Taking the Cannon River by (barn)Storm - Adventure in a World War II Biplane

PT-17, 1941

Sometimes I say to myself "I want to do something different", and then I think of what that means. In this case, it meant getting up in the air, but I wasn't sure if that was skydiving, hot air balloon, oh wait, how about a World War II biplane. Sometimes random searching on the internet can yield great surprises, and that's how I came across Jeff Peterson and Twin City Barnstormers down in the Northfield area. I made my way down to Stanton Airfield which was used during WWII to train pilots for the war, it's on the National Register of Historic Places as a matter of fact, and it operates as a private airfield. When I booked my flight, I chose between flying over the town of Northfield or Cannon Falls and Lake Byllesby and the Sogn Valley. I picked Cannon Falls. You can also do add-ons: different flight patterns, or landings for a little more adventure, or you can pick a more acrobatic afternoon (like flying upside down). Not today, although after talking with Jeff, I haven't ruled it out. Stanton Airfield is a grass field between cornfields, and there are different flying machines, and then there is the PT-17. I was so excited. Getting into the plane is probably the trickiest and most daunting part of the whole thing (some people may disagree). I daintily got into the front seat, got buckled in (I think the buckles are some kind of dexterity test), put on the cool hat (goggles not included) and waited for Jeff to do his check and start the engine. He is really good about explaining everything that's going to happen, why it may be bumpy (altitude, temperature), where we're going to be going; the cool helmet has a radio built in, so even as we were flying, Jeff was able to point out what we were seeing, and which direction we were heading (he didn't know that I'm hopeless with directions). We made a couple of banking turns, left and right, dipped down to get a closer look at the Sogn Valley, a vineyard, the dam across the Cannon River. It wasn't very cold, but pretty windy, and I was clutching my camera. It was so amazing and beautiful and just fun. It felt like it was over way too soon, but we were up in the air for about 30-40 minutes, and we banked a turn to make the landing, and the grass runway made for a pretty nice landing. It's something I would definitely do again, and I'm thinking about the acrobatic package (up to 5,000 feet and you get a parachute) next time. If you are a WWII buff, want to have something different to talk about, or have flying in an open air plane on your bucket list, you should check out Twin City Barnstormers.