He didn't run to the hills, but he did fly over them.

This undated photo shows Dickinson in the cockpit of Ed Force One, Iron Maiden's touring plane. (AP Photo/Iron Maiden Holdings, John McMurtrie) Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson, a noted aviation nut who pilots his band around the world in a customized Boeing 747 jumbo jet called Ed Force One , spent part of Wednesday afternoon getting a tour of the capital — including the Gatineau Hills — in a vintage biplane.

The Canada Aviation and Space Museum got a heads up Tuesday from Ottawa Tourism that a special guest might drop by for a look around, according to Shelley Boudreau, the museum's manager of exhibition projects.

It wasn't until Wednesday morning that they discovered who that visitor would be: none other than the legendary heavy metal frontman, who happens to be a licensed commercial pilot.

Dickinson, 58, was in town for the One Young World Summit, which brought a number of celebrities to the capital, including Cher, Bob Geldof and Emma Watson.

'I was so excited'

Dickinson got a tour of the museum's collection — apparently he was particularly impressed by the Vickers Viscount, a British-made turbo-prop airliner first flown in 1948 — before taking off around noon in the passenger seat of a 1940 Waco biplane used for training during the Second World War by the U.S. Air Force.

Canada Aviation and Space Museum staffers Dominique Mongeon, left, and Cedric St-Amour, right, stand next to Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson shortly after his biplane tour of Ottawa-Gatineau on Wednesday. (Shelley Boudreau) Pilot Greg Reynolds, who owns Ottawa Biplane Adventures, which gives aerial tours with the vintage biplane, took the singer up.

"I don't want to show my age but I was a big Iron Maiden fan when I was growing up, so when I found out he was coming out, I was so excited. It was fantastic," Reynolds said Friday.

"He's a pretty accomplished pilot and has his own collection of aircraft as well, so it was nice to talk to him. A really nice guy, a really level-headed, calm guy. It was a lot of fun."

They flew over the Gatineau Hills, then Parliament Hill.

"It was kind of neat to actually be sitting behind Bruce Dickinson flying around downtown Ottawa. ... It was pretty neat," he said.

'I will cherish that moment for the rest of my life'

Back on the ground, gift shop sales representative Nancy Beaulieu was quietly freaking out. She's been following the band since she was 16 and has seen them perform live at least a dozen times.

"I really loved them, especially him. I've always been a big fan of his voice, and when I was young I was a big fan all the way. He has a clear, powerful voice. To me it's one of the best voices in heavy metal," she said Friday.

Posed for photo

When she first found out he would be visiting, she thought she might pass out.

"I'm telling you, I thought [I would] faint at that moment," Beaulieu said.

When Dickinson first arrived she had a brief, professional exchange with the singer — "Hi, how are you, sir? If you have any questions, let me know" — just before he left for the biplane tour. Her mind was racing "at 20,000 miles an hour" at the prospect of his return.

He did come back to the gift shop after the tour, and Beaulieu took the opportunity to present him with a shopping bag, a key chain and a T-shirt of his choice. (He picked the one with the Avro Arrow on it.) And she asked for a photograph, of course.

"He was a very, very nice guy. Down to earth. And he was very, very generous. He was very happy to give me the picture, I could feel that," she recalled.