Jude Roberts smiled brightly after taking his helmet off and having his seatbelt unbuckled from the 1941 Boeing Stearman plane he had just taken a ride in.
“How was that, Jude?” pilot Cliff Robinson asked him.
“That was really a lot of fun,” the 8-year-old Seymour boy said before hopping out of the cockpit and being helped down to the runway Saturday morning at Freeman Municipal Airport in Seymour.
That fun was part of the Freeman Army Airfield Museum’s annual Airplane Ride Day with many adults, children and families taking part in the fundraiser.
For $25 per seat, people in the community could get a plane ride above Seymour with the pilots.
Larry Bothe, museum curator and pilot, said the museum hoped to raise around $5,000 through the event they’ve held since 2016. The museum preserves and promotes the history and artifacts of Freeman Army Airfield, which trained more than 4,200 pilots from 1942 to 1945 as part of World War II.
The day brought eight planes to provide rides with 11 pilots volunteering their time.
As for Jude, it was a big day because it was the first time he had flown without his mother, Stephanee, and it was in a plane that was much more powerful than the others.
“We turned a whole bunch,” he said. “It was the best. I felt brave.”
Jude had considered flying in one of the smaller airplanes so he could ride along with his mother but decided to be brave and daring by going in the 500 horsepower plane that could do twists and turns.
“I think he just needed time to sit on it to see if he was comfortable,” Roberts said.
Then she had Jude speak with the pilot to make sure everyone knew he was ready.
“I wasn’t going to hold him back from his opportunity,” she said.
Mom was a little nervous, but she knew he was safe with Robinson.
Roberts’ family has a long history in aviation as her grandfather earned his pilot’s license in 1946 and purchased his first plane in 1947.
Her dad has flown for more than 50 years and owned his own flying service in Fayette County, where he was a crop duster and plane enthusiast.
Roberts said she grew up around airplanes with it being a big part of her family’s lives.
“My dad would come home on a Sunday afternoon and ask if I wanted to go for a ride, and he meant go for a ride in an airplane, not in a car,” she said while Jude was flying above Seymour.
Jude has been riding in airplanes since he was 5, and the family looks forward to Airplane Ride Day each year.
“I’m thankful for Airplane Ride Day and its volunteers because it gives the whole community access to try new things and grow from them,” she said.
Roberts said she also appreciates the event being connected to the museum because it serves as a reminder to share history with her children.
“I feel like the Freeman Army Airfield Museum and airport allow me to share his family history with him but also our nation’s history. There’s a lot to learn here,” she said.
Roberts said she and her family also supported the new Tuskegee Airmen statues that were placed at the airport last fall.
“I really enjoy teaching him about our history and to learn from past mistakes,” she said. “I love history and I love sharing my family history with him but also our nation’s history because it’s so important. Particularly, I think it’s important to understand the fight that the Tuskegee Airmen and African Americans went through and not repeating the same thing. Look to the past but move toward the future.”
Bothe said he loves seeing kids hop up in the plane for the first time with their families.
“I like taking kids up in the air,” he said. “They’re so excited about it that it does make it fun.”
Bothe has the experience with 8,700 hours logged in the air as a pilot.
A veteran of the Vietnam War, Bothe used his veterans education benefits to become certified in aviation. While he has made money in aviation, it was never his full-time career.
“It was never my primary job, but it was a part-time thing for me,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration regulates the event and requires various submitted paperwork ahead of the event. Private pilots are allowed to fly for events like Airplane Ride Day, but they must have a minimum of 500 flight hours to do so.
“You can’t just know how to fly to be a pilot for this event,” he said, adding extensive paperwork is presented to regulators in Plainfield before volunteers can put on the event. “I have to submit pilots’ license, health records and a lot more paperwork for every pilot here, and it must be in their hands a week before for their review.”
Bothe said it takes at least a month’s worth of work to do it all.
“My passion is the museum, and I enjoy the fact that if we have a good day, we can raise operating funds,” he said.
Roberts said she learned a lot of lessons from flying with her father, and it’s something she hopes her son also will absorb.
“Flying with my dad from a young age taught me the value of having an adventurous spirit,” she said. “It gave me the confidence to travel abroad alone and to skydive, hang glide and try new things. I want the same for Jude. I want him to be open to new people, places and experiences.”
Saturday was one step in experiencing something familiar but also new for the 8-year-old.
“I thought it would be a lot of fun,” Jude said. “I was right.”