9-16-2012 (Sunday) Troy to Foristell, Mo (Bill & Gloria Becker’s home)

21 miles
Ride Time 1 hr. 59 minutes
10.6 mph


Bill Becker's 1975 Bellanca decathalon stunt plane that we flew in today - how cool is that!

We slept in this morning as we planned on going to 10:00AM mass in Troy and then heading towards Bill & Gloria Becker’s in Foristell. Upon arrival at the church the priest was out in front of church greeting people and when he saw us ride into the parking lot he said something like “I can see you people aren’t from around here, come on over here, I want to know where you’re from”. What followed was a very enthusiastic conversation about our travels by bicycle and his 22 years of traveling by motorcycle. We talked for quite a while and when it was close to time for mass to start he said “Sorry folks but I gotta go to work”. Great guy, we enjoyed our visit and the mass. On the way out he said “Keep the rubber side down and be careful”.

We are very impressed with this area. There are a lot of new commercial buildings in the area and it’s quite obvious the area is growing rapidly. The ride from Troy to Foristell was 15 miles of more easy rolling hills but when we turned south on W towards Foristell the hills became much more aggressive for the last 6 miles to Gloria and Bill’s house. We arrived about 1:40 and were greeted by Gloria and her daughter Cory, Bill would get home from work about 4:00. After getting settled in and showering we spent a couple hours getting caught up on family matters while Gloria and Cory put together a delicious meal for the five of us. During dinner we discussed what there was to do and see in the area and Gloria suggested that we drive to their airplane hanger in Troy and Bill would take Kathi up in his stunt plane and do some stunts.  So we hopped in the car and headed to Troy which was about 1/2 hour away.

Cory and Gloria busy in the kitchen cooking up a delicious dinner!

Upon arrival Bill and Gloria took both of their airplanes out of the hanger and Bill had Kathi get in the stunt airplane and he buckled her in good and tight and gave her a few instructions and they were off.  He had told Kathi that he would only do what she wanted him to do but once she got up there it was so exhilarating and fun that she had him do all three stunts.  What an amazing ride this was and Kathi couldn’t believe how smooth and quiet the ride was.  Thanks Bill and Gloria – you made our day and certainly gave Kathi the thrill of her life for her 60th birthday coming up October 3rd! 



Bill’s plane is  a 1975 Bellanca decathalon which is an aerobatic trainer plane.  We went up and did the first stunt which was a 360 degree roll to the left, then a loop for the 2nd stunt which you go up and loop around once doing basically a backward somersault, and the third stunt was called the hammerhead.  The hammerhead is going straight up vertical till near stall, then pivot straight down, and then pull out and level off. We did about .8 negative G’s and 3.2 positive G’s.  Gloria’s plane is a Cessna 152 converted to 150 horsepower engine.



After Bill brought the plane down for a perfect landing Kathi got out and John hopped in and went up with Bill and also got to have the thrill of doing several stunts and also had a chance to briefly fly the plane.



Afterwards we got back in the car and headed back to Bill and Gloria’s where we enjoyed a delicious piece of homemade apple pie and good conversation before we called it an evening.

Bill & John - up they go into the wild blue yonder!

I would just like to thank Bill and Gloria for this amazing day!