At the Golden West Airshow at Marysville, California, my dad and I had a blast.  It was kind of hot and pretty windy but that didn’t stop us!  When we got there on Saturday morning, all our friends were already there and we decided to go with them to the pilot briefing.  Our friend Willie Turner was the air boss for the show and was telling all the pilots all the information they needed to know.

          We had a great time walking around and checking out all the cool airplanes that had come to the fly-in.  There were a bunch or WWII reenactors and they were shooting blanks with their rifles and machine guns! Then my dad and I chatted with super cool and fun guys Bill Cornick and Spencer Suderman for a little bit and ate some lunch (corn dogs – my favorite!)  But then it was time for the flying!

          Steve Stavrakakis was the air show announcer and boy, he sure does a great job!  The show started with the National Anthem when the Liberty Parachute Team jumper leaped out of the skydive plane thousands of feet up with a HUGE American flag tied to him and a Team Rocket member circled around him with the smoke on from his awesome Harmon Rocket.  Then Spencer went up and set the sky ablaze in his Pitts S2B.  After them, 3 AT-6’s took off and did some flybys and also a missing man formation for that great Reno racer, Al Goss.  Then Bill Cornick went up in his Pitts S2C and ripped the sky apart, wowing the crowd.

          After Bill, Team Rocket flew up in their two Harmon Rockets, pretty much an RV4 on steroids.  They make the aerobatics look easy, but they’re not.  They did knifedged passes seemingly inches apart from each other and those planes really moved!  Wow!

          Then Spencer and Bill rounded up the show with the last act, their Aerobatic Racing Challenge.  They defied gravity as their planes zoomed all around the sky.  My good pal Jon “Huggy” Huggins announced the race and he sure made it really extra exciting.  Bill won the race this time but don’t count out Spencer at the next race!

          The Golden West Airshow at Marysville was a great show.  We got some great photos and videos of the airplanes and had a great time hanging out with our friends and making new ones.  So be sure to be there for next year’s Golden West Airshow at Marysville!  I’ll see you there!

6/15/10