Travel

For holding the extraordinary title of the only female barnstorming pilot in the United States, Gina Moore is unbelievably humble.

“I don’t feel like it’s an honor being the only girl barnstormer,” says the 37-year-young pilot, who is based in Gallatin.

“I wish there were more females doing it so I wouldn’t feel so alone.”

Clearly, the fact that she’s a semi-famous pilot doesn’t boost Moore’s ego, nor do the phone calls from the media – like CNN, who wanted to feature her on their national news.

Gazing across the spacious hangar that houses her five authentic World War II airplanes, however, the twinkle in her eye shows she doesn’t take her profession for granted.

“But it sure is an honor to fly these planes.”

…

I met Gina on a clear September morning as the result of a reporting assignment that had been racking my nerves for weeks.

Gina is the owner of Warbird Sky Ventures, a small barnstorming company that offers people all over the country the opportunity to relive aviation history by taking an aerobatic flight in a World War II airplane. (It’s called barnstorming because the practice began when unemployed World War I pilots flew from town to town, selling rides to the locals and often operating out of a farmer’s field.)

When deciding if this was something we should recommend to the readers of Tennessee Home & Farm, my editor suggested I be the official guinea pig.

I’ve always been a white-knuckle flier, but this was the sort of once-in-a-lifetime assignment a good reporter knows better than to turn down.

On the morning of my flight, I was welcomed to the Warbird Sky Ventures hangar at Sumner County Regional Airport by the pilot herself and her two golden retrievers, Lucas and Wyatt.

“I’m a little nervous,” I admit sheepishly as Gina greets me with a handshake.

“That’s normal,” she assures me with a grin. “People are often on pins and needles before their flight.”

I walk around the hangar, running my hands along the wings of some of Gina’s planes – two North American AT-6s, one of her two Boeing-Stearmans and an Aeronca Champ 7AC. Even to this aviation novice, they’re impressive.

Gina’s decided to take me up in a 1942 Boeing N2S-5, and as she hops on her ATV to haul it out of the hangar, the knot in my stomach tightens.

She explains how to climb in the front of two seats in the open cockpit, and once I’m inside, she shows me how to strap on my parachute, buckle my seat belt and adjust my headgear, which consists of headphones and a microphone I’ll use to communicate with her during the flight.

Then she looks me square in the eye.

“Now, in case of an emergency – an extreme catastrophe – I’d tell you to bail out three times. That’s ‘Bail out, bail out, bail out,’ “ Gina says. “You’d unhook your seat belt, take off your helmet and dive head-first over the tail end of the wing.”

Huh? The last thing I want to think about pre-takeoff is diving head-first over a wing.

At the risk of sounding like a wimp, I ask Gina if she ever worries the plane will crash.

“Crashing isn’t something I really think about,” she says. “You don’t think about crashing your car when you’re driving, do you?”

She has a point.

Gina climbs in the seat behind me. I can see her in a rearview mirror in front of me. She revs up the engine, and we taxi down the runway.

She explains that the plane’s oil temperature has to be at 40 degrees Celsius for takeoff.

“We’re sitting at 20 degrees … 30 degrees … Are you ready?” she asks.

I close my eyes and clench my teeth.

“Ready as I’ll ever be!”

Because the small plane is lightweight in comparison to commercial airliners, takeoff is relatively quick. Before I know it, we’re soaring into the wild blue yonder.

“Want to drive?” Gina asks a few minutes into the flight.

Only if you have a death wish, I think. But she convinces me to take the controls, and almost effortlessly, I steer the plane right, left and upward – any way but down.

“Ready for a rollover?” she asks.

I ask her what the purpose of rolling over was for World War II pilots. Were they just showing off?

“Actually in air-to-air combat, pilots used rollovers, loops and other maneuvers to dodge the enemy when they were being shot at,” she explains.

I hand over the controls and agree to experience a rollover.

“Ready, Freddie? Here we goooo!” she yells.

Almost as if in slow motion, I see the plane’s right wing tilt down, and in a few seconds, my feet are up above my head and I’m feeling lifted, ever so slightly, off of my seat. Then we’re right side up again.

“I caught you smiling,” Gina teases me.

And I am. I can’t believe it, but I’m loving it. I insist she do it again, and she obliges. Then we do some vertical loops and some loop-and-roll combinations. I’m so excited, I feel absolutely giddy.

“I expected it to feel like a roller coaster ride, but it doesn’t,” I say.

“Oh, gosh no,” Gina replies. “I don’t even do roller coasters – they’re attached to the ground. This is much smoother.”

Sooner than I wish, we’re back on the runway, and the landing is so soft, I can’t even tell when the wheels hit the ground.

As I climb out of the plane and breathe a sigh of contented relief, I feel as if I’ve conquered death. I’m invincible! There’s nothing I cannot do!

Snapping out of my high-altitude high, I realize the perils aerobatic stunts could pose. I ask Gina what her family thinks of her career.

“Every family has a freak,” she says with a laugh. “Mom was a little nervous during the first 10 years, and then she got used to it. My grandma was the first family member to go up with me. My dad’s just a proud dad – he’s always talking about the planes.”

Thanks to Gina’s training and professionalism, she’s never experienced any perilous moments.

“Sometimes when I allow a customer to fly, they’ll grab the wrong controls. Maybe they’ll grab the throttle and ram it forward or even turn the engine off,” she says. “But it’s never been something I couldn’t fix.”

For many of Gina’s customers, flying in a vintage plane means realizing a longtime dream.

“Some people want to fly because it’s the exact plane they flew in the ’40s, or maybe their grandparent flew in the ’40s,” she says. “Others just like the distinctive rumble of the engine.

“It makes you feel more alive.”

Want to Fly With Gina?

On average, Gina Moore gives between 2,000 and 2,500 rides annually, taking off from airports all over the country. When she’s in Tennessee, she gives rides out of airports in Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville and Gatlinburg.

Flights range in price from $69.95 (20 minutes, no aerobatics) to $630 or more for an hour with aerobatics.

For more information, or to see when Moore will be in your area, visit warbirdskyventures.com or call 888-532-5787.

Email to a Friend
Please enter the following information:

Your Name:

Your Email:

Recipient Name:

Recipient Email:

Notes:

Please enter the word you see in
the image below:

{/exp:freeform:form}