The stories we carry

Weisblatt's interest in airplanes began long before he picked up a camera. Growing up in New York's Hudson Valley, he spent summers at a small airport managed by his sister, where he handed out sandwiches and attended frequent airshows. The airport had an active community of homebuilders and an Experimental Aircraft Association chapter.

His sister, her boyfriend, and a family friend eventually bought a 1937 Piper Cub together. The family friend, whom Weisblatt considered a mentor, later became the Cub's owner. He would fly the Cub with Weisblatt in the front seat over the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains, operating from a grass strip at an apple orchard where the airplane was kept. "I loved it, and it made a big impression on me," Weisblatt said.

But as a teenager, he also became fascinated with filmmaking after another family friend described his work as an assistant film editor on The Exorcist. The friend encouraged him to attend film school, and Weisblatt enrolled at New York University. He discovered that editing was his favorite part of filmmaking. After graduating, he began working in the industry, eventually building a career that included feature films, television, documentaries, and reality programming. His credits included picture editing on the History Channel documentary miniseries WWII in HD, camera work on A&E series Tattoo Highway, and producing documentary and reality television projects. He also worked briefly with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, helping make final picture changes to The Thin Blue Line.

After moving to California in 1989, Weisblatt began taking flying lessons in American Champion Citabria tailwheel airplanes at Chino Airport. He soloed, but like many student pilots, eventually ran out of money. He stopped flying for years, although he continued attending airshows with friends who shared his interest in World War II aviation.

In 2010, Weisblatt returned to the Hudson Valley, where a steady job finally allowed him to resume his flight training. This time, he flew Cessnas at Kingston-Ulster Airport in New York, eventually earning his private pilot certificate in 2017.

Long before he earned that certificate, aviation and filmmaking had already come together in Weisblatt's life. In New York, someone handed him Kohn's War, a book written by Arnold. Weisblatt was captivated by the story and after moving to Los Angeles, he found Arnold's telephone number in the Yellow Pages and called him about doing a film on him. Arnold originally declined, but the two began talking and eventually became friends.

Arnold, who died in 2018 at age 96, was one of two survivors among 14 pilots in his training class, Class 42-J. After the war, Arnold invented a folding aluminum lawn chair and built a successful manufacturing business. He retired at age 37 and devoted himself to painting and sculpture.

A couple of years into their friendship, Arnold started a large painting directly on the briefing maps he brought home from the war. When a gallery wanted a preview, he asked Weisblatt to make a short video of the artwork. As Weisblatt began asking questions, Arnold gradually opened up about his wartime experiences. "I started uncovering things that he really didn't want to talk about," Weisblatt said.

Weisblatt assembled some of the footage and showed it to Arnold, who eventually agreed to participate in a documentary. The resulting film, Between Two Worlds, explored the divide between Arnold's wartime memories and the life he had built afterward.

AOPA previously profiled Arnold and his efforts to honor his 12 fallen comrades through Lest We Forget: The Mission, a bronze sculpture commemorating the fellow pilots he lost during World War II. The memorial depicts the men gathered for a pre-combat briefing. Arnold had promised a fellow survivor that the men would not be forgotten. The sculpture was completed in 2016, two years before his death. "He never wanted to be seen as a hero," Weisblatt said.

For Weisblatt the friendship with Arnold gave him a firsthand account of what wartime aviators experienced. The pilots were young and had to quickly master complicated aircraft under dangerous conditions. In the film, Weisblatt said Arnold describes sitting blindfolded in the cockpit and running through every flow he needed to remember so he could perform it quickly without looking.

Although the two spent considerable time together, they never flew together. Looking back, Weisblatt wishes he had taken the opportunity. "Just to have been able to be in an airplane with him would have been such an incredible experience," Weisblatt said. "Just to watch him fly."

Arnold's story was not Weisblatt's only project connecting aviation and film. He also produced a reality television pilot episode about Skip Holm, a Vietnam War veteran, test pilot, and air racer known for competing at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada.

Weisblatt sees similarities between the two professions, particularly the preparation required before flight or film production. "Both of them require so much detail and planning," Weisblatt said, "before you either fly or turn on the camera." Filmmaking often demands more improvisation. Locations can fall through, people may not deliver the performance expected, and unexpected moments can change a production. Aviation also requires flexibility when weather or other circumstances force a change of plans. Both fields, Weisblatt said, depend on crew and resource management.

In 2021, Weisblatt grew disenchanted with the film industry and began considering a career change. He enrolled in a flight academy and spent the next two years earning his instrument rating and commercial pilot certificate. He later earned his multiengine rating and high performance and complex endorsements. Finding work as a low-time commercial pilot proved difficult, so Weisblatt turned to flight instruction as a way to continue developing his skills and build experience. He earned his advanced ground instructor certificate in 2026 and is working toward his instrument flight instructor certificate, pursuing it before his CFI certificate.

He believes teaching will make him a better pilot. The transition from filmmaking to aviation has taught Weisblatt that neither profession offers a straightforward path to success. Both depend heavily on relationships, persistence, and the willingness to keep learning.

He knows that an airline career is no longer an option under the mandatory retirement rules for FAR Part 121 airline pilots, but he hasn't abandoned his ambition to fly turbine-powered aircraft. "My dream now is just to fly commercial jets. Business or for private," he said.

Although Weisblatt continues to write, he's focused on building the experience he needs to fly turbine aircraft professionally. Between Two Worlds, Weisblatt's documentary about Arnold, is available on Amazon.