Two Pilots & an LSW: Wings Over Kokomo Airshow

Boy, this is a long post in theory.

Friday my friends Willie and Mimi and her husband Rob flew in in a Mooney. They were here last year for the BBQ Bash along with Dan, all friends from an internet forum I'm on. We call each other "Imaginary Friends". :) We had dinner at Pastarrific, and then they stayed at Chuck's house for the weekend.

Friday was our airshow practice day. So I didn't really see much of my friends most of the weekend, because we were busy every day of it. Most of our warbirds weren't able to make it. Our DJ got exposed to Covid and had to stay home. Our announcer got Covid three days before and had to cancel. Our race car driver had a family emergency and had to cancel. Most of our big warbirds canceled on us. Some overbooked, some went to Reno, some just didn't show up. So it was just...a mess. I was really worried this would be embarrassing. Our Bonanza formation clinic leader Glenn agreed to be announcer, and he killed it. He did a fantastic job. In fact, we didn't even have the National Anthem in our DJ stuff that he left for us even though he couldn't be here. So on Saturday Glenn went through the crowd and found a lady dressed in a pink "period-style" WWII dress and asked if she was a performer. She was, and he put the mic up to her and she sang the National Anthem on her own for the whole crowd on the spot. And she NAILED it. That was quick thinking on Glenn's part.

Back to Friday, practice day. Because we were missing the car driver, Steve asked Nathan to do it, but he didn't want to, so it was left to Steve. We went out and did a couple practice runs, getting the timing down, and that went all right. He smoked me on the first run, beat me on the second, and then we got the timing down. Scott and I went up in our Cubs and practiced the Model T race too, until we had the rhythm and timing of that down pretty well too. The rest of the performers went up and practiced their routines. We had a pizza party back in the hangar, and had a nice, late but nice, evening. It was one hot, muggy day. Hot, muggy weekend.

Saturday dawned hot too, and we were out there early getting things settled in. The ice cream had to be moved closer to a building because the machine required 60 amps, the generator wouldn't do. We had an airshow briefing at 8 am, that went to 9, and by 8:45 I had a text that my first rider was ready. I was to give rides in the T-6 and the C-45 as needed, with Nick doing rides in the PT-26. I ended up doing 6 rides in a row, right up until after twelve noon. Airshow was supposed to start at 12:30. I hadn't eaten, so the boys went and stood in line at our one food vendor that could make it, AllBQ. The rest of the food vendors said they didn't have the personnel to do a venue of that size, so we were grateful to get the BBQ joint. And the food was really good, actually! I got my food, stuffed it down, and then we were off and running for the show.

First up was the National Anthem, then JP doing a routine, then the little biplanes, and then Steve and I were up on the Corvette/T6 race. First run he tried to take off in 2nd gear, and that didn't go according to plan, but it wasn't too far off. The second run I told them to go. The flagger waved at Steve, who didn't go. He said he was staring at the flagger then got bored and looked away and by the time he went, I was on top of him, and I had to pull the power back, which everyone could hear. Glenn the announcer polled the crowd and asked who they thought won. The first was a tie, they said, the second I won. lol

While we were landing and finishing up, a Citabria was going up for his routine, and I was parking the T-6 and running over to the Cub across the ramp, getting a hand prop, and racing to the hold short line with Scott, so that we could take off for our Cub/Model T car race. That did not go according to plan either. He couldn't hear us on the radio, so nobody could tell him when to go. Then a Huey came in and interrupted our run in the other direction. So the good fun flow we had figured out Friday...didn't happen. But hopefully the crowd didn't mind too much watching the planes and old car go, even if it didn't go as planned.

I parked the J3 right next to the T6 this time, as the smaller warbirds were circling around, ran to the T-6 and buckled in, fired up, and took off with two C-45s. We did some formation passes, then did some banana passes around the crowd. Also had a bit of a struggle with that, but got there eventually. We landed and the last act, a Pitts, went up and did his routine while we shut down. After the show, I was sitting there, tired and sweaty, and Steve F came up to me and said "I have more rides for you!" So I did two more T-6 rides, then a C-45 ride, then one final T-6 ride. Final tally was I believe 10 T-6 rides, 1 C-45 ride, and three airshow acts. In case you're wondering, that makes for a long day!

We had leftover BBQ back in our hangar for dinner, and then everyone came home and collapsed for the night, ready to be back up early for Sunday's Young Eagle event. :)

These first photos are from Allen Simpson, Steve's Mom Ann's, Brother George's, Son. Got that? lol I thought he did a super creative and neat job with the photos!