May 12-18, 2005

mixpicks

Weigh to Go

by Tami Fertig

Highfliers

Clutching your barf bag, soaring across the sky, you might think you hate airplanes. "You board this big aluminum tube and exit out into another city," says Gregory Kennedy, executive director at West Chester's American Helicopter Museum. Bulky jetliners make for impersonal, limb-numbing flights. But in smaller aircrafts, he says, "You know you're flying. You've got windows all around. You're low enough that you can see cars on the road and cattle on the field." Though devoted entirely to helicopters, the museum hosts 20-minute airplane rides over local countryside during this weekend's annual fundraiser for the women's pilot organization Ninety-Nines. The price depends on how many pancakes you ate for breakfast: You'll pay 15 cents for every pound you weigh. (Luckily, there's a cap at $25.) The small, general aviation planes that will be used hold three to six passengers and only go a couple of thousand feet above ground. "On a clear day, you literally get a bird's-eye view," says Kennedy. You might travel over downtown West Chester, the quarry near Downingtown or the Delaware River. Pilots consider passengers' requests but ultimately decide on the route. Options are pretty slim, anyway, what with the allotted fraction of an hour. At the end of the day, it's more about the high altitude than the scenery down below. "The whole romance of flying," marvels Kennedy. "There's a real sense of freedom when you're in the air."

Pennies-a-Pound Airplane Rides, Sat., May 14, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun., May 15, noon-5 p.m., $5-$25 (15 cents per pound), American Helicopter Museum, 1220 American Blvd., West Chester, 610-436-9600.