Category Archives: Airshows

Finally having reached Day Five of our five day inundation (infestation?) of pictures from “Wings Over Camarillo 2015”, I’ll mention one last time that on Saturday I featured the CAF SoCal aircraft that flew, on  Sunday there were pictures of people watching that airshow, on Monday I showed the first of three days of pictures of other, non-CAF SoCal aircraft that flew, and, of course, yesterday I showed the second of those three days.

The CJ-7s that had accompanied “Executive Suite” (a B-25 bomber) made a final pass in review.

Chuck Aaron flies the Red Bull Helicopter through maneuvers that I was taught were impossible. I was told you couldn’t possibly roll or loop a helicopter, or fly it inverted. Good thing that no one ever told Chuck! He truly does amazing things with that machine!

Another plane type that I didn’t catch since I was often “on duty” during the show. There were several of them, they’re civilian, private aircraft, and they were REALLY stinkin’ fast on their passes. I don’t know for a fact that they were buzzing by even faster than the P-51s did, but it sure looked and felt like they did.

There’s no good way to get a still picture that portrays what’s going on in a great aerobatics routine. Even with a video, with the camera moving around and following the action, you just don’t get the scope of watching someone dance and paint smoke all over a huge box in the sky above you. This is but one of the reasons that I urge everyone to get to an airshow every so often – it’s good for the soul.

This (and the picture above) are Vicky Benzing flying the “purple plane,” which is a 1993 Extra Flugzeugbau 3005 aerobatics plane. It’s capable of plus-or-minus ten Gs.

The thought of ten Gs positive is daunting, since even trained fighter pilots and astronauts pass out at about seven or eight. Ten Gs negative? I’m thinking that might not be a good thing for me, even if the plane would be fine.

The P-40 Warhawk from the Planes of Fame Museum show the classic “shark mouth” paint scheme that was made popular by the Flying Tigers in Southeast Asia during World War II. My favorite story about the Flying Tigers (and I would have to hunt for a citation, it’s something I read as a kid) was that, in order to fool the Japanese into thinking they had far more planes than they had (they had very few), they would change the propellers and spinners (nose cone on the propeller) with ones painted different colors, thus making it look at a glance to be a different plane.

This is an all-time favorite plane of mine, and I haven’t seen one in a while. Maybe I watched too much “Black Sheep Squadron” as a kid (or as an adult) but I just love the F4-U Corsair (again, from the Planes of Fame Museum).

Finishing out the “Navy flight” portion of the show (along with the CAF’s Zero, Hellcat, and Bearcat, seen here on Saturday and Sunday) is the SBD-5 Dauntless from the Planes of Fame Museum. A rugged dive bomber, the Dauntless also has a distinctive shape with the rear-facing gunner (hidden behind the wing here) and the big, slotted flaps on the trailing edge of the wings.

Finally, when we first saw the MV-22 Osprey taking off for its demonstration flight on Saturday afternoon, I was seeing it through the crowd and got what I thought was a pretty neat picture as it rose up out of the huge cloud of dust that it had kicked up from its propwash.

It was a really great airshow! Join us next year – no date set yet, but probably the last weekend in August again, watch here for updates, of course. And remember, if you want to see a lot of these same planes (we’ll be there from the CAF) as well as the indescribable Blue Angels, there’s a big airshow at Pt. Mugu on September 26th and 27th, four weeks from now.

Now on Day Four of our five day deluge of pictures from “Wings Over Camarillo 2015”, a reminder that on Saturday I featured the CAF aircraft that flew, on  Sunday I showed pictures of people watching that airshow, and yesterday I showed the first of three days of pictures of other, non-CAF SoCal aircraft that flew.

The B-25 “Executive Suite” flew with a protective flight of CJ-7 fighters.

The P-63C Kingcobra “Pretty Polly” is a gorgeous plane. Not a whole lot of Kingcobras still out there, this one from the Palm Springs Air Museum.

