(upbeat music) - Welcome to ""Pilots, Props, and Planes".

In this episode, we will join a pilot who seemingly routine movie sequence became a dangerous journey.

We'll also discover a Steven Spielberg movie prop used in one of his early series, and we'll visit an "Indiana Jones" site that never made it to the big screen, while a small town farming community did.

(plane engine roaring) (upbeat guitar music) (plane engine revving) - Funding for "Pilots, Props, and Planes" is provided by.

(plane engine revving) (upbeat music) Reedley College is proud to be a part of the aviation industry, providing advanced education in all aspects of flight science, aviation mechanics, and professional pilot training.

Go Tigers.

(plane engine roaring) (serene music) (upbeat drum music) - Throughout the history of aviation, and its association with the film industry, flying for the movies has been the occupation of many aerobatic pilots.

This type of experience combined with their training enables them to capture some incredibly risky scenes, and do it in a safe and secure manner.

However, always lurking in the background is Murphy's law; the possibility that something can and would go wrong.

Joined with us now as aerobatic hall of famer, Wayne Handley, shares with us an event that occurred while he was flying for the movies.

(dramatic music) - I got caught, I got trapped in the proverbial box canyon.

So I make the statement, "This is it," where I was telling them this is where I'm gonna die.

And, now, in this mental state that I'm in, which is what time compression comes from, where you can talk about an event for an hour, that only took six, seven seconds.

I've never seen the world so clearly.

(dramatic music) I work under the premise that you're not going to do better in an accident or an emergency situation than you practiced.

Your last practice is gonna have a lot to do with your confidence at that time.

And there's some situations you can get yourself into that you cannot practice, but you can think about 'em.

And I do the "What If" game.

As an example of what we're gonna see in this upcoming accident, I thought about how I would handle the situations I fly across the Sierras, or anytime I'm in mountainous terrain.

If I have an engine failure, or for whatever reason I get caught in a situation, how am I gonna handle the situation?

So in this case, I got caught, I got trapped in the proverbial box canyon.

The emotional side of the event overwhelm me, when you think you're about to die, it is an emotional experience.

And I had to fight that down, to get to the rational side of my brain, to be able to execute the plan that I had come up with playing the "What If" game.

(gentle music) The setup for this accident, I was to fly down this canyon as low as possible, make it look as exciting as possible with a camera on a bi-plane.

And so, I'm flying down this river through here.

And as I come on down, there is a very tight turn that I have to make back to the left.

But in actuality, when I came down through here very low in the canyon, this is blind, it's not obvious, you don't see it at all, but this area up in here appears to be the canyon that I was following.

When in fact it's a very steep canyon coming out, and it's the proverbial box canyon situation.

Once I entered this, I can no longer make the turn and come back out.

What I had to do was figure out how to intentionally crash the airplane.

(gentle music) This is very comparable altitude of the actual crash, and this is what I'm seeing.

And you can see by the red line, it looks like that's the way the canyon goes.

In actuality, right down here Where you can't...

It just doesn't show, it doesn't show as well, even in the airplane as it does here.

So you're coming down here and it just looks like the channel goes off this way, and right here, you've gotta be really banking hard, at least 60, 70 degrees and pulling several Gs to make it around that turn.

And I blew by it without seeing it.

And now I understand how easy it was.

If you came down through there, if 10 different pilots came down at different times, they'd all do the same thing, I have no doubt, 'cause you just don't see it.

(gentle music) As I fly down the canyon, I have a chase plane up a couple thousand feet above me that I'm in communication with.

About this area in here, I made a statement to the chase plane, "It would be easy to make a mistake down here."

And I should have taken my own clue there.

As I've receded on down, I had flown this the day before, and again that morning at a couple of 400 feet higher.

And as I came down, I flew across this ridge right here.

So I came down, across the Ridge, and on out, it was no big deal.

But once I got down in the bottom of the canyon, all my references changed, and as I came down through here, when I got to the critical point right here, I didn't see it, I didn't see it at all.

I didn't see even what looked like a tributary on the side, let alone the main river.

But at that time it was late in the afternoon, and this side hill was bathed in sunshine, and it just looked like a natural and I just followed, and I went right through.

When I got here, I just called the chase plane, I said, "I just made a wrong turn."

Another couple seconds, it was inevitable I couldn't get out.

And I said, "I can't believe I'm gonna die in this blankety canyon."

And when you think you're gonna die, it gets (laughs) very emotional.

And it was inevitable that I was gonna crash.

And rather than just a lot of the airplane to continue up to canyon until I hit something, I took the bull by the horns, activated a plan that had been in my mind for years, picked a spot across the canyon that was just 90 degrees to me, if you shot an arrow would stick right in it.

