OK - the show was great! a few pictures are up at our website -
www.wendoverairbase.com
I'll get more as soon as they are available.
Wendover review (from a biased point of view)
August 27th opened with not a single cloud in the sky and a nearly full ramp ranging from the exotic warbirds to the everyday ultralights. Arriving early meant parking was not bad – especially since it is free. A short walk and $6 per adult later and you are in.
One thing about the Wendover airport – the ramp is huge. Be ready with some good shoes if you want to see all of the ramp and original hangars and buildings. A map of the entire ramp with where vendors and attractions are located would be nice but wasn’t available, although volunteers were knowledgeable and able to correctly direct you for the essentials (food, drinks and restrooms). For those flying in to the event, the temporary air traffic controller made arrival smooth and well coordinated with a good EAA volunteer ground crew. More than 80 fly-in planes were on the ramp by 10:30am.
Most folks staked out their piece of flight line and then went to check out the aircraft on the ramp. The planes: A Hawker Hunter piloted by Bob Guilford. Its hard to imagine a more stunning blue fighter than this one. Obtained from the Swiss Air Force, Bob had it painted in the Blue Diamond team colors and takes it to a few shows each year. Bad on us (the organizers), for not parking it more prominently rather than on the hot ramp. Towing the Hunter out would have been fine and allowed more folks to see this unique plane. Danny Summers brought his unequalled Skyraider to the show as well. This bird is so clean in and out there is little wonder it had a crowd around it the whole show. In groups of two were Canadair T-33s and L-39s wearing the colors of the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, U.S. Air Force and Soviet Air Force colors. One static and one flying British Provost rounded out this group. A stunning MIG-15 also pulled double duty on static and ripping holes in the sky during the show.
The Colorado and Utah CAF wings brought out three aircraft including the Grumman TBM which with the wing walk tour was a crowd favorite. Both aircraft are impressive and the crews were great with the guests. Vance and Sheppard Air Force Bases participated with Vance sending a T-6 II and Sheppard a T-37 “Tweet”. Several CJ-s, T-34 Mentors and a T-28 filled out the ex military cadre.
On the civilian side, Life Flight and Med Flight brought out a King Air and a Pilatus P-12. Along with a number of Cessna, Piper and ultralight statics. There is a lot of love and care in these planes and the owners showed them off with justifiable pride.
The weather was excellent with a slight breeze to cool the mid nineties temperature off a bit. This made the water and soda a premium commodity. It also made the Airport firefighters booth very popular. They had a couple of hoses hooked up so that kids could try their hand at hosing off a target – somehow a lot of folks walked away as wet as the targets!
Show time brought a traditional parachute drop with flag and an excellent performance from Jacquie Warda – Jacquie BABY!! Wow – at this altitude (4237.00) and temperature (90 F) she really wrung her Pitts S-1 out and thrilled the crowd. The follow up flybys were the jet warbirds – formation flights by the T-33s, L-39 followed by passes from Rob Carper and the Provost and Bob and his Hawker Hunter and concluded by a CJ-6 and T-28. Those radial engines sure sound good. Team OK3AIR (Greg Peterson and Nadim AuHaidar) closed the flying with a team performance and then a single performance – in the box and in your face – a definite crowd pleaser.
This is a great show that with continual improvements will be growing as it goes forward. Any lessons for small show organizers? Yup – make sure your food vendor believes you when you tell them about crowd size. No one likes to wait more than 20 minutes in the hot sun for food. Organize a few things for the little kids – if they are happy everyone is happy.
This year was a lot of fun and hopefully we’ll see you in 2006!
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