KALITTA'S FLYING HORSES
Mon, 2008-05-05 16:29
Ever seen a horse fly? No, we’re not talking about the insect. A real life, thoroughbred horse – the four-legged can.
Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta has. In fact, the 30-time national event winner facilitated the transportation for 14 horses to Louisville, Ky., for this weekend’s Kentucky Derby.
“I’ve got a contract with a gentleman who does all the race horse movements,” Kalitta said. “We were kidding around, you know I think with the horses if you end up not doing well you end up not getting the jet ride home and ride home on the trailer instead.”
The winner “Big Brown” flew aboard the Kalitta Flying Services jet. Ever seen a horse fly? No, we’re not talking about the insect. A real life, thoroughbred horse – the four-legged can.
Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta has. In fact, the 30-time national event winner facilitated the transportation for 14 horses to Louisville, Ky., for this weekend’s Kentucky Derby.
“I’ve got a contract with a gentleman who does all the race horse movements,” Kalitta said. “We were kidding around, you know I think with the horses if you end up not doing well you end up not getting the jet ride home and ride home on the trailer instead.”
The winner “Big Brown” flew aboard the Kalitta Flying Services jet.
“It’s a pretty cool deal for our company to be able to do that for those guys,” said Kalitta. “We fly about 120 hours a month, constantly moving horses, either race horses or show horses and it's a good piece of business for us.”
Kalitta’s plane is a specially adapted 727 devoted to transporting only horses. The plane is complete with walk-up ramps and stalls. This plane can carry as many as 21 horses comfortably.
“We try to make nice fragile turns when flying the horses, and nice gradual descents and climbs,” Kalitta added. “Don't have many problems with it really.”
Kalitta says no air-show stunts with the horses aboard because quite simply, as he puts it, half of the horses are worth ten times the aircraft. That led us to ask one important questions. Does Kalitta clean the stalls?
“We're contracted with someone that takes care of that,” Kalitta said. “We keep the plane in that configuration where we don't have to pull all this stuff out each time, about 6 days a week, we fly that, thing month in and month out.”
Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta has. In fact, the 30-time national event winner facilitated the transportation for 14 horses to Louisville, Ky., for this weekend’s Kentucky Derby.
“I’ve got a contract with a gentleman who does all the race horse movements,” Kalitta said. “We were kidding around, you know I think with the horses if you end up not doing well you end up not getting the jet ride home and ride home on the trailer instead.”
The winner “Big Brown” flew aboard the Kalitta Flying Services jet. Ever seen a horse fly? No, we’re not talking about the insect. A real life, thoroughbred horse – the four-legged can.
Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta has. In fact, the 30-time national event winner facilitated the transportation for 14 horses to Louisville, Ky., for this weekend’s Kentucky Derby.
“I’ve got a contract with a gentleman who does all the race horse movements,” Kalitta said. “We were kidding around, you know I think with the horses if you end up not doing well you end up not getting the jet ride home and ride home on the trailer instead.”
The winner “Big Brown” flew aboard the Kalitta Flying Services jet.
“It’s a pretty cool deal for our company to be able to do that for those guys,” said Kalitta. “We fly about 120 hours a month, constantly moving horses, either race horses or show horses and it's a good piece of business for us.”
Kalitta’s plane is a specially adapted 727 devoted to transporting only horses. The plane is complete with walk-up ramps and stalls. This plane can carry as many as 21 horses comfortably.
“We try to make nice fragile turns when flying the horses, and nice gradual descents and climbs,” Kalitta added. “Don't have many problems with it really.”
Kalitta says no air-show stunts with the horses aboard because quite simply, as he puts it, half of the horses are worth ten times the aircraft. That led us to ask one important questions. Does Kalitta clean the stalls?
“We're contracted with someone that takes care of that,” Kalitta said. “We keep the plane in that configuration where we don't have to pull all this stuff out each time, about 6 days a week, we fly that, thing month in and month out.”
Categories:
