Monday, July 28, 2014

Pilot Chuck Cohen: ABC40′s Brittany Decker Takes to the Skies on an Aerobatic Flight

WESTFIELD, Mass. (WGGB)- If you’re looking for adventure this summer, an adrenaline rush, or a check off your bucket list, Abc40′s Brittany Decker may have some ideas for you to try, or just view from your couch. 

Monday she takes us high in the sky on an aerobatic plane.

Sky aerobatics may look easy with a model plane twisting and turning in the air, as Pilot Chuck Cohen demonstrates. But imagine that in real life, over 200 miles an hour, 6-thousand feet up.

“And when we get to the point where the plane is not moving anymore we’re going to pivot around the center of gravity and come straight down and we may roll,” Cohen explains.

Pilot Chuck Cohen demonstrates the hammer head. This is a stunt ABC40′s Brittany Decker tests on his Extra 330LX specialty air plane.

The first put on their safety parachutes, strapped in, and took a few deep breaths. Then Cohen closed the top of the two-seater, took to the runway, and they were off!

It was a vertical climb, 4-thousand feet in the first minute, flying over a space approved by the FAA for aerobatics.

Then some they showed off some tricks.

“This plane will roll at almost 500 degrees a second,” says Cohen.

A barrel roll, snap roll four and eight-point roll, the hammer head as demonstrated earlier.. and more.

“Anywhere from 0mph to 230 miles an hour” Cohen adds.

Of course you can get dizzy and nauseous going round and round, but the key is to look a certain direction in each figure, keep the horizon in sight, and don’t close your eyes!

No matter if your right side up or upside down keeping them wide open anyway allowed to see the 3 dimensional view.

“Off to our periphery you could see the CT River, Northampton, and Mount Tom,” says Cohen


Decker even took control of the steering for a bit, all before the intense, high speed approach landing.

“Phew, that was crazy. Literally the craziest thing I’ve here done in my life,” says Decker. “Okay back on land I’m still spinning,” she adds.

You can try a demonstration ride too. Chuck Cohen runs Vet Air LLC. in Westfield. He is a flight instructor and can give demonstration rides.

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