Ken Karas
Flies a T-28C
Ken’s early years were spent on Long Island, NY, near enough to Farmingdale and Bethpage that Ken could ride his bike after delivering the New York Daily News to watch Republic and Grumman testing their new aircraft, which piqued his interest in flying. He started taking flying lessons in his teens but cars and girls and college and grad school and a wife and kids and a job kept him from earning his pilot’s license until he was about 30 (a very long time ago).
Ken first flew sailplanes out of the world famous soaring mecca of Tehachapi and then moved into powered aircraft ultimately flying piston and turbine twins, jets, helicopters, and warbirds, including the Stearman PT-17, North American T-6, Douglas C-47 (in which he is PIC typed) and the North American T-28. He is an ATP/CFI with 7,000 hours.
He bought his T-28C in 2000 and has flown it 1,500 hours, of which almost 1,000 are in formation with other aircraft. He is a FAST Formation Check Pilot. Ken was the T-28 Lead for 7 years, and lead numerous mass formations of T-28s in the Warbird Airshow at EAA Airventure (Oshkosh). He also was a member of the formation demo team “The Trojan Horsemen” and is a member of its successor, “Trojan Thunder.”
Pilot Ken Karas