The Navy Legacy Flight preformed at NAS Pensacola on Armistice Day, 11 November, 2011. This would be the final “Tier One” Airshow Event of the Navy’s Centennial of Naval Aviation year.
The show announcer claimed that the Legacy Flight would attempt to form up with the replica of the Ely Curtiss Pusher, a first for this Centennial Year.
The Super Hornet, Corsair, and the Helldiver flew over the field, and then made a slow pass out of the West. The Pusher sat on the west end of the runway ready to go. As the Legacy Flight approached the field, the Pusher began its takeoff run. The idea was for them to meet over “show central” for a great photo op. From my prospective that did not happen until somewhere over the Southeast side of the field, and then only briefly.
This maneuver will take a lot more practice to get the timing right.
However, the weather was beautiful and sunny and the temperature was in the seventies. Although this CONA celebration was not as overwhelming as the show at North Island back in February 2011, it was still a grand display of Naval Aviation.
My thanks go out to the Commemorative Air Force, the Conch Republic Air Force, and Bob Coolbaugh and the Curtiss Team for providing a flying panorama of vintage naval aircraft which added depth to the flying demonstration. Also, much praise goes to TRAWing-6 and the 479th FTG for their outstanding presentation of a “Parade of Trainers.”
The static display was not to be outdone in that seven aircraft representing the CONA “Heritage Paint Project” arrived and created a living history lesson for over 70,000 people. The two VFA-122 Hornets flew in all the way from NAS Lemoore, CA. If there was a down side the Patrol Wing Community was poorly represented, but I guess that is to be expected as they had their CONA celebration the week before at NAS Jacksonville.
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