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MISSION STATEMENT
Legacy Biplane LLC is dedicated to providing skilled tailwheel and aerobatic flight instruction while sharing the golden age of open cockpit flying and highlighting the unique benefits of training in the Stearman biplane. Our mission is to safely fulfill our customers goals of achieving flying proficiency as well as promoting the growth of General Aviation through carefully designed introductory Discovery Flight options modeled after the U.S. Navy Primary Flight Training programs of WWII.
ABOUT YOUR PILOT:
BRIAN ROSENSTEIN
Brian has had his head in the clouds since he was born. According to his mother, his first word was actually “plane”. At the age of 14, Brian attended an airshow called the Flying Circus in Bealeton Virginia, a weekly barnstorming style airshow that has operated since 1971. Brian went back to every week until he was hired to sweep out hangars and take out the trash. He then began his flying lessons in many of the old airplanes there, which cemented his passion for biplanes and the golden age of aviation.
After earning his Private, Instrument, Commercial & Multi-Engine ratings, Brian became a Certified Flight Instructor at the age of 19, and has remained current as a CFI ever since. He worked his way up from the ground crew to ride and airshow pilot at the Flying Circus, flying numerous antique aircraft. In addition, he has also towed banners, dropped skydivers, performed aerial mapping for the USDA, ferried aircraft around the country, flew traffic reporters around the Washington D.C. beltway, and started a wingwalking airshow business. He graduated with honors from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a Bachelor's in Aviation Science.
Brian now lives in Denver NC and is a professional airline pilot, currently flying the Airbus 319/320/321 aircraft. He has flown sightseeing, aerobatic, and instructional flights in Stearman biplanes for more than 25 years and has logged over 15,000 hours in the air. He also won 1st place in the Aerobatic Competition at the 2015, 2022 & 2023 Nat'l Stearman Fly-Ins.
ABOUT YOUR PILOT:
NATHAN KNICELEY
Nathan is a North Carolina native, who started his flying lessons at 17 years old and earned his Private Pilot license at 18, the same age he began flying the Stearman. He quickly followed these achievement's by earning his Instrument Pilot and Multi-Engine ratings. At just 19, Nathan earned his Commercial Pilot rating and became a Certified Flight Instructor, teaching in a multitude of both single and multi-engine airplanes. He has lived and breathed aviation since high school, spending his free time at the airport and even beginning his work "turning wrenches" towards his aircraft mechanics certification at the local maintenance shop.
During his days as a full-time Flight Instructor, He focused on tailwheel and aerobatic instruction in airplanes such as the Piper Cub, Maule, and the Bellanca Super Decathlon. He has even flown the 1928 Ford Tri-Motor. Nathan has also achieved a Gold Seal rating from the FAA as a Flight Instructor, an honor bestowed upon instructors with the highest pass rate for their students during pilot rating examinations and check-rides.
Today, Nathan is also a professional airline pilot and lives near Lincolnton NC with his beautiful wife Sarah, also an accomplished airline pilot, both fly the Canadair CRJ-700 and 900 series aircraft. A talented Stearman and aerobatic pilot, his passion for flying the Stearman, instructing, and aviation in general is infectious.
ABOUT OUR BIPLANE:
1943 STEARMAN N2S-5
Interestingly, she began her civilian life right here in Charlotte, having been sold to the North Carolina Wing of the Civil Air Patrol for the sum of $550 in 1949. She spent 8 years teaching CAP cadets to fly out of what is now the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, and the Gastonia Municipal Airport. In 1956, she was sold to an agricultural service in Liberal Kansas and modified to perform Crop Dusting. She was then leased to an agricultural operation in New Brunswick Canada and damaged in an accident in June 1957. She was sold around as a project to numerous people and was finally restored to her original military configuration in 1978 in San Jose California. She was again treated to another full restoration to her current condition in 1998.
Today, she is a truly beloved member of our family and is lovingly known to us as "Sweet Caroline".
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Construction of our Stearman N2S-5 was completed by the Boeing Aircraft Company at the Stearman Aircraft Division factory in Wichita Kansas on September 20, 1943. She was purchased by the U.S. Army for the U.S. Navy for $9,120, and accepted into service on September 22, 1943 as BuNo. 43426.
She was then flown to Naval Air Station (NAS) Memphis in Millington Tennessee where she remained until April of 1946. Then she was transferred to NAS Corpus Christi Texas where she was overhauled and reconditioned. In July of 1947, she was assigned to NAS Weeksville in Elizabeth City North Carolina and placed in storage until being stricken from the Navy inventory & transferred back to the US Army Air Force , which allocated the aircraft for use by the Civil Air Patrol in 1948.