Sep 19 2009
It’s Plane to See
It’s Plane to See:
The serene stillness of a hazy sunny August afternoon around and above Morton Peak was shattered this past Saturday by mighty growl of a highly tune airplane engine as it’s sound reverberated off the mountain wall’s surrounding the front door to the San Bernardino National Forest.
The vintage biplane racer came out of its dive over the valley and climbed just feet off the cliff face and blasted past the tower’s catwalk close enough to see the smile on the pilot’s face.
With speeds reaching over 250 MPH, the Japanese TV film crew that were set up on the catwalk and at the edge of the mountain top, had their work cut out for them trying to capture the quick moving biplane.
For over an hour, the biplane piloted by Tom flew his craft back and forth in various loops, curves and dives around ourLookout
Tower to allow enough footage to be filmed so the TV crew could create a portion of their segment about some interesting Japanese people who are living in the
United States. In Tom’s case he has lived here for over 30 years, working at
Redlands airport as an aircraft mechanic and who built the biplane racer himself. The story will also cover his attempt to win the famous Reno Air Races in the biplane class this year being held September 10 through the 14th in
Reno Nevada.
According to the translator, this wasn’t the first time the little biplane buzzed the Tower. I was told that he was flying around looking for a good place for the camera crew to set up and noticed the Morton Peak Lookout. It seems that the pilot knew how to get there by plane but not how to reach the tower via car, so he buzzed the tower trying to figure it out and during the process came face to face so to speak with the Lookout host who came outside on the catwalk for a better view of the quick little plane.
The TV documentary will be shown throughout
Japan later this year. Meanwhile theMorton
Peak staff took advantage of the situation by suggesting to the TV crew that the Tower was open for overnight camping experiences and having Tony spend a night there with its scenic views and sunsets with be a perfect addition to the story.
Sadly to say, in my attempts to capture a picture of the plane buzzing the tower- the auto focus on my camera was not fast enough for a close up so I drove over to Redland’s Airport and took a few shots while the plane sat still-even then it sure looks fast!
