So, How Was The Airshow Last Weekend?

As I mentioned about eight days ago, the Camarillo Airport, Southern California CAF, the local EAA chapter, and a bunch of other folks put on the annual “Wings Over Camarillo” airshow last weekend. It was my first experience working to help put on the airshow after many, many, MANY happy days as a spectator at one.

It was fantastic!

I took my video camera on Sunday (we’ll see what I can pull together from that, haven’t played much with video editing but this sounds like a really good excuse to do so, am I right or am I right?) but on Saturday had the DSLRs. I missed a few planes while they were in the air (such as the famous Flying Wing owned by the Planes of Fame, seen in our hanger here), but got to see most of it while running around taking care of my CAF thing.

Note: I did not get pictures of every plane flying and for the sake of making this post slightly less unwieldy and lengthy, I haven’t posted pictures of every plane I did catch in the air. Rest assured, there were plenty more. My apologies to those who aren’t show here.

A tiny two-seater.

Ultralights

To start the show, parachutists brought in a giant US flag, with three of them in wingsuits.

Judy Phelps, out of Santa Paula, performed a wonderful aerobatic routine in her Pitts.

One of the local bizjets showed off with a low pass or two.

The Wolf-190 (I think, about 99% sure).

Dr. D (Dr. Frank Donnelly) does old fashioned, slow & simple aerobatics in his 1946 Taylorcraft. It’s really hard to “show” aerobatics in a still shot, but this wasn’t too bad.

Three PT-22s, the older brother of the PT-19 flown by the Southern California Wing of the CAF. I don’t know who owns #596 and #146, but #269 is another CAF aircraft, from the 3rd Pursuit Squadron.

The Antonov An-2 “Big Panda” is flown by the CAF’s 3rd Pursuit Squadron out of Cable Airport in Upland, CA. It’s a Russian cargo plane of a similar era and design specification to the US’s DC-3. Low, slow, built like a tank, can carry a ton, and can (literally) land and take off from a football field.

Clay Lacy’s Pilatus PC-6 is another great “bush” STOL plane. (Short Take Off & Landing)

Flying in formation we have the B-25J “Executive Sweet” (based at Camarillo) along with five CJ-7s.

P-47 Thunderbolt

British Spitfire, the plane that won the Battle of Britain. (This one is a SoCal CAF aircraft, one of only a handful still flying.)

A P-39 Airacobra, “Pretty Polly.”

The B-25J “Executive Sweet” up close on a low, high-speed pass.

The CJ-7s pass in review.

A Grumman Albatross, originally designed for air-sea rescue missions.

A group of Navions doing their right break.

Two of the Condor Squadron’s AT-6s, based out of Van Nuys. These two are painted with German markings.

C-53 Skytrooper, another CAF aircraft, this one operated by the Inland Empire Wing out of Riverside, CA. Note the guy in the door near the rear – he had just dropped a test marker to see where the wind would blow his paratroopers when they jumped out on the next pass.

Another Condor Squadron AT-6, this time painted in US markings.

And yet another.

The D-Day re-enactment was done with the old style round parachutes, the kind that were used in World War II.

Not nearly as maneuverable as the newer wing-shaped parachutes. (See the one used to bring in the US Flag, above.)

Vicki Benzing does amazing things with her high-performance aerobatic aircraft. Again, tough to show in a still picture, but follow the smoke. She was spinning up to there, then did a sharp bank up towards there, where she did a hammerhead or some kind of stall or loop way up there, then came spiraling down that way, headed straight toward the ground. Yeah, things that shouldn’t be possible with an airplane, but she does them anyway.

To finish the show, a group of naval fighters from the Pacific theater in World War II took to the air. This is the SoCal CAF’s F6-F Hellcat.

This is a SBD Dauntless dive bomber.

One of the very, very few Japanese Zeros being flown still — again, a SoCal CAF aircraft.

The SoCal CAF’s F8-F Bearcat.

The SoCal CAF’s P-51D Mustang, “Man O’ War.” I can assure you, based on personal experience, this is one hell of a ride!

A Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, with the obligatory shark mouth paint scheme.

Our Bearcat and Hellcat passing by in formation.

Our P-51D comes in for a landing at the end of a very long, and very enjoyable, day.

I’ve heard rumors that some people can go to an airshow and not have a good time and come home with a huge grin on their (sunburned) face. I’m afraid that’s a concept that’s just alien to me.