95-year-old Bradenton World War II veteran gets his wish, goes for a glider ride
BRADENTON
During his career in the aircraft maintenance business, Donald Bansen, a 95-year-old U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, flew as a passenger in everything from 1930s vintage seaplanes to the Concorde supersonic passenger jet.
All were multi-engine aircraft, except for a ride in a Steerman biplane. He always preferred the safety of planes with more than one engine.
In spite of that preference, he recently took a one-hour flight in a glider -- an aircraft without an engine.
Bansen was selected for the glider ride through the Wish of a Lifetime program, which celebrates older generations.
Why a glider ride?
"I would have liked to have done a parachute jump, but I thought maybe I was too old," Bansen said Wednesday at his Freedom Village apartment.
"I have flown in most powered planes, and I have even flown in a hot air balloon in Albuquerque, N.M. So I wondered what else I could do?" he said.
Bansen and a bus full of friends rode up to Clermont in central Florida for the glider ride.
"When we went up, pulled behind a single-engine airplane, we hit a little bit of turbulence, but after that it was quiet, with just a little wind noise. It was nice and smooth and lasted about 45 minutes. We went up to about 5,000 feet, and it was beautiful," he said.
Asked what was the best thing about the flight, Bansen replied without hesitation: "Walking away from it safely."
Bansen was born in Philadelphia, and served two and one-half years in the Navy, including 14 months in New Foundland as an aviation machinist mate.
He moved to the Bradenton area in 1984 from Long Island. His first wife passed away in 1991.
His four grown children were "quite impressed" by the news of his latest adventure, but apparently not surprised.
When he took a ride in a Steerman biplane a few years ago, which he won in a drawing at Publix, he recalls putting on a parachute, and the pilot asking if he wanted to do a loop.
"He asked if I wanted to do an inside loop or an outside loop, and I said inside. After we did the loop, he asked if I wanted to do another, and I said no thank you, one is enough,"
Bansen said.
Katie Penta, resident programs manager at Freedom Village, helped Bansen apply for the Wish of a Lifetime glider ride.
"He is lovely. He's just a great guy," Penta said.
Bansen is a long-time volunteer at Blake Medical Center, and participates in many of Freedom Village's programs, including the birding group, Penta said.
James A. Jones Jr., Herald reporter, can be contacted at 941-745-7053 or on Twitter @jajones1.
This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 11:52 PM with the headline "95-year-old Bradenton World War II veteran gets his wish, goes for a glider ride ."