Grumman Cat Flight at Wings of Eagles Batavia NY 1996

CH2Tdriver · **Posted:** Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:01 pm

At the NWM Wings of Eagles show at Batavia NY in 1996, Dale 'Snort' Snodgrass flew the Tomcat in an aerobatic routine with John Ellis in Kalamazoo's Tigercat. They wrapped up with a Cat Flight formation including KAZ's Hellcat and Howard Pardue in the Bearcat. But the best is when Dale announced his arrival over Batavia by sneaking in with the Six of Diamonds!

Here's my video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7192dg_zis

Cheers,
Peter

Glen · **Posted:** Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:28 pm

Very Nice

Too bad that we will never see a F-14 flying in a formation like that again :cry:

Thanks to you know who :roll:

Nathan · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2007 7:21 am

Wow thanks for the video. I saw the cat flight at the 97 WOE in Elmira...great display!

CH2Tdriver · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:15 am

That was the LAST time I saw a Tomcat Display with Snort at the helm no less! If I'd have known I would have filmed the entire Tomcat Demo not just the Cat portion.

Pete

bipe215 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:00 am

Peter,

Do you know who was flying the Hellcat?

Steve G

CH2Tdriver · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:09 pm

bipe215 wrote:

Peter,

Do you know who was flying the Hellcat?

Steve G

Nah, I'll need to watch the sequence over to try and find out, I have some of the Hellcat passes on video. Someone else here may know and beat me to it.

Pete

n5151ts · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:06 pm

just a little CRAZY! thanks for the vid...good stuff!

krlang · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:05 pm

Oh does that stir up some memories,
I signed out of A&P class that Friday morning, bummed a ride to Batavia in a Navion, slept in a first aid tent on the airport on Friday night, stunk by saturday night, crashed with the Collings crew to be able to use a shower on Sunday morning, met Vern R. at the Connie, Bummed a ride home in a T-28, got upside down while we waited for Danny M. to catch up in his Yak-11 on the way home.

Nevermind getting to see John Ellis and Dale doing that!

AFD94 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:25 pm

That brings back great memories. That was my first Wings of Eagles show I believe. It would be great to see another show like that.

Jim Beasley · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2012 6:21 am

After Snort finished with the Kalamazoo guys he got in our slot when we were still flying the 6 of Diamonds. Fun times.

Fouga23 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2012 6:56 am

mlenoch · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2012 7:33 am

Hellcat pilot: Tom Austin

jcos · **Joined:** Sun Dec 06, 2009 4:26 pm **Posts:** 16

Man i miss those days......

I was a little too young to truly appreciate what i was seeing

CH2Tdriver · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2012 1:23 pm

Jim,

Fun times indeed! I really miss the Six of Diamonds. They were a staple at NE airshows from when I first saw them at Sussex NJ in 1984 until the last time in the late 90's. IIRC the original team was Jerry Walbrun, Reese Dill, Bill Dodds, Dan Dameo and I am missing one pilot. Then of course you and Ed got involved in the 90's and added the sixth ship. We really need another T-6 team. Aeroshell doesn't get around too much and I usually catch the Canadian Harvards team only at Geneseo.

I also enjoyed the two ship Horseman demo in the 90's. Any chance you might bring back the act with Andrew now that he's checked out in a Mustang?

BTW, for anyone else,

Speaking of Bill Dodds, what has his son Derek Dodds been up to lately? Any warbird flying? I recall seeing him flying the AAM TBM on occasion at some of the shows.

Chappie · **Joined:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:40 am **Posts:** 987

Jim Beasley wrote:

After Snort finished with the Kalamazoo guys he got in our slot when we were still flying the 6 of Diamonds. Fun times.

What position are you flying in the photo Jim? Could you hear the F-14 over your engine?

Chappie

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Grumman Cat Flight at Wings of Eagles Batavia NY 1996

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