The media and practice day at the Indy Air Show on Friday June 11th went great, but heavy rains that fell in a short amount of time very early Saturday morning caused the car-parking fields to flood. The inability to safely park cars along with some additional weather issues caused the Saturday airshow to be cancelled.
The hard working volunteer crews at IAS developed a plan to use the second runway and taxiway for car parking on Sunday. This involved building a road along with loads of other logistical changes that all took place thru the day on Saturday. By Sunday morning the weather had improved and the Mt. Comfort Airport was ready for an airshow!
I've picked some of the better pix that I took of Sunday's airshow, and while they are shown in order, they don't represent anywhere near all of the acts that performed. I wasn't able to catch everything, and my telephoto lens isn't strong enough to do well with the smaller akro airplanes. You shouldn't have any trouble telling tho that the Indy Air Show is a big-time event.
Fortunately it hadn't rained any on Sunday morning, but the day started with the clouds just barely high enuf to get the airshow started. As a result, the opening flag jump was not able to use the mega flag as planned, and instead this 'little' one had to be used... that is if you consider a flag several times bigger than a parachute to be 'little'! After the struggles of Saturday, this airshow-opening flag jump was a really beautiful sight no matter what the flag size : )
Here's Kent Pietsch in his little Interstate Cadet doing his comedy routine. Like we talked about in my podcast with Kent a few weeks back, he drops the right aileron off the airplane early in the flight and then flies aerobatics with just the left aileron. It's all very well done, and very entertaining. It works especially well since the announcer stand has Kent patched thru and a funny convo takes place as he goes wacko in the sky.
A big black Waco with smoke pouring out the exhaust would have to be Kyle Franklin! Between the smoke, the huge radial engine sound, and the way Kyle pushes the airplane around the sky, it's modern akro with a heavy dose of early barnstorming. The airplane looks really cool here with the sun reflecting off the lower surfaces.
I guess Matt Younkin wanted to be sure he could make more smoke than his brother-in-law Kyle Franklin by having two big round engines! The Twin Beech airshow is always a crowd favorite.
Wow, that's a lot of smoke! I did a podcast interview with both Kyle Franklin and Matt Younkin several months back and got some great insight into what it's like for them flying these big ole airplanes. These guys are doing some of the best work on the airshow circuit.
More Kent Pietsch... this time doing act #2: landing the Cadet on the moving platform. I watched him do this several times at the event, and I gotta say he's really really good at it! I've also got a post coming in the future with some behind-the-scenes pix I took of him doing this that are extremely awesome, I think you'll like 'em a lot.
This was pretty cool... after successfully landing on the RV, They drove it right in front of the crowd on the taxiway with Kent outside the airplane and the engine still running on the Cadet. It made a nifty way to show it off to the crowd, especially since the airplane is up high where everyone can see it. Shortly after, they pulled back on to the runway and he made a takeoff from the RV so the airplane would be on the ground again for his deadstick routine a little later.
I think this picture of Amanda Franklin on top of Kyle's Waco is amazing... partly because of all the smoke, but mostly because Amanda looks so comfortable and 'into it' even as the airplane begins to slide backward! They do a fantastic wingwalking act, and it's just extra sweet that they are husband and wife.
The 'Pirated Skies' fly-by! How cool is that?!
As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, Kyle and Amanda take the wings and tail off of the big black Waco and put it in a trailer to get to the next airshow. I had the cool opportunity yesterday to get pix after the show of the entire disassembly procedure. Watch for a detailed post coming about that before long.
This gorgeous B-17 Flying Fortress (Yankee Lady) was rebuilt and is operated and maintained by the Yankee Air Museum in Michigan.
Yankee Lady is very special to me because I got to go for an incredible ride on Friday evening over downtown Indianapolis. I got some amazing pictures during the ride, check out at this link: B-17 'Yankee Lady' Ride!
The F-18 Super Hornet taxiing by on the way to the end of the runway for a hardcore aerial demonstration. I like to feel the ground shake!
This was the first time I've ever caught the shockwave vapor in a pic. Not too bad for the first time : )
And then a couple minutes later I got this one! If I had a better lens, this would have been my best pic ever. It's still pretty cool because the light was hitting it all just right to create a bit of a rainbow effect, and a sparkle off the windshield. It's really interesting looking at the way the moisture forms on the top of the wing as well. Super Hornet!
These three P-51's are the Horsemen Aerobatic Team. Authentic WWII Mustangs flying close formation aerobatics to a musical score done by James Horner, the composer who did the music for films like Avatar, Titanic, Braveheart, Apollo 13 and more. I posted the video with the story and the music here: Video: Horsemen Aerobatic Team - Why We Love The P-51 Mustang.
They had just strated up and were heading out to take off and loiter as the A-10 flew its demo.
The A-10 followed them out shortly after and then went right into his demo. The pilot is Major Johnnie "Dusty' Green from the Air Combat Command's A-10 East Demo Team based at Moody AFB in Georgia. I talked with Major Green shortly before his demo about doing a podcast interview, and it looks like we'll get that done in the next week or two! I'm really looking forward to learning more about the Warthog from the pilot's perspective.
Here's the A-10 in the midst of a high speed roll maneuver. The A-10 has a unique split-aileron design that allows them to function in several different ways. You can tell just a bit in this pic that they aren't positioned as they would be in a normal aircraft. It'll be interesting to talk with Major Green to learn more about how these unusual control surfaces work.
There really isn't much that needs to be said about being able to see three perfect P-51 Mustangs in tight aerobatic formation. The sight, the sound, and the history that it represents is astonishing. If you ever have the chance to see the Horsemen fly, do it.
Two of the Horsemen then joined up on the A-10 to do an Air Force Heritage Flight to wrap up the 2010 Indy Air Show. It was a beautiful way to end a beautiful day.
Even tho the event had some serious challenges due to the weather on Saturday, it was a great success on Sunday, and best of all it raised money to support children's charities in central Indiana. I met a lot of wonderful and interesting people this weekend and I'm already looking forward to 2011 IAS : )
Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 06:29PM 
