Pink Thunder

Barbel owns a home and hangar in Wellington (FD38) a residential airpark in Florida. She chose this location for the year round flying weather and the beautiful 4,000 foot grass runway which is well suited to her collection of tail-wheel aeroplanes. She visits for a few months each year and can be seen most days flying her Super Decathlon, Yak 55 or 1943 high-performance Boeing Stearman biplane named "Pink Thunder" with a Pratt & Whitney 9-cylinder radial piston engine that sounds like thunder when you crank it up.

Pink Thunder is an experimental category airplane due to modifications made to the ailerons and adding spades to improve the roll rate. The aircraft was renovated in England and shipped to it's new home in Wellington. The unique color scheme of vivid pink with black trim makes this Stearman really stand out, even the pistons are pink. "Everyone was horrified that I chose this color scheme" Barbel says with a mischievous smile. "But I think it's great. The engine is 450 horsepower. It's the most beautiful sound. All you can hear is the noise."










FD38, Wellington, Florida