Dan's Papers - March 13, 2009 - Taking Flight at Westhampton Beach St. Patty's Day

St. Patty's Day means different things to different people. It could be a celebration of all things Irish, a great excuse for a parade, a chance to stop and reflect on St. Patrick, the man, and his many works of mercy (turns out he was a missionary), an excuse for wearing green, and, for that teeny-weeny segment of the population, a reason for a little party.

With its large Irish population, the East End plays host to many green events, including two great parades book ending the Hamptons. On the far end of the spectrum is Montauk's 47th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on Sunday, March 22. On the other end of the calendar and the Hamptons is the 42nd annual Westhampton Beach parade, scheduled for Saturday, March 14. The wildly popular event kicks off at 8 a.m. with a traditional Irish breakfast, Kegs and Eggs!, at the pub, Finn McCool's. Following is the parade, which some call the best event of the year (don't say that in Montauk). This year, the float/bagpipe band/classic car-packed march might be upstaged by an event immediately following: Mike Mancuso's Aerobatic Stunt Show at Rogers Beach, featuring one of the top aerobatic stunt pilots in the country.

The airshow is sponsored by Finn McCool's, which is in partnership with Mancuso Airshows to raise money for Westhampton Beach based CAARE, the Council for Autistic Awareness and Research. In addition to 50/50 raffles benefiting CAARE at all of Finn McCool events, they are raffling off the ultimate prize for anyone who has ever fantasized about being a stunt pilot: a ride in the airshow plane. For a mere $5 per raffle ticket, you may win the opportunity to go up in the Extra 300L, a two seat, high performance aerobatic airplane built in Germany that has a roll rate of over 400 degrees per second and is capable of speeds in excess of 250 miles per hour, inverted.

Depending on your ultimate bravery or lack thereof, the ride may include maneuvers like loops, rolls, flying upside down, tail slides, hammerheads and snap rolls.

Being the editor of a community paper has its ups and downs, and the chance to take a test run in this baby was definitely an up, in every sense of the word. Last week, Montauk Pioneer Managing Editor David Rattiner and I set off to Westhampton for a first hand experience. I'd go in the stunt plane, David would shoot photos and videos from a Cessna chase plane.

I've been up in two-seater gliders in Bavaria, small puddle jumpers in Belize, helicopters over New York City. None fazed me - but that was some years ago. More recently, my aeronautic experience was going on the little plane ride in Disneyworld. My son was in the back, operating the up/down control. I was in the front, crying.

Yes, crying. Those little planes, maybe 40 feet above the earth, had no top - they were open. I don't mind height, but I learned that I do mind open. And as it turned out, I also mind 360-degree rolls at a dizzying speed.

We met up with Mancuso at Finn McCool's. I went with the best intentions - if I got any sort of strange vibe, I'd stay on the runway.

The more I shook down Mancuso, the better I felt. He did his first solo at 13, has logged over 7,000 hours, owns a flight school at Brookhaven Airport in Shirley, is a member of the Screen Actor's Guild and has been a stunt pilot in several films. I was sold.

We drove over to Gabreski. It was a glorious blue-sky day. I was fitted with a parachute and shown the rip cord (a steel handle), got into the cockpit, and was secured into the seat with a super version of the 5-point harness I used to keep my son in his car seat (mental note: market Extra 300 seat belt to Britax). I was shown how to quickly release out of it in the case that Mancuso yells, "Jump." To which an onlooker commented, "If he yells jump and you say why, you're talking to yourself."

It was electrifying. The speed was outrageous. In the first maneuvers, photo ops, my face was at a 90-degree angle with the earth, thousands of feet away. I could've bottled the adrenaline my body produced, as every cell was catapulted into self-preservation mode. Then we did the wing roll - a 360. I have to admit I did not have my eyes open the whole time. Not really out of fright - I was concerned that I'd get motion sickness. How ungainly.

We flew around without aerobatics for a while (at my request) and landed. I felt fine. No nausea or headache. But throughout the rest of the afternoon I grew more and more elated - either due to the jostling, or the tremendous joy of being alive.

If you are excited or at least not terrified to be in a very small, speeding plane doing loop-di-loops, I urge you to try it - it's an experience of a lifetime. If you are afraid, go to the parade and Finn McCool's anyway and buy a handful of raffle tickets to benefit CAARE. If you win, give your ticket to the person who has burst into tears out of utter disappointment.

All proceeds of this fundraiser, Mancuso's brainchild, go to CAARE, which was founded informally in 2005 with an event that raised over $6,000 for autism research. In the summer of 2006, the organization became incorporated and expanded into education and increasing awareness of autism. Mancuso chose the charity because, "it's in my hometown. I own a business here, and I felt I wanted to choose a charity that was local, where I could make a difference."

Try flying with Mancuso at the speed of sound, and he'll make a difference in your life, for sure.

If you don't get the ride at the parade in Westhampton, you can pay to play. Go to mmairshows.com.