Bijoy’s blog: A man who went out to buy a superbike but bought a 75-year-old airplane
Either you think I have gone nuts or I have suitably impressed you with that opening line on the airplane
So, I get a text message from my ex-colleague and good friend Sreenand to ask if we’re riding that weekend. I was indeed riding with the Creek Slayers and Nandu, as I call him, joined us for the tea run. It was fun chatting up with the motoring journalist turned pilot who commands a 787 Dreamliner airplane for Scoot Air (the long-haul budget carrier which is a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines) for a living. He regaled the Slayers with aviation stories and of course discussed motorcycles he owned and rode as often as he could. That evening he messaged again and asked whether he can join me for tea the next morning. Of course, he could, I said, though I had an inkling that he was going to drop a bomb or two. Perhaps he met a girl and wants to settle down, I told my wife as she tried to calm me down.
Nandu landed up at home the next morning and as he was sipping some hot tea he announced that he bought something. Another motorcycle, perhaps the Kawasaki Z900RS to join his Ducati Hypermotard, I thought. Then he casually pulled out his pre-historic iPhone and selected a picture. I fell off the chair is a mild way of putting things – the pic was of an immaculate biplane in blue and yellow from the thirties. “You…,” and Nandu helped me complete the sentence with a wicked smile and a well-weighted nod. Then as my tea got cold, he told me the story of how he was in the US for some classic airplane exposure and how he stumbled upon the Boeing Stearman T17 airplane. The aircraft was the default choice of anyone who went to the Army air corps before they graduated to faster aircraft that won the War. This specimen is the Navy version and when the seven-cylinder radial motor is on song it will develop 270 horses. Enough to touch 10,000ft but more comfortable flying closer to earth. This plane was used for crop dusting duties after the War and then owned by one Mr. Elvis Presley’s pilot. Ahem. There are a lot of them in circulation and this one was restored by the previous owner who wanted to spend his retirement days flying across the US. But cancer had other ideas and he passed away, leaving the tough decision to sell or keep the Stearman to his wife.
To cut a long one short, few phone calls later the deal was stuck. And for the kind of money that could have bought him a Porsche 911 (do the math), Nandu walked out as the new owner of the 75-year-old, cockpit airplane. “I was expecting the price to be double of what it was… so it was a steal,” he says. Formalities that required to register the aircraft needed him to form a company and that meant Nandu couldn’t find the time to fly his new toy before winter hit New Jersey.Unlike in our country, you don’t need any permission to take to the sky in US
He is planning to return to the US this summer and get familiar with his new acquisition. USA is the perfect place to be if you are aviation enthusiast. Unlike in our country, you don’t need any permission to take to the sky if you have an airworthy aircraft and there are numerous airfields to choose from. “How does barn hopping across America later this year sound?” he asked, as he left home. That is where this column ends and a whole new story begins.
