Drunk steals plane at airshow

11 Dec 09 7 Comments

I had to cover my eyes to watch this video the first time I was shown it. But then I kept peeking through my fingers.

Totally amazing. It’s hard for me to imagine ever having the skill required to appear to fly that badly. It’s awesome. He’s got incredible control.

The pilot is Kyle Franklin from Franklin’s Flying Circus & Airshow. He is married to the beautiful Amanda Younkin, who manages Franklin’s Flying Circus and Younkin Airshows. Kyle and Bobby Younkin are the pilots – although Amanda can fly as well. When she was featured in the 2010 Bombshell calendar, she was the only babe to fly the planes as well as pose in front of them.

(Hey, another great gift idea! You can buy the calendar online at My Bombshells)

A high resolution copy of film can be downloaded from their website along with a dozen other clips of the circus in action at Franklin’s Flying Circus Video Page. This particular clip is the one marked as “Comedy Act Video Download” and worth watching full-screen on the biggest monitor you can find.

The website also includes details of Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin, who tragically crashed at the Saskatchewan Centennial Air Show in 2005. Their air show team, Masters of Disaster was one of the most sought after in the industry at the time of the accident.

I enjoyed reading the short essays but was especially entranced by the descriptions of Kyle Franklin growing up with airshows as a standard backdrop of his childhood:

Kyle grew up living in a hangar-house in Ruidoso, NM. The hangar soon became his favorite playground as well as a place where he and his father shared quality time servicing Waco’s, Super Cubs, and the Aerostar. Kyle’s first airplane ride was four weeks after his birth. Father Jimmy taught him how to fly when he was eight years old and later taught him aerobatics. As a toddler, Kyle seized every opportunity to wing-walk in Dad’s Waco Mystery Ship as it taxied on about on the ground at air shows. Kyle took his first airborne wing-walk at age 14, and just three years later he was wing-walking professionally at age 17.

I am definitely hoping to see more of Kyle, Bobby and Amanda and Franklin’s Flying Circus & Airshow.

Edit: Also, don’t miss the view from inside the cockpit which I posted here: Another Angle of Drunk Stealing Plane at Airshow

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Category: Aerobatics,

7 Comments

  • I’ve seen this guy before along with the Masters of Disaster. Great show, but I see Kyle has added a lot more excitement to his routine. Dragging the wingtips on the ground is just gut-wrenching. And I love his finish though!

  • Just awesome! Just keep an eye on the rudder work starting at 3:10 into the video, this is just amazing. Thanks for sharing Sylvia!

  • Pjd: Hah, even you couldn’t look away! But yeah, I loved that roll under the plane

    Patrick: The wingtips ARGH! I definitely closed my eyes at those bits.

    Julien: I can’t even imagine taking off to touch down for that fraction of a second. His control of that plane is wonderful. And having a dip in the landscape directly past the runway is perfect.

  • Fantastic to be soooo good to look soooo bad
    and to have soooo much fun doin it !!1

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