July 2006 Edition Chapter #407

 

                                                             www.eaa407.org

South East Idaho Officers:

    Austin Moses, President

    Jerry Phillips, Vice President

    John Bakken, Treasurer

    Pete Stewart, Secretary

    Harold Mothersill, Website

    Dale Cresap, Newsletter

------------------------------------------------------------------------

President's Message:  

Next meeting:  July 15th, 2006 @6:00 pm, IDA.  We're still working on the Lancair representative for the meeting but it is still tentative, so stay tuned.  We'll have a substitute if that doesn't work.

 

Dale Cresap is putting together a YE rally for the morning of the 15th also.  Please help if you can.

 

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful flying weather.  If you're heading to Oshkosh later this month, be sure to down load the NOTAM or I have a hard copy if you need it. 

 

Austin Moses

President

 

Young Eagles

A Young Eagle rally will be held at Idaho Falls airport on July 15. I am only expecting 25 to 30 kids but we will be able to use all the help we can get, both in the air and on the ground. Pilot briefing at 0845 at the Red Baron log hangar.

 

Editor’s Column

Hill Airshow June 11

This is the second and final day of the air show at Hill AFB . This only happens every 5 years, and I kick myself for finding out a day late that I could have flown in if I had made advance arrangements. I ask around for a ride and find out that Koot is going. We are to meet at Dad’s truck stop at five – stinkin’ – thirty. I am there first, others arrive, where is Koot? I introduce myself to some likely looking guys. Are you going to the airshow? Yes, then Koot arrives, and we all go down in Ed Johnson’s Buick. We arrive at the base early, and the cars ahead of us are being turned away. The guard is doing the same to us when Koot flashes his retired military ID and that gets us a go ahead. There is no charge for the show, but lots of security. I go through a metal detector and my small pack is searched. There is an amnesty barrel for those who brought knives or other contraband. There are hundreds of traffic and security people and other helpers.

 

We wander through the static displays, and I get a close look at a mini-gun mounted on a helicopter. It is a very simple Gatling gun, feeding at 7:00, as seen by operator and must rotate CCW, with the eject port at 8:00. Individual free floating breech blocks follow a helical track in and out. An electric motor drives it.

 

The show planes are parked behind a security barrier: B-25, Voodoo (P-51 Reno racer), MIGs, T-33 early jets. There are two C-5 and a B-52 which are static displays. Other popular items are an F-15, F-16 and the new F-22.

 

It is windy enough to keep the C-5 turbines turning, but the announcer promises that it will calm down just in time for the show. He is right, so this show is very well organized and has high connections.  The show starts at 10 and runs till 5 with only a few minutes of slack time.

 

The show begins with parachute jumpers, then warplanes from WWII, including a Zero, B-25, and Corsair. Time marches on to the Korean War with the MIGs from Driggs and an L-39. The air force puts on a display with its new Texan 2 turbo prop trainer, and they have a heritage flight with an old Texan. There are performances by Team Oracle, and other solo aerobatic pilots. The best of these is Greg Poe. He pulls straight up to a tail stand, and then yaws for 2 revolutions about a horizontal axis, making the airplane do contortions and unnatural acts that no airplane would ever want to do.

 

There is an F-117 fly-by, and heritage flights including a P-51, Phantom, F-16, and F-22 in close formation.

 

Sometimes there is more than one thing going on. I look behind to see an F-22 practicing behind the crowd. He stands motionless on his tail for some time then lays it over backward. There are some things you can only do with vectored thrust.

 

After a solo F-16 demonstration, the pilot comes to the fence to sign autographs. I don’t have anything for him to sign, but I do shake his hand, and chat with an A-10 test pilot.

 

The crowd is 300,000 yesterday, 200,000 today. There is plenty of room so it does not seem too bad. It is hot but not uncomfortable. The big B-52 and C-5 provide the only shade, and people are packed in under them.

 

The Thunderbirds are last, and I watch part of their performance from the parking lot, as the gang is eager to beat the rush.

 

There are big storm clouds on the way home. Perhaps it is better that I did not fly here. It was worth getting up early to come to this either way.

 

RXE Airshow June 17

I arrive at the airshow early and put up notices for free plane rides for kids. There is a good turnout for the show, which we selected to be our EAA meeting for the month, but I only see a few EAA members. Errol said he would try to make it here, and he does, but I do not see him. I do chat with Bob Hoff, Dan Pierce, and Terry Johnson, and look at the planes on the line. There is the Mustang named Section 8. Doug Driscoll must be close by. I have talked to him on the phone, but never met him, so I find someone in a ‘section 8’ hat and my hunch proves correct.

 

The show starts on schedule, and Doc Sugden comes over in his Fury for a few passes. There is not enough runway for him to land, but he does a touch and go. Danny Summers fires up his Skyraider and folds the wings to taxi past other planes, then extends them again. That is a handy way to taxi a large plane in a confined space. Bob Hoff flies a Husky and then a twin beech. The airshow takes on a somewhat LDS flavor when John Bagley announces that he got a day off from his mission to put on the show. He flies his King Cobra and his mustang, along with the Mormon Mustang and Section 8. They sound and look pretty good.

 

During a lull in the action I watch Greg Poe getting ready for his routine. He walks slowly along the runway moving his hands through the air, then pivots to go the other way doing the same thing. I realize he is choreographing his routine in his mind, then he gets in and flies it. It is spectacular as expected. The only thing to follow is a missing man formation. The announcer has trouble getting through the script without choking up.