So I put the nose of the airplane down, dive into the bottom, and dive not into the bottom of the canyon, but I dove to get as much speed as I could, pulled up, and it was able to basically match the slope for just a moment before I impacted the side hill.

(gentle music) (suspenseful music) Once I got my emotions under control and when I was able to transition from the emotional side of my brain to the rational side of the brain, was just as I was reaching the peak of the hill where I made the transmission, "This is it," where I thought I was gonna die.

If I hadn't had a plan at this time, I doubt that it would've been possible to make the transition from the emotional side of my brain, to the rational side and execute the plan.

So I make the statement, "This is it," where I was telling them this is where I'm gonna die.

And, now, in this mental state that I'm in, which is what time compression comes from, where you can talk about an event for an hour that only took six, seven seconds.

I have never seen the world in such clear focus, as I put plane's nose down to get as much speed as I could, and being able to sense the exact moment when I couldn't get anymore, and this was the time to start my nose up, how to fly the airplane, right to the edge, to where I was able to match the slope with the airplane.

It was phenomenal how focused I was, the airplane hits the ground, decelerates in about two plane lengths, and the descending blade with the landing gear wiped out from underneath the airplane.

A descending blade pitches the airplane straight up to the vertical sitting on its tail.

And it can go any one of 360 degrees.

And it chooses to fall the 180 degree line back down the fall line of the mountain.

And so, it starts from the 90 degree position, and it falls, and it accelerates, and it falls, and it accelerates.

And now, there's the 90 degree, and the hill is so steep.

Now, it's on past 120 degrees and bam, it hits inverted, tears the top wing loose, the fuel is in the top wing.

Now, there's fuel every place.

The engine digs in, and the airplane comes over again, and now it stops when it hits here, it stops there.

And, I really didn't think I could survive any more times around, because the components that protected me up to this point are now shattered or gone.

And I know that behind me down the hill gets steeper, it's a rock face, and it's probably 2-400 feet, I don't know, into the bottom of the canyon, which I'm gonna be accelerating, and my chances of survival are just diminishing totally.

But the airplane stops, why it stopped (laughs), I don't know.

It's about 100 feet, probably 70-100 feet back down the hill from the initial impact.

But sitting just like I contacted the hill in the first place.

So, I unstrap myself and it's hard to get out of the airplane in that angle, so I crawl out, get on a wing, run across the side hill a safe distance from it.

I'm expecting the airplane to burn, and the fire doesn't start.

I look at my body going from just a few seconds earlier when I was convinced I was gonna die.

I look at myself, I take inventory, not a scratch, it was just unbelievable.

So after three or four minutes, the airplane's not burning, nothing's gonna happen, everything is quiet, I do what all good pilots would do.

I go back to the cockpit and secure the cockpit with the master and the mags, turn it off, and now I'm cool.

(laughs) - We're at the extraordinary museum of valor in downtown Fresno, California.

Joining me is Mike Harris, a docent here at the museum.

Mike, would you give us a brief history of the museum please?

- Certainly, about 1990, some of the local veterans here in Fresno approach the city about creating a museum on a national level.

And a couple of these fellows happen to be members of the Legion of Valor of the United States of America.

The Legion of Valor is somewhat like a fraternal organization that covers the nation, and it's only comprised of those members of the military that have won their congressional medal of honor, presented by the president, or the distinguished service crosses.

We are their home base headquarters, and we have their historical archives, going all the way back to the civil war.

And in 1890, they formed this organization, and began awarding and recognizing those guys that have done so much in a heroic way for our country.

So, we are a home base for the nation's most highest regarded heroes.

- Aviation, and non-aviation related.

One of the items in particular has something special to do with the movie industry.

- Correct, yeah.

- Could you tell us a little bit about the B-17?

- Well, we have a somewhat smaller scale model of an actual B-17 flying fortress.

It's originally built as a movie prop for a very early Kevin Costner movie, which was produced by Steven Spielberg.

It's called "The mission".

- And you mentioned it was produced by Steven Spielberg.

- Yes.

- He has an avid interest in World War II aviation among his many interests, but World War II aviation is special to him.

And so, his involvement with this was really kind of unique.

- Correct, yeah the movie industry, they always, I believe try and be as accurate as they can.

If you go back and look through some of the old movies like Howard Hughes and so forth, that they produced with aircraft involved, a lot of it was actually incorporating historical real footage, so they've always try to be accurate with that, as to my knowledge.

And this particular piece was one of those things.

It's painted up and done to scale as it would've been originally, but on a smaller level.

- In today's movie industry, we have the advantage of technology that has created computer generated images.

When this movie was filmed, they had to actually construct the model.

It's a three dimensional model in scale.

