Permission to buzz the tower Sir!

[TXAZ]

yesterday at NAS Oceana


Click on the happy face above

 

[no2gates]

Years ago, when I lived in California, I was only about 15 miles from NAS Miramar where Topgun used to be.

 

[Vaquero]

Just a bunch of low class bombers here.

 

[Big Green]

Did Fat Albert perform as well?

 

[ILexpatriot]

Did Fat Albert perform as well?

Somewhere I have pics and vid of a Fat Albert JATO takeoff or 3. My mom used to work for a company that loaned out a couple cranes to hold the BIG American flag for the airshow in Springfield IL. They would give him Flightline chalet passes for it, but he never had time to go, so the tickets trickled down to me. We got to see the Angels, the Thunderbirds, the Red Arrows. And all sorts of things..

 

[ILexpatriot]

Anybody ever see this nut with a jet engine strapped under his Pitts? He was there a lot. The airshow is defunct now though.

 

[tangoparson]

Anybody ever see this nut with a jet engine strapped under his Pitts? He was there a lot. The airshow is defunct now though.

That wasn’t a pitts. It was a Waco UPF 7 slightly modified.

He was one of my early flight instructors. We grew up in the same small town. I spent a lot of time around that plane.

The Airshow isn’t technically defunct. Jimmy died in a crash at a show in Canada when his partner turned the wrong way during a formation performance.

His son Kyle carried on the family tradition with shows for many years but is on hiatus for now.

ETA





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[ILexpatriot]

That wasn’t a pitts. It was a Waco UPF 7 slightly modified.

He was one of my early flight instructors. We grew up in the same small town. I spent a lot of time around that plane.

The Airshow isn’t technically defunct. Jimmy died in a crash at a show in Canada when his partner turned the wrong way during a formation performance.

His son Kyle carried on the family tradition with shows for many years but is on hiatus for now.


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Thanks, I hadn't seen it in a long time and thought it was a Pitts special. As for the show being defunct, I was referring to the Springfield IL, Air Rendezvous. It hasn't been a thing for many years.. The way I understood it, the show was heavily supported by Garrett Aviation there in Springfield. And when they went out of buisness/sold/moved, there wasn't enough money/interest/support to continue the show..

 

[ILexpatriot]

To continue.. Mr Franklin's plane was quite the machine. The first time I saw the act we were just walking onto the grounds, and assumed that the jet was overhead out of sight while the biplane was flying low. It wasn't until he made a close pass that it registered that "that nut has a jet engine strapped to that thing!".

 

[Lead Belly]

That boy can fly that thing. wow. Nice share.

 

[tangoparson]

That boy can fly that thing. wow. Nice share.

Somewhere around 1970 Plane & Pilot magazine had an article that called him the greatest airshow performer ever. I thought so but this was before the Shawn Tucker et al generation so maybe….


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