Last summer, Paul Barnett nearly lost his right leg. A little more than a year later, he’s helping folks climb up into the cockpit of the Corsair he flew in for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024.
Paul, EAA Lifetime 456283, a longtime warbird pilot from Brookhaven, Mississippi, made what he described as a “grave mistake” on July 8 last summer. In preparation for letting a friend fly his T-35 Buckaroo into Oshkosh, Paul was changing the oil in the airplane.
“Unfortunately, I moved the propeller three to four inches after I made a grave mistake; I left the magnetos on,” Paul said. “The engine fired, it struck my leg twice and my hand once. And so it destroyed the femur in my right leg, and, lying on the ground, I thought I would not have that leg any longer.”
Fortunately, doctors were able to save Paul’s leg, but it certainly wasn’t an easy recovery.
“I spent three weeks in the hospital,” he explained. “One week in the hospital for my surgery, and then two weeks of physical therapy in a rehab hospital. Then I did extensive physical therapy. And actually I started back to this physical therapy again last week. I’m about 80 percent, 85 percent, but I’m striving for 100 percent. But the Lord was with me. My wife protected me. I had zero infection; I exceeded all expectations. My family and AirVenture family just prayed and reached out, and the Lord above just protected me.”
The Corsair Paul flew into AirVenture is Marine’s Dream, a Goodyear-built FG-1D owned by Scott Glover and the Mid America Flight Museum in Mount Pleasant, Texas. Between Marine’s Dream and Lou IV, a P-51 Mustang also operated by Mid America Flight Museum, Paul said that hundreds of AirVenture attendees have had the chance to sit in the cockpit of these two iconic warbirds.
“We don’t put a rope around these airplanes and keep people from touching them. I mean, we’ve probably put over 350 people in today [Sunday afternoon] alone in these two aircraft, and it’s 2:40 in the afternoon, so that’s kind of the difference of Scott Glover’s mentality and Paul Barnett’s mentality when it comes to sharing history.”
Not only is Paul grateful to be able to continue flying historic warbirds and sharing that history he’s so passionate about, he’s also using his accident as an opportunity to teach other pilots and mechanics about what not to do.
“I’ve been around aircraft since I was 3 weeks old, and I did something that I never thought would’ve happened,” he said. “I did something that caused an accident that I never thought would’ve happened. Procedure, procedure, procedure — you’ve got to follow procedure. And I did not follow procedure, and I suffered. And I’ve since done a video for the FAA, and they’re sharing it with IAs and A&Ps for the renewals each year. I think the Lord spared my life so I could educate others.”