Flying on the wings of memories

She needed help getting out of the cockpit and a couple of cushions to prop herself up inside.

But neither Vi Cowden’s age, 93, nor size, 5 feet 1, prevented her from flying an old P-51 Mustang from San Bernardino Airport to John Wayne Airport on Friday.

Dozens of onlookers and airplane aficionados gathered inside the Lyon’s Air Museum in Santa Ana to catch a glimpse of the Huntington Beach woman. Her airplane-ferrying feats during World War II have become the subject of a 33-minute documentary, “Wings of Silver: The Vi Cowden Story.”

It played last week at the Newport Beach Film Festival, and since then the Collings Foundation, whose mission is to preserve machines that have shaped America, stepped in to offer Cowden a special flight in what amounts to an airplane’s version of a jalopy.

“It was wonderful,” said Cowden of her 35-minute flight as she stood on the fighter plane just outside the cockpit. “It was a little bit bumpy, but I like it that way. ... It flies so easy.”

Cowden didn’t make the trip alone. Chuck Garner, a licensed pilot with the Collings Foundation, was at the controls with her as Cowden, he said, helped him take off and land from the front seat of the two-seater.

“Once we were up there, it was all her,” Garner said. “She did some steep turns, some wingovers and some rolls. You could tell she was having fun.”

It’s been awhile since Cowden has flown a P-51, 60-something years.

As a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, however, it was Cowden’s job to fly planes after they came off the factory line in Dallas. She’d fly them out of Love Field.

“It was my job to deliver them where they needed to be,” she said.

She was 26 years old at the time — just an unassuming girl from the Black Hills of South Dakota. There were a little more than 100 female pilots who had the job, and Cowden was one of them.

Nobody really knew of the heroic feats they performed and the big part they played in defeating Hitler.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that the country started recognizing them, honoring them and conferring upon them veteran status.

A few months ago, the few surviving pilots were honored with the Medal of Honor; Cowden was among them.

Now her deeds have been immortalized on the big screen, something that made her a bit nervous.

“When it came out on the DVD and I saw it, I was fine with it,” she said. “But I didn’t want to see myself on the big screen. I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is going to be bad.’ But it wasn’t that bad.”

Kim Ruiz, Cowden’s daughter, and Quinntin Ruiz, 15, the grandson, are proud of Cowden.

“It’s great that after all these years that my mother and the other female pilots are finally being recognized,” she said.

Said Quinntin: “It’s amazing. I plan on getting my pilot’s license as soon as I can.”