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Small town air shows are fun for everyone

Saber25

Well Known Member
A year ago in September, the EAA chapter and the 1V6 airport committee planned a pancake breakfast and fly in. Often these events brought out a small group of local pilots; some even flew to the airport, had breakfast and shortly thereafter they departed. It seemed to me that the activities that we participated in decades ago such as toilet paper cuts, balloon busts, various take off and landing contests have disappeared from the fly in agenda. Since a primary objective of these gatherings is to draw enthusiasm for airplanes and airports I did not feel we were meeting that goal. I suggested volunteering my team mates from the Renegade Formation team to do flyovers well above Canon City with smoke and then do several passes over our runway in different formation configurations. High above the town six trails of smoke in the direction of the airport less than five miles away brought out a crowd eager to see what was going on. The EAA chapter was not quite prepared for what followed that morning and made several trips to the store for more eggs and pancake mix. This year our airport manager and committee procured a waiver for aerobatic and formation flight displays and we had our first real air show here at Canon City. By all accounts it was a resounding success and had coverage in three different newspapers complete with pictures. Our first pass with a flight of eight coincided with a dedication of our Vietnam War Memorial at the entrance to the airport and the council member making the dedication could not have been more pleased as were the spectators.
In this day and age of declining interest in aviation, I?m proud to be associated with a group that promotes our RV?s in flight and the spirit of what an individual can build and ultimately fly. Despite sequestration and cut backs by the big name aerial stars, the little towns and counties enjoy these shows and more often are profuse in their appreciation. It doesn?t get better than that.
This is my solo demo,warts and all on our final show of the year, but I had a ball and the audience had a chance to see what an initial investment of 23,500 in 1989 dollars can do.

Hans "Cobra" Miesler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8uJYaJFst4&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share
 
Love it! Pine Mountain Lake in CA had an Airport Day on October 5th. Some demo's, spot landing contest flour drop etc. All good fun and there seemed to be a good turn out from the local community.

I've pretty familiar with 1V6! Besides flying overhead on V244 fairly often, I've done a fair number of paradrop missions there in support of the Troops out of Ft. Carson. Nice little airport and I met some great people.

Did the restaurant ever re-open?
 
Cobra Airshow

Nice video with ground as well as airborne views. Well flown, BUT your hat was flying backwards the whole time.

Falcon
 
What you did for that community worked exactly as it did 90 years ago, when it was called barnstorming. We owe so much of what we have today to those folks coming back from WWI with their surplus biplanes. That formula worked just as well for you, it sounds like. Show up at some small town with an airplane, make a few passes over the town, land at a nearby suitable "airpatch" and wait for the crowd to show up. Next thing you know you have a whole new crowd of aviation enthusiasts.

I LOVE it! Barnstorming is dead! Long live barnstorming! You should head up the grass-roots barnstorming revival movement.
 
I don't have insight to what the total cost was to put on the airshow. I do know from a meeting I attended that it was less than $5000 at the time of our debrief. Some of the money came from various businesses and also the city budget. Our fuel supplier also chipped in.

I loved flying to Pine Mountain in the early 70's when it was still a development with lots to sell for $2500 and I wondered who would move so far up into the Sierra foothills. Last time I visited in the 90's no lots available and what was for sale was above my paygrade.

To the Shorts driver, no, the restaurant has not reopened altho this summer one of our pilots did have a coffee shop in that location.

Thanks for watching Stu, yep the hat is on backwards for advertising purposes but from a more practical sense, it allows better sighting when inverted or we do our double Vic break. The bill gets in the way then.

Hans
 
RV-4 Airshow

As an RV-4 owner I throughly enjoyed the video. Excellent flying showing the capabilities of the airplane. This is definitely one of the best RV-4 videos I've seen.
 
Nice video with ground as well as airborne views. Well flown, BUT your hat was flying backwards the whole time.

Falcon
I see those around Houston, too. Gotta find out where they sell those backward hats!!! ;) ;)

Very nice video and great see the RV demos at the airshows!
 
You've got my "Like" on this one. Well done and love the fact that you guys put on a fun, safe respectable airshow for the general public. Way to go! :D
 
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