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March 18, 2003

THE MARIPOSA TRIBUNE

Billy Hawes
Special to the Mariposa Tribune

Lt. Col. Turley Flies His Bird In Eagle Flight

The plane’s propeller and my heart must have been spinning and beating at the same spiraling speed. Strapped down tightly in the front bucket of a 1941 blue and yellow, two-seater bi-plane known best as the “Stearman,” my earthly life laid in the experience and skill of the pilot buckled in behind me — Turk Turley.

 Turley of Mariposa is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force (USAF) who has done just about everything with airplanes, including flying 105 North Vietnam fighter pilot missions in a F-4 Phantom II.

Now in retirement, Turley stays in the air as a member of the 475th Aero Demo Squadron, a selectively qualified air show team known as “Eagle Flight.” Eagle Flight is the only West Coast based bi-wing flight of four planes that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) permits to fly in close formation for airshows.

The Eagle Flight crew is spread throughout California.

 Russ Greenberg of Red Bluff is the lead pilot.

 “He was my squadron sponsor upon my arrival at Castle Air Force Base in July 1966,” Turley said of Greenberg, a fellow retired USAF fighter pilot. “He met me and showed me around the squadron, while introducing me as the new guy, Major Turley.”

 Soon Greenberg and Turley were flying F-106s from Castle Air Force Base (AFB) in the 456th Fighter Squadron. In 1969, they were together again in the F-4 Phantom Squadron in Germany; Turley was the squadron commander.

Eagle Flight’s no. 2 slot pilot is John Hodgson of Mountain View. Hodgson is a former Royal Air Force Reserve pilot who learned to fly in the Leeds University Air Squadron in England.

“I remember when I started with Eagle Flight and Turk was breaking me in on his wing; I was worried about running into him. Then I realized he spent the whole time looking backwards at me, and if I had tried to hit him I could not have. He would have been gone,‰ Hodgson said. “I wondered how many young lieutenants he had broken in the same way.”

 The no. 3 pilot is Ernie Persich of Hollister. At age 13, he began flying as a cadet in the civil air patrol. Persich has built his own Stearman aircraft and runs his own business restoring, maintaining, and servicing antique WWII aircraft.

Turley trails as the tail, keeping clear of the other planes and ducking through airshow smoke as he flies in the fourth slot. While serving in the Air Force, Turley was awarded the Silver Star, the DFC (3), Bronze Star, and 12 Air Medals.

Ron Kiser of Mariposa is the Crew Chief. Kiser is a retired USAF Master Sergeant and Flight Engineer.

The four airplanes that constitute the Aero Demo Squadron are U.S. Army and Navy trainers — Boeing Model 75. Between 1936 and 1945, there were 8,585 of these aircraft built. The Army name was PT-13 or PT-17. It has had many names, but the name that stuck as the airplane’s calling card is Stearman, after Lloyd C. Stearman, the plane’s designer.

Turley’s bright, blue-bodied bird has small painted PT-17s matching the large 455s on each side, all in shining yellow. The letters PT stand for primary trainer; cadets launched these planes for lessons and learning. Maybe young cadets were as nervous as I was fastening in for a first flight.

 The Eagle Flight crew suggests there was little reason for fear.

“The basic Stearman trainer from WWII is a very rugged airplane,” Persich said. “It was a good trainer, a safe and strong aircraft in which new cadets were trained to fly aircraft.”

“It’s safe,” Turley said, calling the open-aired trainer, made primarily of spruce wood ribs with fabric covering, a “flying shock absorber.”

 More reassuring were Turley’s words: “If we treated cars like the FAA says we have to with planes, we could drive them forever.”

 Well, my chances with the airplane sounded good. How about the pilot?

 “I don’t fly with just anybody. But with Turk, I’ll let him take me anywhere,” said Kiser, the Crewman Chief.

Thankfully, my flight was safe, smooth, and, for the most part, standard -- we did an overhead break landing, which is a 180 degree turn and drop to the downwind. The Eagle Flight pilots are certified to work in close quarters while circling in the wide open sky and are accustomed to making maneuvers that drop jaws in gasps of amazement and raise lips in smiles of wonder.

Even more sensational is the sight from the suspended seat.

 Eagle Flight performs about six air show openings per year. Their tentative schedule includes South Dos Palos at Eagle Field June 15, Marysville Yuba County Airport June 21 and 22, and Grass Valley Nevada Country Airport July 12.

Eagle Flight often performs at military bases, which will not be hosting air shows this year due to the war effort.

 At air shows Eagle Flight lifts off in a formation of four if the width of the runway is accommodating. If not, planes are piloted up in pairs or even one at a time. Regardless, Eagle Flight is quick to slide into their first formation -— the Finger Tip, also called the Parade Formation.

“The purpose of formation flying is to allow a large group of aircraft to operate as a unit. In the military, this was used for protection while flying bombers, and for fighters it allowed better concentration of fire power against the enemy,” Persich said. “What we use it for is to show the public the type of formation flying that was done during WWII in these training aircraft.”

For the Finger Tip, the no. 2 slot plane flies beside the leader on the fly-by while no. 3 and 4 extend out from the other wing. If one airplane does not get airborne on the first run, the pilots simply form their three flying Stearman into a “V” or “Vic” formation.

 The Diamond, Turley’s favorite, appears in the sky next as the bi-planes flutter by at about 90-100 mph. “As no. 4, I am behind the leader and in-between the two wingmen. I have to keep all three in sight at the same time.

“I have another former Air Force combat buddy who used to fly for the Holiday Inn Acrobatic Team in the slot (no. 4) position in Diamond,” Turley said. “With only one eye, his head was really on a swivel the entire flight.”

 Then the Stearmans stream through in Intrail; all three wingman follow directly behind the leader, fighting smoke from the plane ahead.

The 15-20 minutes of formation flying is capped off with the Echelon, where the airplanes approach overhead and peel off one by one with an overhead break and a time-spaced landing.

“Trained combat pilots know exactly what they are doing in those types of formations to avoid Anti-Aircraft Artillery, Surface to Air Missiles and enemy aircraft in dogfights; all of which I have performed, and some on numerous occasions,” Turley said.

Turley and his fellow Eagle Flight pilots have been demonstrating precision formation flying to the public since 1988.

Feeling the wheels touch down on the Mariposa-Yosemite Airport runway was precise and precious enough for me.
 

 

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