FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. (WOAY) – Sunset light beams off golden wings as the roaring radial engine comes to life. You climb into the front seat of a 1943 Boeing Stearman, a World War II-era biplane stripped of modern convenience. This plane has no bubble canopy, no stereo system. Just wind, sky, and the roar of history beneath you.
“That was the coolest thing I’ve done, maybe ever. That was insane,” Ryan Schmitt said, still sitting in the plane.
This is Wild Blue Adventure Company, where flights don’t come with tray tables or safety videos. They come with parachutes, stunning views, and a front seat in a fully restored 1943 Boeing Stearman. This plane, once built for training World War II pilots, is now flying joyrides over the New River Gorge.
Wild Blue Adventure is owned and operated by Bill Chouinard, who brought this dream to life piece by piece, keeping alive a Fayetteville tradition that dates back more than half a century.
NO WINDOWS. NO WALLS. JUST WIND.
“You just start floating, and then you’re up in the air, and then getting to see the gorge and the dam and the mountains and everything was super neat,” Ryan Schmitt, a first-time rider, said.
“You not only feel the wind, you can hear the engine and everything else,” said first-time rider Zach Alexander. “But you also feel the G-forces from the plane moving around… It’s absolutely amazing.”
One second, the plane is gliding above the Gorge. The next, it’s diving into a barrel roll, and the world starts to spin.
“The way that he would just throw the plane, and now you’re weightless, and then all of a sudden it’s just like the world is spinning, and then you’re looking straight down at all these trees that look like grass because you’re so high up,” Schmitt said.
“It exceeded whatever expectations I had,” Zach said. “That was all-time.”
But not every flight is flips and tricks. Some riders opt for a slower pace, just a scenic ride above one of the most iconic landscapes in the state.
“It was more peaceful than what I expected it to be. I felt calm,” said Ryan. “Bill had it completely under control. There were no moments of, like, whoa. It was much smoother than I expected to be.”
On special occasions, Wild Blue teaches kids the true meaning of adventure.
“We’ve flown people all the way from age 4 to 94. There are a select few that are that young, that are calm and cool and collected, and we do a special ten-minute ride towards the bridge and back, and we’re never more than a couple minutes from getting them back on the ground,” Bill said
But if you didn’t get a chance to ride in a byplane at age 4, it’s never too late.
“We’ve done light aerobatics with people in their 80s and they love it. Every ride really is tailored to the individual,” Bill said.
THE LEGACY OF “FIVE DOLLAR FRANK”
Long before Wild Blue, this stretch of grass was cleared by hand.
Frank Thomas started flying here nearly 70 years ago. He carved the original dirt strip out of the woods himself, eventually stretching it to 2,000 feet. People called him “Five Dollar Frank,” a nickname he earned by flying tourists over the Gorge in a weathered Cessna for just five bucks.
“He put just a fair amount of gas in it so that it was nice and light,” Bill said, “and he’d fly people up to see our lovely, gorgeous big bridge, Endless Wall… all the sights there are to see here.”
Frank taught flight lessons for decades and was one of the oldest commercially licensed pilots in the state. But what stuck with people most was his personality. He had a museum in a yellow Quonset hut, a head full of aviation stories, and a running list of offbeat jokes.
“He was just somebody who’d loved aviation his whole life, and he wanted to share it and take people flying,” Bill said. “He had a shtick, you know, he had his jokes that you could tell he told a million times.”
Bill flew with him once, back in the ’90s. At the time, he never imagined he’d one day be doing the exact same thing, just in a different plane, and a new era.
“He was one of the oldest commercially licensed pilots in the state. And, and this place is still sort of a testament to that, right? Like we do exactly what Frank did in a little bit different airplane, and I’d definitely like to think he’d be pretty excited,” Bill said.
“It’s a piece of flying history,” Bill said. “You go to any good air and space museum in the country, and they have this exact airplane on static display, and you can come here and fly in, not a replica, but an actual 82-year-old Boeing Stearman that was used in the Second World War as a primary trainer.”
THE MAN AT THE STICK
Bill Chouinard doesn’t just fly this plane; he quite literally lives with it.
“I’m coming up on 1000 hours in the Stearman sometime in July. I’ll have 1000 hours total time in the Stearman, which is pretty cool. It’s a little bit of a milestone,” he said.
Bill understands the plane like no one else. He’ll tell you how it smells different in the morning, how it runs a little rougher when the humidity’s high, and how it floats just a second longer when the winds shift over the gorge. It’s not just nostalgia. It’s a relationship.
“This Stearman, with the open cockpit, big radial engine, the beautiful colors, it most captures what, as a child, I wished aviation would be like.”
He remembers being a kid, sprinting through the backyard with his arms out like wings, and now, that dream is stitched into his everyday life. The plane may be over 80 years old, but in his hands, it is pure art.
“I can remember zooming around the yard as a kid, making airplane noises with my arms stretched out. I think this Stearman with the open cockpit, big radial engine, and the beautiful colors most captures what, as a child, I wished aviation would be like,” Bill said.
The aircraft is a friend that’s taken him somewhere holy. He doesn’t need to sell you on the experience. He just shows up, buckles you in, and lets the sky do the talking.
“I have yet to see somebody who isn’t completely blown away by the overall experience,” he says.
He knows what he’s offering people. It’s not just a ride. It’s a reset. It’s a jolt back to something real. Something raw. Something you can feel in your chest.
“I wasn’t thinking about doing my taxes or work tomorrow or anything like that. It was just like this period of time where it was just like I was consumed by something amazing,” Schmitt said.
And the way Bill sees it, that’s the whole point.
“It’s magical,” he said. “I think that’s probably the easiest way to say it. Yeah, it’s a pretty magical experience.”
He doesn’t rush. He doesn’t hype. He just flies, the same way Frank Thomas did for decades before him. And maybe that’s what makes it all feel timeless. It’s not performance, it’s aviation passion, passed down like a compass.
MEET THE NEXT GENERATION
Eight-year-old Carson isn’t just tagging along, he’s already got his eyes set on the cockpit.
He’s been flying with Bill and his partner Ashley for years. Now, he’s learning the ropes from the same hangar that once raised Bill himself.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“Pilot.”
“Why?”
“Just because I’ve known Bill and Ashley forever, and I want to take after that.”
Bill says passing the passion on is part of the job. And it’s already happening, one ride, one kid, one future pilot at a time.
