One month ago, while back east, I took a ride in a vintage warbird -- a plane from WW II times. I not only took a ride in it, but actually flew the thing for the better part of an hour. While up we did aerobatics and flew formation.

Just an amazing experience: sky all around, throbbing power of 600 horses in the engine, and the freedom to go anywhere.

This was done through North America Top Gun. It costs a pretty penny, but I've been saving up for a while, and I'll do it again just as soon as I can.

Part of my Warbird Dream Flight package was taping, and I've been working on and off for the past month to make a digital version of it.

Unfortunately, we found out after the flight that the audio component didn't work -- something malfunctioned with their sound system on the plane -- so my version will have text captions rather than the sounds of the engine and our voices as it would have had.

So I've got a digital version to show you now. I made this on my new iBook using iMovie, after digitizing the original tape with a machine in a lab on campus.

The quality of the original VHS tape wasn't great, and Shelley's part -- made with a VHS hand-held camcorder -- is a bit shaky. Nonetheless, I think you'll want to see it.

So here's the short version of my flight, edited down from over an hour and a half of tape to about six and a half minutes of streaming QuickTime (links open in a new window, which may be blank for a moment before showing the video):

Fast connection movie link

Slow connection movie link

Mom -- I'll put a copy of this movie file on a CD for you when I send you the old journal files.