CONA Airshow at NAS Pensacola
Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:40 pm
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.
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.
Re: CONA Airshow at NAS Pensacola
Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:43 am
Great stuff Mr. Bill. Thanks for posting.
Re: CONA Airshow at NAS Pensacola
Mon Nov 21, 2011 4:51 pm
I was probably standing only 20 ft away from you when you took the KC-10 photo! I sure wish that B-52 had been able to park 30 minutes before it did so all the CoNA arrivals would have had the "Golden light" as the sun was setting.
Re: CONA Airshow at NAS Pensacola
Mon Nov 21, 2011 5:04 pm
Just sharing a few.
Re: CONA Airshow at NAS Pensacola
Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:25 pm
mh53eflyguy wrote:Just sharing a few.
Nice shots Bill and Scott!
Scott, didn't know you were on here too.
Re: CONA Airshow at NAS Pensacola
Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:49 pm
David, I was about to say the same thing when I saw your name. I'm an Über airplane geek, you've busted me!
Re: CONA Airshow at NAS Pensacola
Tue Nov 22, 2011 10:55 am
Hey, Scott thanks for sharing, your late arrival shots of the VFA-122 CONA birds turned out a lot better than mine. It was to bad that they had to wait for the big stuff to park. Of course using a single "Follow Me" truck was also an error, but I think this was The Ground Control Officers first rodeo. I see we have something else in common. When I retired in 1992 from the Navy I was a RH-53D crew chief.
Cheers Bill
Cheers Bill
Re: CONA Airshow at NAS Pensacola
Tue Nov 22, 2011 6:22 pm
Grear stuff Scott. You are better than I ever was.
Sure was fun to hang out. Thanks so much for
coming all the way from JAX.
Check out the pusher video Steve shot. This is the
four minute version......
https://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video ... 9200841543
Sure was fun to hang out. Thanks so much for
coming all the way from JAX.
Check out the pusher video Steve shot. This is the
four minute version......
https://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video ... 9200841543