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 Launching William Shatner
Sept 6, 2002
The December UltraFlight magazine had a more
complete story with pictures of the flight. Late August, 2002 the call
came in: William Shatner was looking for help getting a PPG flight into a
charity event that he would be the main draw. He'd gotten minimal training so
was an interesting proposition. Nick Scholtes agreed to help me with the
task.
Mr. Shatner was completely up front and honest about his skills
and expectations. He explained it had been a while since he'd flown,
that he only had 12 flights and that few of those wound up on his feet.
But that is why he contacted us in the first place.
Jeff Goin and Ed Mondek get ready to pull for the
assist. Photo is an excerpt from footage
shot by Phil Russman who came
in from LA to help with camera work.
On Saturday morning the winds were fickle. Nick flew
over to where we were setting up to get us to move further from a
neighbor with horses. He landed into a steady 6 mph breeze and then I
launched Mr. Shatners gear to test the air and reposition it (beats
carrying!). By the time I landed in the new location, the winds
had switched 180 degrees...Nick couldn't get airborne with the
now-tailwind.
When Bill Shatner arrived we were considering
abandoning the effort but time allowed one try and he was willing. At
the third location in the hay field the wind finally cooperated and
picked up to 3 mph out of the NE.
With Nick on the radio, we tugged, the wing came up
straight and he throttled up. The RDM kicked in forcefully and he bound
into the air. A slight swing to the left barely missed our cameraman who
dove out of the way.
He listened well to instructions and handled the
flying well...we enjoyed a peaceful 35 minute flight over to the park.
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