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CNN Live Saturday
Flight Instructor Couple At World's Biggest Air Show
Aired August 02, 2003 - 18:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: And now an unusual first hand perspective on a spectacular air show from John and Martha King. This husband and wife team are like rock stars at the world's greatest air show, called Oshkosh. They've trained half of the pilots in the world through video instruction. And here is their special journal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, KING SCHOOLS (voice-over): This is said to be the biggest convention of any sort in the world. There will be some 800,000 attendees here at Oshkosh. There will be 12 to 14,000 airplanes on the ground.
MARTHA KING, KING SCHOOLS: But don't forget about the control tower. During this week, the control tower is the busiest tower, this is the busiest airport in the world. They have 1,000 operations an hour when they're really busy.
J. KING: You really have to be good to be wear a shirt that loud, huh? Oshkosh got started on home builts. And it's one of those things that if you wanted to say that this was going to happen, no one would ever believe you because it was 8 or 10 people getting together to talk about home built aircraft.
This is the core of it. These are the grassroots of it.
But you built this?
JULIAN RIVERA, LONG EAST BUILDER: Yes, I built it. I started it in 1980 and finished it in '89.
J. KING: '80 and '89. So it took you nine years to build this?
RIVERA: Yes, just one piece at a time.
J. KING: Wow. Why do you leave it sitting on its nose?
RIVERA: Oh, because of the way that airplanes balanced. Without the weight of the pilot in the front, it might tip over and a gust of wind if the nose wheel was extended.
J. KING: Yes.
RIVERA: Sometimes I go to an airport and people think they airplane's broken.
J. KING: Over here, the antique and classic aircraft coming up. These people have restored these aircraft and just spent years and years of work getting into this condition. And then they bring them to Oshkosh.
But what makes someone go to all the trouble to do this? This is just absolutely pristine?
CURT SANDY, OWNERS: This particular airplane has always interested me simply because it's more of a rarer type airplane. There was over 11,500 built during the war. And to this day, nobody knows for sure, but somewhere between 25 and 35 fly right now.
J. KING: There's a guy out here. We're going to chase him down here in just a second. It's a fake flying machine.
Now when you figure that out, you can explain it to me if you don't mind.
These are the most important things in the whole show. They're clean and they're everywhere.
(on camera): My favorite weird thing is the by plane, a jet engine. I love it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What should I know in particular about this that's unusual and different?
M. KING: There's really not a lot of difference between this and a General Aviation airplane. It's just that it does everything so much slower.
That and the fact that you're butt's going to be close to the ground.
J. KING: (Unintelligible) hark back to the original ultra lite, which is the Wright Flyer. And - but ultra lites are - give you the true joy of flying.
M. KING: But the (unintelligible) and that's going to hold our climb at 50.
You can look out and down, right down on the fields and the homes. And you've got the wind there. And you can smell everything. You feel so close to nature, and yet you've got a beautiful perspective on the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 2, 2003 - 18:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KELLI ARENA, CNN ANCHOR: And now an unusual first hand perspective on a spectacular air show from John and Martha King. This husband and wife team are like rock stars at the world's greatest air show, called Oshkosh. They've trained half of the pilots in the world through video instruction. And here is their special journal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, KING SCHOOLS (voice-over): This is said to be the biggest convention of any sort in the world. There will be some 800,000 attendees here at Oshkosh. There will be 12 to 14,000 airplanes on the ground.
MARTHA KING, KING SCHOOLS: But don't forget about the control tower. During this week, the control tower is the busiest tower, this is the busiest airport in the world. They have 1,000 operations an hour when they're really busy.
J. KING: You really have to be good to be wear a shirt that loud, huh? Oshkosh got started on home builts. And it's one of those things that if you wanted to say that this was going to happen, no one would ever believe you because it was 8 or 10 people getting together to talk about home built aircraft.
This is the core of it. These are the grassroots of it.
But you built this?
JULIAN RIVERA, LONG EAST BUILDER: Yes, I built it. I started it in 1980 and finished it in '89.
J. KING: '80 and '89. So it took you nine years to build this?
RIVERA: Yes, just one piece at a time.
J. KING: Wow. Why do you leave it sitting on its nose?
RIVERA: Oh, because of the way that airplanes balanced. Without the weight of the pilot in the front, it might tip over and a gust of wind if the nose wheel was extended.
J. KING: Yes.
RIVERA: Sometimes I go to an airport and people think they airplane's broken.
J. KING: Over here, the antique and classic aircraft coming up. These people have restored these aircraft and just spent years and years of work getting into this condition. And then they bring them to Oshkosh.
But what makes someone go to all the trouble to do this? This is just absolutely pristine?
CURT SANDY, OWNERS: This particular airplane has always interested me simply because it's more of a rarer type airplane. There was over 11,500 built during the war. And to this day, nobody knows for sure, but somewhere between 25 and 35 fly right now.
J. KING: There's a guy out here. We're going to chase him down here in just a second. It's a fake flying machine.
Now when you figure that out, you can explain it to me if you don't mind.
These are the most important things in the whole show. They're clean and they're everywhere.
(on camera): My favorite weird thing is the by plane, a jet engine. I love it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What should I know in particular about this that's unusual and different?
M. KING: There's really not a lot of difference between this and a General Aviation airplane. It's just that it does everything so much slower.
That and the fact that you're butt's going to be close to the ground.
J. KING: (Unintelligible) hark back to the original ultra lite, which is the Wright Flyer. And - but ultra lites are - give you the true joy of flying.
M. KING: But the (unintelligible) and that's going to hold our climb at 50.
You can look out and down, right down on the fields and the homes. And you've got the wind there. And you can smell everything. You feel so close to nature, and yet you've got a beautiful perspective on the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
