A few months ago I spent a day watching the activities of Aero Legends and the 'Wing-Walk Company' at Headcorn airfield in Kent. And no, I wasn't tempted at all - although a steady stream of intrepid 'wing-walkers' were! The day started dark and drizzly but by 10:30 the cloud base had lifted sufficiently for a whole queue of 'wing-walkers' to start getting ready for their flights. Senior pilot Richard (over 5,000 wing-walking flights experience..) and his colleague 27-year old Callum Collins (flying since age 15) then spent the next 4-5 hours taking up a succession of clients - old and young - for what must have been the experience of a lifetime (..it says here).
I met Haiden (photo top, alongside the tail of G-WGWK) and his mum and dad. Haiden was first up. Mum and Dad both looked frankly terrified at the prospect of young Haiden going up on the upper wing of a venerable Stearman biplane. Obviously he'd be strapped in - but the 'wing-walkers' are not attached directly to the aircraft but rather belted into a seat that is attached to a short pole bolted onto the top of the wing directly behind the prop. Haiden himself had just recently completed his first sky dive and had been 'inspired' to go wing-walking at Headcorn after watching the latest Tom Cruise film - if you've not already seen it just check out the stupid crazy Stearman flying sequences! Why hasn't that film won a gong for the flying ?
But the groups of people around The Wing Walk Company caravan on the airfield all appeared ultra-keen to have a go at wing-walking! The first flight lasts about 10 minutes and is always sans aerobatics - health and safety gone mad I say! But the steeply banked turns right over the airfield and roller-coaster 'bumps' would have been enough to get the punters screaming I reckon. And all of this going on while the parachutists of 'Go Skydive!' and the Spitfire twin-seater of 'Aero Legends' and the Stampe aerobatic team were doing their things. Check out the wing walk company website and click once on the red square to watch the short 2-minute video below.. Only £450 for a 10-minute flight. Thanks to TWWC senior pilot Richard for the Tom Cruise stories ..
