Serious fire-power!
The Marines had an AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter on the ramp:
Serious fire-power!
A local Boy Scouts troop got to try out the machine gun on this Pavehawk
helicopter:
They even let the Navy come over and fly a routine in one of their jets.
Here he is doing a high speed low-pass over the runway:
A C17 Globemaster doing a surprisingly short field landing:
You can see in this picture how close the audience was able to get to
the runway.
After touchdown, the C17 stopped very short and then backed up down the runway
and took off again demonstrating a max angle climb:
I think there is some Bearhawk blood in this beauty.
Of course the show finale` was the Air Force Thunderbirds. Here are 4 of
the 6 lined up for a formation takeoff:
The Thunderbirds in a diamond formation did rolls, loops and various other
slow motion fly-bys and acrobatics without any noticeable movement between
them. These guys are awesome pilots:
What a great air show! The admission to this awesome show was FREE!!!
That's right, Keesler AFB is doing its part to help re-energize the
coast as we are still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina just over 3 years
ago. Estimates are there were 70,000 people in attendance. I am convinced
that about 10,000 of them stopped by to look at my Bearhawk and ask
questions.
After the air show was over, I was informed that to fly out of the air force base, I would need to file a VFR flight plan. Even though my home base airport is only 13 miles away, I was required to file a flight plan. So I rode over to Keesler Flight-ops in a golf cart and proceeded to fill out the form and submit it to the nice lady there. "Do I need to activate it with the tower?" I asked. She said "nope, we will automatically activate it for you when the tower clears you for takeoff.. Just make sure that you call Flight Service and cancel it when you get to your destination."
So, off I go, covering the 13 miles in about 8 minutes or so. After landing and shutting shutting down I call 800WX-BRIEF and tell the guy I want to cancel the flight plan for N57EN from KBIX to MS82. Guess what - he doesn't have a flight plan on file for me. After double checking, he told me not to worry about it. I asked him if I should call back in an hour or so? "Nope, you are good to go, have a nice day" Almost exactly one hour later my phone rings and its Keesler Flight -Ops wanting to know if I cancelled my flight plan. I explained to her that I called but they had no record of it. She sounded exasperated and asked if I would mind calling them again to cancel it. So I called 800WX-BRIEF again and this time they had the flight plan and gladly closed it for me.
So that's it - a great time was had by all and I gave the Bearhawk a lot of exposure. Think I'll have to get some handouts from Budd and Mark for all these little air shows I attend.
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