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Since the New River Gorge Park and Preserve became the newest national park in 2020, visitors from all over the world have flocked to the area. Visitations reached nearly two million last year.
The fall is especially beautiful with walls of trees changing to shades of red, yellow and orange. But sometimes it is difficult to see the forest for the trees. The best way to get around that is to get up and above it.
Bill Chouinard, a pilot in Oak Hill in Fayette County, takes passengers on one-on-one excursions around the New River Gorge, Summersville Lake and surrounding areas. The twist is, Chouinard is flying an 82-year-old biplane with an open cockpit. And his passengers fly in the front seat with a view as far as the eye can see.
“This isn’t a carnival ride where we load up 10 or 15 people and we slap you on the back and we just go for it,” he said. “Each ride is really tailored to the individual’s experience, their comfort zone, what they want to do.”
He’s referring to his ability to perform in-air aerobatics with passengers. He can make the trip easy or a little more exciting.
“We call it the magic carpet ride for people who are nervous, to really as extreme as most people will ever experience in an aircraft,” he said. “We can do aerobatics. We can just swoop around in the air.”
The Plane
A yellow and blue vintage aircraft is the main attraction of Wild Blue Adventure Company in the Aviators Lounge in Fayetteville.
“We have a 1943 Boeing Stearman. They, of course, were a primary trainer in the Second World War,” he said. “They taught young men in the Army Air Corps and the Navy Air Corps to fly. It was the first plane that most of them would have flown.”
This plane has a service plate that points to Fletcher Field in Clarksdale Mississippi. Today it is a public use airport, but during World War II it was a cadet flight school.
After the war, the plane became a crop duster and then was found in a barn in the 1980s. It was restored with upgrades such as radios and a bigger engine.
Rebecca Kane from Frackville, Pennsylvania, made the trip to the gorge and had to take a ride in the Stearman.
“I came to explore the gorge, and I did a little research, and I saw that there’s plane rides. I’ll do some cool tricks. I was like, I gotta do it absolutely,” she said.
Back on the ground, Kane said she was still giddy. But she did have a favorite move in the air.
“Maybe doing the loop de loop, that was pretty fun. Like two rolls in it at once. That was pretty fun,” she said. “The biggest part of my trip was to come and do this. So I’m glad I was able to do it.”
Looking Around
Because of the aerobatics, Chouinard and his passenger both wear parachutes, although he quickly says they’ve never had to use them.
“We have basically predetermined paths,” he said. “We’re going to do a 20-minute ride where we’re going to see Hawks Nest Dam and the big bridge and Fayetteville and Endless Wall Trail and a big chunk of the national park here in Fayetteville.”
After enjoying a sunset flight and buzzing the air strip to scare away deer that were grazing in the evening, Chouinard said he thought this was the best flying around.
“We’re into our seventh season, so we’re right at 1,000 hours of rides given,” he said. “We give 20-, 40-, and 60-minute rides. I’ve got 1,000 hours in the Stearman now, and we’re in our seventh year, and we do anywhere from 150, 120 to 200 hours a year.”
Whether you’ve rafted on the New River or swam in Summersville Lake, taken the Bridge Walk tour and watched base jumpers fling themselves into the air on Bridge Day, seeing it all from above in an open-air cockpit definitely lends a new perspective to it.
And the loop-de-loop is great.