From: ritter@claude.ma30.bull.com (Roger Ritter)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: Airshow Report
Keywords: Frecce Tricolori, U-2, Gee Bee
Date: 27 Jul 92 13:56:22 GMT
Organization: Bull HN Informations Systems Inc.

On Saturday,, 25 July, I flew Rocky down to Westover AFB in Springfield,
Mass for an airshow.  About halfway there, it became obvious that I
wasn't going to be landing at Westover anytime soon, since I could see
that practically every valley in western Mass was full of fog.  As I
got close enought to pick up the ATIS, they were calling a 200-foot
ceiling and 1/2 mile visibility.  

Since south and east of the area was clear, I hung around out there
listening to the tower.  He was working instrument arrivals, and
they were breaking out just at minimums on the ILS.  At least one
missed.  After I waited for an hour, just flying around enjoying the
scenery, the original fly-in arrival deadlne had passed.  I was also
starting to dig into my fuel reserves, so I headed over to Southbridge
for some fuel.  Just as I was leaving, the tower announced that the
arrival deadline had been extended for an hour.

I shut down at Southbridge after 2.25 hours flying time, and refueled
the airplane.  Back in the air, Westover was still IFR, but much
better than before -- 400 broken and 2.5 miles visibility.  I asked
for a Special VFR clearance, and was told I was number 9!  About ten
minutes later, I was cleared into the control zone, and just as I
turned final the tower announced that the field was VFR.  I landed 
on 33 (the short crossing runway - only 7000 feet, as opposed to the
11000 foot main runway), and taxied for a mile and a half past the
airshow static display and crowd area.  Then, after I shut down, I
had to walk a mile back to the show, since the shuttle for fly-ins
had stopped running at the original deadline.

The static area had lots of the usual stuff, plus a few nifties.  The
F-117A had a double-rope barrier around it, ten feet apart, but had
maintenance stands set up outside the rope so you could get a view
of the plane from above.  First good view I've had of the exhaust
ports.  Two or three C-5s were open to view, as well as a C-141, 
KC-10, and a Post Office 727 in a red, white, and blue paint scheme.
An Australian Air Force C-130 was there, plus a couple of Canadian
birds.  The B-1 had a fresh paint patch on the left side of its
nose.  I asked the pilot, and he confirmed that they had been told
to paint out their nose art before coming to the show.  This was
apparently a decision by their wing commander, since the B-52 was
proudly displaying its art (MissBehavin', after a WWII B-17).

Aerial demos began with the Golden Knights black team flying in the 
colors (both Italian and American).  The Gee-Bee then flew a short
segment.  This is a replica of either the R-1 or the R-2 (I forget
which, although they announced it at the show).  The narrator (the
pilot's wife) mentioned that the airplane flies much better than
its reputation would suggest.  The landing, however, lives up to
the tales told.  On the second flight, the pilot almost lost it on
landing, and scraped a wingtip and aileron.  The damage apparently
wasn't much, and he left it un-repaired as a reminder to pay
attention!  The plane lands at 120, in a wheel landing, and the tail
drops at 85.  With the short, barrel-shaped body and big round engine,
it's almost completely blind on the ground.  He flew a longer
display later in the day, and plane seems to handle aerobatics
quite nicely.  It rolled well, and flew knife-edge spectacularly.

Military demos included the U-2, showing outrageously steep climb
angles after takeoff, the Harrier, simply being outrageous (jet
fighters weren't meant to hover, and it still looks spooky no
matter how many time I see it do that), an A-6 Intruder showing
various attack mission profiles, an F-16 simply showing how
maneuverable it is, several helicopter demos (Loach, Cobra, Huey,
and Apache, all doing recce/attack demos), and the Golden Knights
once again.

The highlight of the show was the Italian aerial demonstration team,
the Frecce Tricolori.  Their show was short but packed.  They fly
ten aircraft, taking off in two flights of five.  After a couple of
starting fly-bys, including 'showing the flag' with their red, white,
and green smoke, they flew a manueuver called the 'Apple', to split
up the big formation.  In this maneuver, all ten aircraft pull up
into the vertical, and split.  Five aircraft complete a loop to show
right, four loop to show left, and the solo starts a loop away from
the crowd (finishing toward the crowd).  This was the maneuver in
which they had a mid-air at Ramstein AB, a few years ago.  They
seem to have loosened up the solo's part to avoid a recurrence.

From this point till the end of their show, they always have something
in front of the audience.  Most spectacular was the solo's final
move, a lomcevak!  I've never seen this from a jet demo team.  The
colored smoke makes many of the maneuvers very pretty, but with
ten aircraft blowing smoke in light winds, it's difficult to get
good pictures throught the clouds.  As a final touch, the show is
flown to the sounds of Italian opera (and the narrator, of course).

Leaving by air was quick and painless, and I was tying down at home
only 1.2 hours after engine start.  Good weather certainly made a
difference, compared to the 2.8 hours to get down there!  All-in-all,
it was a great show, and if anyone has a chance to see the Frecce
Tricolori during the rest of their US tour, I heartily recommend
it.

-- 
Roger Ritter N1FZZ (R.Ritter@ma30.bull.com) PP-ASEL, AGI
1946 Luscombe 8A N71983 "Rocky"
Sheep do not so much fly as plummet!        NH CAP: Profile 49