Jane and Charlie
Another sad day in the 2013 airshow season happened on June 22nd in Dayton. Jane Wicker was sitting on the “top” of the left bottom wing of her Stearman while Charlie Schwenker made a low inverted pass. Instead of...
Tagged: Canada
Dawn Blitz 2013- Ground Assault “A Multi-National Military Exercise”
One of the longest and largest military exercises to take place in Southern California. Along with the US Navy and Marine Corps, Canada sent several Royal Canadian Naval vessels, as well as a Infantry unit from Quebec. New Zealand...
Historic Landing of MV-22 “Osprey” on Foreign Ship
For most of the month of June, Operation Dawn Blitz 2013 will be happening off of the San Diego County coastline from Coronado to Camp Pendleton and will include exercises at San Clemente Island. Three Japanese ships are currently...
50th Anniversary Abbotsford Air Show!
It was August 11th and 12th 1962 when the very first airplanes took to the skies at Abbotsford International for an airshow. Fifty years later the show goes on, attracting demo teams from around the world to perform at...
Olympic Air Show 2012
Rain and clouds was not enough to keep air show fans from flocking to the annual Father’s Day Show that is put on by the Olympic Air Museum at Olympia Regional Airport. This show is put on by the...
Bigger, Bolder: Red Flag – Alaska
The name Red Flag has been synonymous with large scale flying exercises since the early 1970s. Originally developed at Nevada’s Nellis AFB to help pilots survive their first ten missions in Vietnam, Red Flag has become an important test...
Sacramento’s 2012 Aerial Firefighting International Airshow and Conference
My lone encounter with a large “wildfire” occurred five years ago while I was visiting Southern California. Watching a steady stream of tanker aircraft shuttle to and from a huge unnatural-looking cloud on the horizon, their bellies red-stained and...
The U.S. Navy’s Connection With Fixed Wing Air Tankers
After World War II ended, an abundance of surplus military aircraft found their way into the fledgling aerial firefighting industry. The combination of a large payload and the high performance of many bombers, attack aircraft, and transports allowed enterprising...
Amanda Franklin…. Gone West
Buddy Holly, J.P Richardson, Ritchie Valens, and their pilot Roger Peterson passed into aviation history one cold night in Iowa. Another famous flier Amanda Franklin passed on Saturday May 27th, 2011 at 10:10PM CST, joining the ranks of Marilyn...
Amanda Franklin…. A Flying legend
As we all know Amanda and Kyle were involved in a tragic fire and forced landing several months ago in Texas. Tragic is a word that is overused in our language, but it really fits here; there are few...
