Smile Only Gets Bigger if You Turn It Upside Down

By Travis Senft

Airventure 2022, was the last words I called over the radio after departing runway 29 from Burlington, Wisconsin. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining, and the plane was all shiny ready to be displayed at the Teen Build area at AirVenture.

I had the Dynon loaded with the flight to Endeavor as our point of entry into what is known as the big conga line to the airshow. 1800 feet, 90 Knots, and 1 mile in trail were the words from the air traffic controller at Fisk. I continued to fly “Falcon 2” towards Fisk awaiting my call from ATC. Then I heard it, “Silver and black low wing rock your wings, Good rock”. Game on! It just got real and so did my energy level. We were assigned runway 36. We turned to follow the road into Runway 36. Passing over the highway, the ultralights were using a grass strip with the same heading. We flew directly over three of them as we continued to Runway 36. Then I got the call, “Silver low wing cleared to land 36 Left, land past the orange dot”. My approach and speed were on target. The aircraft ahead of me was no factor. Now I just needed a perfect landing because 10’s of thousands of people were watching, no pressure…. I have made it this far. Green dot, white dot, here comes the orange dot, 20 ft, 10 ft, 5, 4, 3, 2, touchdown about 3 feet past the orange dot. No time for a pat on the back, “Silver RV make a left turn into the grass”, said the controller. We made it… Airventure 2022.

We then proceeded under the guidance of the ground marshals to our designated parking spot out front of the Tailwind Café which is located adjacent to the Homebuilt hangar. After securing the plane, we took the long hike to Camp Scholler. There, I met the other people in our party from Eagle’s Nest Projects Wisconsin (ENP WI). ENP WI is a high school program in which we build and fly a Vans RV-12. Although we just finished our third plane, I flew our second completed plane, the Falcon 2 into Airventure. ENP WI has built three planes and has produced over 16 pilots. It is an amazing program. Please check out the website www.falconaviation.org.

The week at Airventure was great. The highlight of my time at Airventure started when the Director of the Eagle’s Nest Projects Wisconsin, texted me and a fellow student Austin Dawson that he had “Scored” a ride with the Phillip 66 Aerostars. I was shocked and quickly made it back to Falcon 2 to meet with him, to clarify his message. Wow, it was true, Saturday morning at 8:00 am, I was going to be in an Extra 300L. This will be my first time in an aerobatic plane and the first time I will go upside down in an airplane. I was super excited.

The next day, I flew Falcon 2 to the Appleton Airport for the ride and experience of my life. As I was taxiing to the FBO, I heard the tower clear the Aerostars for a two-ship formation takeoff. Some other extremely lucky person was also getting a ride of a lifetime. After securing Falcon 2, I got to the FBO to meet the Phillips 66 support team.

They were super nice and extremely happy to provide this experience to young aviators like myself. After talking with the team for about 20 minutes, I saw a pair of Extra 300’s taxi to the FBO. The excitement and adrenaline were starting to flow. I am sure the smile was already on my face.

I was going to fly with “Rocket” aka Captain Pual Hornick. We started a conversation talking about flying and about the Eagle’s Nest Project Wisconsin program. He was happy to see that the ENP WI provides an opportunity for young students to earn their pilots license. He also talked about his experience and about his son becoming a pilot through a military program. It was a great conversation, but truthfully, all I was thinking about was the Extra 300. I am going flying in an Extra 300 in formation, I am so excited.

The other plane was captained by the “Fossil” Garry Molidor. He was also super nice and shared his aviation background and experience with me. As we walked out to the planes, I had a big smile on my face. This is super cool, I kept telling myself. After our safety briefing on how to eject out of the plane, I climbed in the front seat of Rocket’s Extra.

Shortly after cinching down my seat belts super tight, the Exra’s 300 HP engine roared with life. There was no swiping this smile from my face at this point. After a short taxi to runway 27, we started our formation takeoff roll. Wow, we were off the ground quick and climbed out to the west.

The first maneuver was a positive 3 G loop. It was great to feel the power of the plane pushing through the loop as we reached the top. Over the top, screaming down into a negative 1 G acceleration and then pulling back hard to round out the loop at the bottom. That was amazing and my first-time upside down in a plane.

The next maneuver was a barrel roll around the lead ship. This was super cool as I watched Captain Paul circle his plane around the lead ship. Before heading back, we did a few aileron rolls. The Extra can snap roll amazingly fast.

On the way back to the airport, Captain Paul let me take control of the Extra and taught me how to fly in formation. This is super cool because he is a certified flight instructor, I received flight training in the Extra, and got an endorsement in my logbook.

This was an amazing experience; I am so blessed that Captain Paul and Captain Gerry took the time to introduce aerobatic flying to me. I am hooked. Both Rocket and Fossil live not too far from my home airport in Burlington, Wisconsin. You can bet I will be flying down to see both of them and maybe give them a ride in a RV-12.