Hello WIXers and all the ships at sea,
Today finds all AMHFers and all their goods and equipment safely back in Indy, so that makes it a successful weekend, right there. We're back from Peoria, a grand airshow and a great time. Our first "away" airshow in two years.
It was a nice cross-country flight for the crew, and it ended in a primo spot, right at the junction of the static-display birds, the kiddie rides, and the flightline. A lovely carnival setting for our big blue bird, for sure.
Boy, did we ever need to make that show, too--gotta have income, especially now that the insurance is turned on. And what do you suppose happened, the week of the show? Our lone left-seat guy gets on-called to fly to california for the week. But just when you think you're sunk ...
Paul Herr was a Hot Stuff pilot from a somehwat earlier era than our current group's. I think he last flew the Harpoon right about the time I was joining the group, six years or so ago. But he kindly came out of Harpoon Retirement for the occasion. In all the bustling-about of Friday, I didn't get a picture of him, but hopefully we'll be seeing a good deal of him in future. He's a wiry fellow, flies Beech 18 freight and farms for his living, and was reported by all aboard, and by all who witnessed from the ground, to be a good stick-and-rudder man.
While the flight crew--Paul, Long Tall Glen, Scotty, and PJ--had a good lengthy meet-n-greet and briefing, the ground crew got the plane unbuttoned, preflighted, pulled through, and ready to start. To save the charge in the fresh battery, we rolled out "Crankenstein," an extremely excellent contraption devised by Electrical Guru Roy.
Crankenstein semi-frightens IndyJen, but it works like a champion. It is good for half a dozen starts when it isn't plugged in, and as many starts as you please when it is.
Paul flew Hot Stuff a whole lot of hours back when, but he hadn't seen her in years. He liked what he saw and how she flew, which of course was gratifying to the current maintenance crew. He sure remembered how to fly a Harpoon; as sweet as you please, and smooth. Three hops for currency, and then load up the plane and launch. Gaylon and Sandy headed out in their minivan, with me in the back with the rest of the baggage, while Paul, Scotty, Glen, and PJ crewed the plane.
The show put us static display crews up in the very nice "Pere Marquette" hotel, right there in downtown Peoria, just a few blocks from the riverfront.
http://www.hotelperemarquette.com/
The Pere Marquette is a great art deco hotel from the 20's, a place PV-ators from days of yore could have stayed. The place is in great shape, restored to the nines.
The waterfront was where the show put on its "welcome party" for the visiting crews. While we happily enjoyed our barbecue and beer, the darkening skies presented us with the Night Downtown Airshow of Peoria.
Hands down, that over-water display was one of the most captivating aviation presentations ever witnessed by yours truly. Although I have to tell you, if I'd been driving on the bridge that was RIGHT THERE, feet away from zooming smoking howling spark-streaming glorious airplanes, there would have been a forty-car pileup, at least. But there were no wrecks at all. Peoria drivers do a good job of driving while distracted, I am here to tell you.
Came Saturday, the first real day of the airshow, and the crew got to work. We had a six-person crew, which is a good size. We like to engage our visitors and chat up a storm, and six lets us make a good distribution around the plane: someone inside the plane talking history and equipment, another one outside the door, talking to the folks in line and doling out the mementos. A couple crewmembers mind the store; we set up the "PX" under the wing, generally. And that leaves a couple people to float, or go visiting the other warbirds, or eat, or whatnot.
Speaking of the PX, there it is, and there's Sandy, who I hereby bestow upon her the AMHF tribal name of "Sandy Runs-the-Store." She did a heck of a job all weekend. She is a cheery sort, and always comes bringing cookies. And so she is beloved by all.
We had a lot of compliments from the Peoria airshow-going public, and you know it's always nice when people say nice things about your bird. She cleans up nice, but you have to expend the elbow grease. There's PJ, taking care of business.
And there's Scotty, caught on his way to do some wiping-down himself. Everyone pitched in with everything, all the time, which is how it's got to be. it's also important to make sure that everyone get breaks, and time to enjoy the show a bit, too.
Whenever someone comes up to me and says "You must be IndyJen," I know I'm dealing with a WIXer, and that's always swell. Here's Steve KtSt97, who posted a couple posts ago, and with whom I had a very nice chat.
And here's Flyin' Illini, who took some fantastic pics of our bird at the Indy show last month (see pages 14 and 15 of this thread). He is appropriately depicted peering out of the side camera window. PVs had two camera ports, and you could mount your KA-25 camera to shoot either horizontally (out of this window) or straight down.
There's our setup, largely complete and the visitors beginning to arrive. Once they start coming, it's a constant stream, and by the end of the day, you're going to be tired. But it's a mighty pleasant way to spend the day, talking to interested people about your interesting old plane.
They come, and they stand patiently in line, and a few of them go inside at a time; when those come out, more go in. We don't charge anything to look inside. The whole point is to educate the people on this obscure plane and the obscure-but-heroic outfit she belonged to, and their obscure war. But we do keep the donation jar right there, and people do put their dollar bills in there, helping us to keep going.
And here's a view of the goings-on from the perspective of the door-workers. This, for me, really is the payoff for all of the sweat and dirt and busted knuckles, this interacting with the people and showing the plane. Well, and the flying--that's sure enough a payoff, too!
There's another view of it all, with yours truly in the background--PJ and I have just got back from lunch, and I've crutched over to where the wheelchair was stashed. Still at least three more weeks of this, and then mebbe they'll let me start using the left foot again. I sure hope so.
There you see pilots Long Tall Glen and Scotty with Colonel Dennis, an old buddy of Glen's. Col. Dennis runs the C-130 squadron based on the field, and he and his boys put on a fine demonstration of what your combat airlifters can do.
There's Machine Shop Gaylon and Sandy Runs-the-Store, looking at the aerial goings-on. I just purely love this picture of those two.
And there's PJ, taking a break from her inside-the-plane post during a lull. The plane can get mighty heated up. On a sunny warm day, you'll bake inside the fuselage. But if you get up on the dark blue wing, you'll fry.
I always say that working on this plane outdoors in the winter, I feel a great sympathy for those Aleutians mechanics. And in the summer, I feel a great sympathy for those boys down in the Solomons ...
And there you see a view of our neighbors on the static-display line. In the background you see an excellent and largely original C-47, one of the first purpose-built C-47's built in 1941. Her crew were a bunch of sweethearts, too. If you ever have the Ozark Airlines Flying Museum crew in your neighborhood, get on out there and hobnob with 'em, and be prepared to leave smiling.
That's pretty much the story of our trip to Peoria, WIXers. It was good to take the old girl on a cross-country, and she seemed to enjoy it, too. We currently don't have another gig till August, I don't believe, but we're on the lookout for anything that pops up--if your airshow suffers a cancellation, and you need a fine rare crowd-pleasing bomber, get in touch with us!
In the meantime, we'll be getting our boys L.T. Glen and Scotty their type-rides, and working on keeping that squawk list short ...
till next time,
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