JohnKliewer

Nice relaxing entertainment here Paul. Thank you for the distraction.

Where were Thornton Freeland, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers when I needed them most? That would have been during the results of the 2008 economic downturn when corporate pilots were dropping like flies from rosters and I had to recycle myself back into the industry at the age of 60 by taking a job flying a milk run from Miami to Rio. Somehow while flying down to Rio, the intertropical convergence zone, arrival slots, departure slots, Brazilian customs at one end and US customs at the other obscured any racy footage of braless dancers and dresses ripped off by the slipstream on that swept wing. But, hey, it’s aviation to which some of us are addicted in a hopeless, dysfunctional codependence.

Now more than a decade lapsed, I look back on those midnight flights and can actually see the dancers on the wing.

Raf

Ginger Rogers kicked buttah!!!

richbran

“Hollywood” and GA don’t mix. Like a fast car driving on a winding mountainous road, within a few minutes it will end up in a 500gallon gasoline fed fireball tumbling down, a GA airplane will have the engine “sputtering” in minutes(even turbo props…), crash uncontrollable in a lake or desolate wilderness. Booooring.

bob9

Paul, you find the most wonderful treasures and you write about them so well. Thank you for your skilful eye and pen!

lstencel

Where the heck did the Country and a movie industry that spawned a video like THIS go ??

Now you’ve got my curiosity piqued … is THIS where you get the ideas for some of your zany aviation videos that you make? Maybe you were born too late?

Thanks for an O dark thirty laugh and smile.

1 reply

gliders

Great movie! Thanks Paul.

owend_2001

I’ll Second that Thanks.

stahl2624

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Paul. It’s always a treat to watch Fred and Ginger “fly” about the dance floor!

Arthur_Foyt

Wow, no visible means of support.

lstencel

Thinking about it all day … all those pretty gals had flight goggles on but weren’t wearing 'em. I’m gonna have to turn them in to OSHA.

Zeca

Great subject Paul!
Nice article! You brought to us good entertainment, history and some good memories. So nice to see such a movie and the way movies were made back in the days. I’m born and raised in Brazil, lived in Rio for three decades, late 60s to late 70s and 80s so I am suspicious to say how beautiful the city is from above. Especially at that time. just few houses not high rise buildings yet. What a treasure! Copacabana Palace Hotel, Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon all from above filmed at that time is just wonderful.
Thanks for the mix of art and aviation. We need more of this approach to GA. Too much of “safety” and “accidents” talks kills the poetry and the spirit of adventure.
I am all for adventure when comes to GA.
Again, thanks for the article.
Made my day

bserra

Why repeating that article two or three times, in a sequence of days?