Today, I got a ride in a T-6 Texan!
It was an almost hour long ride, in and out of formation with another T-6. We took off in formation, flew around, did a pass on the airport, which happened to be having a WWII type show day(its also a museum). Afterwords, we went off to screw around for a while, during the L3 demonstrations.
During that time we flew in different formations(wingtip, trail, ect.). Most of the time we were under 20 ft from each other, however there was a good amount of turbulence so we didn't get to close. Then we broke off from the other and did a barrel roll into a left turn and ended up with the edge of the wing almost parallel to the ground, right as our wingman flew about 50-100 ft out in front of us, which made it look even cooler. After that, the pilot asked how I was feeling, I told him I was feeling great and that it was awesome(looking at the ground upside down in a plane is F***ING AWESOME!). He radioed our wingman and told him we were going to do a loop. So, he stayed clear. My pilot explained how it would work and we did it. IT WAS AWESOME! 15 degrees down to gain speed, and then a quick(and I mean slamming the stick back quick)pull up into the loop. Look straight up, look left, look at the ground. It was awesome! Afterwards, we got back into formation with us at lead, and climbed to about 6,000 ft AGL and flew through the clouds. After a couple minutes we began our descent.
Unfortunately, it was time to land. We came into the pattern and then lead motioned with two fingers, meaning 2 seconds till break. 1.....2....break.........and he was way out from us. We waited and watched, he put his gear down, we put ours down. As we were coming in, I opened up my cockpit and let the breeze come in. After landing, we taxied over and shut the engine down.
Conclusion, if you can get a ride in a T-6 don't hesitate for anything. Along with that, CH-47s are fun, but you can't do loops.........and Cessena's.......well they will never be any fun after this.................