It was very cool. I would highly recommend it for anyone who is into flying. I had to decide between going in the formation run or being able to fly my own sightseeing trip from the back seat. Tough call; I end up deciding that I can always go back for the actual chance to fly the Harvard but they don’t do the formation practices all the time.
It is pretty barebones in these planes. There is no floor, just two rails where you put your feet. The instrumentation was surprisingly complete for a 1937 aircraft. No VOR/DME but other than that it had the basic IFR package we could get by with today.
I hadn’t thought of a locomotive at the time but that is a pretty good description for it. These planes have a huge engine for the size of the plane and it is all about torque. The top speed is only 157 knots, which may have been considered fast then, but lots of power for aerobatics which they are capable of.
