1
million barrels-with 100
pounds of cranberries in
each-produced in 2012,
according to federal data).
From the spring cleanouts
to summer fertilizing and fall
harvest, helicopters, although
supplanted to a degree by
automation in recent de-

Flightlab, and two aerobatic aircraft. Crawford
teaches clients including
private pilots and corporate flight departments
advanced aerodynamics
and the fine points of handling unusual attitudes
in a real-world environ- BOB TRINQUE'S 1953 C-45 (top).
ment. He draws on lessons Airshow performer Mike Goulian is
learned in the National based at Plymouth (above).
Test Pilot School.
An undisputed modern master of unusual attitudes, Mike
Goulian makes his aviation home at Plymouth. An aerobatic champion, airshow performer, and Red Bull Air Race pilot, Goulian will
put his Extra through its paces during the AOPA Fly-In July 12, a
demonstration of aircraft mastery that is part of an aerobatic tradition at Plymouth that dates back decades.
There are no fewer than five helicopter operators on the field,
which offer introductory lessons and sightseeing excursions. AOPA
EMAIL james.moore@aopa.org

cades, continue to play a
major role in cranberry production, flying above delicate
bogs that might otherwise be
damaged by trucks or tractors, hoisting 600 pounds of
cranberries at a time during
the harvest, making 200 or
more such runs in a day.
The mission is not for
everyone. "It takes quite a bit
of training to get somebody
to where they're not going to

kill themselves," Ryan said. He
has been flying cranberries
since 1989.
Ryan worked his way into
the business from the bottom, and eventually earned
a seat in the cockpit. In 1994,
when Plymouth Helicopters
went out of business, Ryan
leased a Bell 47 and started
his own operation, Ryan
Rotors, with $14,000 he had
managed to save up.

http://www.aopa.org/fly-in http://www.aopa.org/fly-in

AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2014

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