Yesterday I identified this P-51 as “Red Tail,” which is incorrect. I remembered hearing that over the airshow PA system, but it must have been a descriptor, not a name. This is the P-51 “Bunny” from the Palm Springs Air Museum.

This is a very rare P-38 Lightning. As noted yesterday, only nine still fly of the over 9,900 built. This is “23 Skidoo” from the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, CA.

The P-47 Thunderbolt was basically a flying tank. This is one heavy, fat, powerful plane, with a lot of armor in the cockpit to keep the pilot safe(r). This might be “Squirt VIII” from the Palm Springs Air Museum, but if so, she’s sporting a new paint job.

The C-47 transport “What’s Up Doc?” is also a Palm Springs Air Museum aircraft. She’s used to drop the various parachutists during the airshow.

You’ve seen both of these aircraft, the CAF SoCal’s P-51 “Man O’ War” (on short final to land) and the P-38 “23 Skidoo” from the Planes of Fame. I just liked the way this picture turned out as it caught “Man O’ War” landing and “23 Skidoo” pulling onto its right base leg to follow.

One of the Red Bull jumpers, landing after exiting the C-47 over the field. With wingsuits they come down quickly before they pop their “sport” parachutes, which give them a lot of mobility and control.

I don’t know who this is. I didn’t get a program (I was running about, working the show), I can’t find anything about this plane on the airshow website, and looking up the “N-number” (N99JP, seen in two-foot high letters on the side) gives me a completely different type of aircraft than shown. This is a high-performance, aerobatic aircraft, possibly a Pitts. I’ll see if I can track down who it is and what the plane is.

One more day of plane pictures, tomorrow.

On Saturday I showed the CAF aircraft that flew at this last weekend’s “Wings Over Camarillo 2015” airshow, and yesterday I featured pictures of people watching that airshow. As I had mentioned, while I am partial to the CAF SoCal aircraft, since I’m on staff there as the Finance Officer, there were a lot of other aircraft in the air and other nice pictures taken. So I’m planning on sharing those pictures over the next three days.

I believe this is a PT-19 trainer, similar to ours (shown in Saturday’s article), but with a much less flamboyant paint scheme.

A trio of shiny Ryan PT-22 trainers, the PT-19’s more advanced model.

For an old fashioned, slow and graceful aerobatics show, Dr. D (Dr. Frank Donnelly) delivers in his 1946 Taylorcraft.

Three Navion variants. After World War II when they thought that everyone would have their own private plane just like they had a car, this was a key model developed for that market. It didn’t happen, obviously. Next year I’m hoping that there will be four Navions flying here – one was recently donated to the SoCal CAF wing and with a little bit of work she’ll be ready to fly again.

The Grumman Albatross, obviously a sea plane. Originally designed for sea search & rescue, this one is now used for advertising. It still makes a quite pleasant amount of noise on takeoff.

Part of the Condor Squadron, a group of T-6 Texans based out of Van Nuys Airport. These three are painted with German markings, but it’s still an Allied plane. Known as the T-6 Texan to the Army Air Corp, the SNJ to the Navy, or the Harvard to the Brits and Aussies, this was the trainer you moved into after you mastered the basics of flying in a PT-19 or a PT-22.

Sometimes the autofocus kicks in and you don’t get quite what you were expecting (that’s the “Red Tail” P-51 Mustang approaching), but…

…sometimes it works and you get a really great shot of a P-38 Lightning.  9,923 Lightnings were built, of which only NINE are still flying, with three or four in various stages of restoration. This is “23 Skidoo” from the Planes Of Fame Museum in Chino, CA.

Have I ever told my P-38 story from my flight training? I must have! No? Okay, let me check and get back to you on that.

Sometimes you catch something else stunning, in this case a pair of P-51 Mustangs roaring by in formation. On the left is the “Red Tail,” on the right is the CAF SoCal’s “Man O’ War.”  They do make a most distinctive and beautiful sound roaring by at 200 knots!