What is the wingspan of this model?

- I think, it's about 30 feet, if I recall, or maybe about 25 feet, something of that nature wide.

And because it's situated in sort a bay, if you wanna call it that, it's shorter than an actual airplane, but it's done up to where visually, it looks like the entire aircraft.

- And it certainly does, 'cause I've seen the episode of "Amazing Stories" where this model is portrayed.

And in fact it does look exactly like a real B-17.

- It is very well done, yes.

- So model for the movies was integral up until, like we said earlier the days of-- - Just a few years ago.

- future generated images, yes.

What an interesting addition to your museum, and the museum is magnificent, a true honor.

- Well, we invite the public to come here, we are, to my knowledge, about the only thing in the city of Fresno, that's free, and we always have a staff here that can guide you through, or you can do your own self-guided tour, and we have an answer for most questions that you might have.

(serene music) - If you have ever wondered how big budget movies choose their film sites, here's a perfect example.

When Steven Spielberg was looking for locations to film his blockbuster hit "Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull", he discovered the old Fresno, downtown Chandler Executive Airport.

It's a 1930s style layout, and it served perfectly to transform into the Aeropuerto Internacional in Mexico.

(triumphant music) The film crew spent five days of setup, one day of filming, and two days of dismantling the set.

(triumphant music) This took a crew of 150 people.

Unfortunately, none of the footage they ever shot was used in the film.

(triumphant music) The only footage filmed at Chandler was inside the classic DC-3, showing Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford napping, while his son Mutt, played by Shia Labeouf is tinkering with his motorcycle.

(Serene music) The nearby farming community of fireball, California fared better, since a scene did get into the movie.

Location Scouts for the "Indiana Jones" series discovered Eagle Field, a former United States Army Air Force training site from World War II.

The field now privately owned was rented for a week, and transformed to NAZCA Peru.

Eagle field's original administration building, which is still standing, was used to represent the airport's terminal building, Circa 1957.

Along with the building, the set was decorated with many of Eagle field's unique vintage vehicles.

Set decorators spent seven days getting the scene ready, building a Peruvian market, using several truckloads of props, including live goats and chickens.

For this filming, a Russian Antonov AN-2 bi-plane showing the logo of Pan American Airways was flown in for the scene, which shows Indiana and his new sidekick, Mutt standing outside the dusty terminal.

On a historical note, records show that pan American airlines never used the Russian Antonov.

This location was deemed important enough for the film's producer George Lucas to be on site.

Harrison Ford piloted Cessna 208 Caravan to Eagle Field for the shoot.

This location was the last day of filming for the movie.

And afterwards, cast and crew enjoyed a rap party, barbecue.

(upbeat dramatic music) ♪ Those magnificent men in their flying machines ♪ ♪ They go up, tiddly, up, up ♪ ♪ They go down, tiddly, down, down ♪ ♪ They enchant all the ladies and steal all the scenes ♪ ♪ With their up, tiddly, up, up ♪ ♪ And they're down, tiddly, down, down ♪ (upbeat dramatic music) - In the very, very early days of aviation, pilots were known as those daring young men in their flying machines.

In the early 1920s, when aviation became associated with the motion picture industry, these young aviators, along with the cameramen who assisted them in capturing the wonderful sequences for film would risk their lives for a few dollars.

This paid off in 1929, when one of the earliest silent films relating to aviation, the movie entitled "Wings", became the recipient of the first Oscar ever awarded for a motion picture.

After that, these dashing daring fearless young aviators became known as the motion picture stunt pilots association.

(playful music) - That was way back when I just first started to fly, money was scarce and for a dollar we'd do just about anything, and move picture had me, I don't know, I forget now the name of it anyway, wanted me to fly this plane and crash it through some debris in the show, a picture that it was supposed to been an actual wreck, but I felt, like I say, I would do it for dollars.

(laughs) Another job I had with an old time airplane with a Cherokee and I had a picture of it here with Will Rogers.

I was substituted for his pilot because his pilot wasn't allowed to fly an airplane.

And I worked with Will Rogers for a week.

And although we didn't do any flying, I did some taxing at the studio in Hollywood.

In the morning, before we'd start to taking the picture, he'd gather the group and tell stories.

And first thing you know, you'll say, "Oh, we got some shots to make, let's go to work."

And nobody moves until he says, "Go."

And that was, you had nothing to say, he run the show.

So, was a pleasure really to work with him.

(plane engine roaring) - [Bill] I am at APR aviation located at the Yosemite International Airport, and my guest now is a gentleman who owns a vintage 1941 Interstate Cadet, Nate Moehlman.

This vintage of airplane is representative of a number of strut-raced, high wing, light aircraft that were built from the middle 1930s.

