I just returned yesterday (6-21-04) from the Oklahoma Air show. We flew down in the TBM Avenger Friday morning, traveling south to avoid IMC conditions. On both Saturday and Sunday the air show was rained out in the morning, but cleared up by mid-afternoon so the aircraft could fly. Our TBM flew all three days of the show making many passes. Fortunately I was able to go to the official pilot's briefing on Friday so I got to see a behind the scenes look at how an air show works for the pilots. It was amazing how unorganized it all seems to be. An hour later, our pilot told me basically through all that talk, he found out in short, he just had to follow the B-25 that was flying in front of him. Anyway, so Saturday night, after the show, we all went to a huge party for the participants of the show. If you've ever seen the movie "The Right Stuff" it was exactly like the party the Mercury Astronauts go to in the last part of the movie; all except the dancers they have. Our party had the Blue Angels instead of the Astronauts though. :-) So, it was great sitting around talking to them about flying their planes. They sure are nice guys too. On Sunday, after the show, we went to a party at the "Officer's Club" on the military base in Ok. City. That was neat. I've never been to an "O-Club" before. We returned Monday afternoon after waiting around for several hours for the weather to clear. It was marginal VFR along some parts of the flight. We were able to fly over Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and that was very spectacular to see!
Pictures will be here soon! |
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