AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2016 - 66
BY MIKE COLLINS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
Veterans honored with Stearman flights
THE WHITE-AND-BLACK-CHECKERED Stearman already had made
half a dozen flights from Centennial Airport, just south of Denver, on
the cool August morning, so the 450-horsepower Pratt & Whitney
R-985 Wasp Junior fired quickly-with just a cough and a couple
puffs of gray smoke.
As the biplane taxied toward the runway, Quentin West, 91,
relaxed in the front cockpit, tilting his head back and savoring
the moment.
West was in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946, reaching the
rank of sergeant. He served in the Pacific theater, sometimes flying
Aeroncas, and flew Stearmans in 1947 after he got out of the military. But he hadn't flown in a Stearman for nearly seven decades,
and the airplane appeared to fit him like a familiar glove.
He was the last passenger of the day for the Ageless Aviation
Dreams Foundation, a nonprofit created in 2011 to honor senior
veterans from all the U.S. armed forces with Dream Flights in one
of three restored World War II-era Stearmans. The group flew its
1,000th passenger on Memorial Day 2015, and conducted 1,510
flights through the end of 2015.
QUENTIN WEST, 91, savors his first
flight in a Stearman since 1947.
66 | AOPA PILOT April 2016
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2016
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