Pretty much to the end of World War II.

What's unique about this airplane, they were constructed in very small numbers.

- [Nate] They built about 400 Of 'em from what I understand.

And there are probably something less than 40 of 'em now.

(plane engine revving) - [Bill] So were these airplanes used in military pilot training, and am I correct, that they were in the civilian pilot training program.

- Right, so they knew the war was coming, I think, in 1941.

They could see it out there on the horizon, and they needed a way to figure out who could be a pilot.

And from what I understand, talking to the guys that do these things, they put a guy, you know, if you wanted to be a pilot, they put you in the front, they ran you through maneuvers, and the guy that did the evaluation said yes or no.

- [Bill] This airplane came off the assembly line just prior to December 7th, 1941.

- That's correct.

I think, it was a month earlier.

- [Nate] Yeah, about a month earlier, right.

- [Bill] Well, the irony to that is that an interstate cadet identical to this had a significant role during the attack, the morning of December 7th, - Right, Pearl Harbor.

- it was in the air.

- Yeah, yeah.

What was the girl's name?

- [Bill] Cornelia Fort.

- [Nate] Right, and that airplane is still here.

- [Bill] It's still flying.

- Tim Talen restored that one.

- It's been restored.

The beauty of this particular airplane is the way it handles.

We'll have to fly it sometime.

- I'd love to.

- With your tail wheel time, - I'd love to.

- You'll see the difference.

They don't go for fast.

- [Bill] But they're fun to fly.

- But they're fun to fly.

- Exactly.

- The windows slide open in this one, and there's stories of the guys here at this airport, if you put it in a slip and you had the window open on whichever side you were slipping to, you would blow the window out the opposite side.

So they'd have to go down and get...

They'd all had little window cutouts, 'cause it's just a piece of plexiglass, it's not a real window.

And they said, "Oh yeah, that was a joke with these things."

There were quite a number of 'em and they were cheap, and guys just loved flying 'em.

They said, "Oh yeah."

So I put stiffeners on the window to keep it from bowing, and allowing it to pop out the hole.

The one thing this airplane does extremely well is slip.

It's the control, you know, with no flaps.

- [Bill] Good control harmony.

- Great control harmony in the airplane.

The young lad that did all the paint and fabric work took this to brighter colors.

So it's supposed to be, I think it's just called AN yellow, and AN blue; yellow and blue, but dull.

I think in those days they weren't building these for pretty.

- [Bill] Exactly.

- [Nate] They were just building these things to get 'em out and in service.

- [Bill] Doesn't AN stand for Army Navy or something.

- Something like that.

- That was the standard-- - Yeah, exactly.

- for that.

- We'd have to go dig it up.

It went up to the hood river, Antique, we took it there to be judged.

And the old guys, they said, 'cause there's a lot of guys like us with gray hair, maybe grayer, that really know these airplanes.

And that was one of the things they walked around it, and they just, "Wow, really nice job."

They gave him almost no grade on the airplane because the paint color was wrong.

So they just said, "You painted it the wrong colors."

And it was just kinda really sort of crushed him a little bit, I think, but he did a beautiful job.

It's just that it's brighter than it's supposed to be.

- [Bill] Not quite historically accurate.

- There are a number of things here that are probably, you know, I fly it, I love to fly it.

I mean, we fly it here off the air terminal, mixing it up with the airliners, and the air guard, and everybody, and we work with the folks in the tower, and get to know 'em all because it'll fit me in the pattern, wherever I'll get out of their way.

If I'm supposed to land on the left runway, and there's an airliner that needs to cross, I'll suggest to them that I scoot over to the right runway to let him cross, 'cause the airliners full of people, trying to get home.

- And you can do that easily, - I'm out having fun.

- And I can just take this- - and yes, really maneuverable.

- So it's really meant to be flown off of grass strips, but we're out here flying it off the concrete, and the beauty of this particular airplane is the way it handles.

You have to fly it sometime.

- I'd love to.

- With your tail wheel time.

- I'd love to - You'll see the difference.

The airplane is, you can see that, so some had counterweights, some did not.

So it was when they got to this higher horse power, this is a 90 horse.

The leading edge got heavier, and then the counterweights got added to the ailerons to make the airplane suitable for that horsepower, sure.

(upbeat guitar music) - That brings down the curtain.

(upbeat guitar music) On this episode of "Pilots, Props, and Planes" (upbeat guitar music) (plane engine revving) Funding for "Pilots, Props, and Planes" is provided by.

(plane engine revving) Reedley College, nestled against the Sierra in central California offers a full spectrum of flight science, aviation mechanics, and professional pilot education in an affordable community college setting.

Go tigers.

(plane engine roaring) (upbeat music)