RV over Phoenix NASCAR 50-year Celebration

[Scrabo]

Just curious, do these type of races warrant the stadium TFRs or is that just football games ?

[rvmills]

Great weekend of flying with a bunch of good friends from all over the country!

There was a TFR, and that is typical. Lots of prep and paperwork. While BeeGee runs the flight lead ops, Phil "Ripper" Lamb, Kent "Yobo" Yohe, Steve "Boomer Stuckey and Keith "Jazz" Schult did a heap of FAA, Airport, Tower, FBO, NASCAR, ground transpo and hotel liaison grunt work. Incredible effort! All the pilots did their share, as weather was a big factor…both getting there, and while there. Several pilots left a day or more early to be sure to be there for the event. Not everyone had that option, and 2 pilots were Wx cancelled beforehand (we missed 'em!). We had 1 Mx (maint.) cancel at showtime. In the end, we flew 51 aircraft (50 + photo). Great effort by everyone there to make it happen!

KC Flight always makes a great event out of these flyovers, and they were supported by Falcon Flight, Mid-South RVators, Rocky Mountain Renegades and West Coast Ravens (I'm sure I'm forgetting others…but just a great group!)

To add to what Scoot said on types, I did a quick count, and IIRC, it broke down about like this:
RV-4 - 5
RV-6 - 14
RV-S6 - 2
RV-7 - 6
RV-8 - 21
RV-S8 - 1
RV-9 - 1
HRII - 1

Here's a pic from the planning page. This is an iteration before the Wx and Mx cancels, but gives you and idea of the line-up. KC Flight had others that showed the build-up, flyover and break-up stages as well.



The logistics behind getting 50 airplanes off the ground together, over the target, and then separated and back on the ground is a real choreography. It was a great plan, very well flown! And FUN!

Cheers,
Bob

[PCHunt]

Sorta like an "Alpha" Strike w/o the Sams.

More paperwork, maybe!

[edsong]

Check Gash's post #31. Looks like a bomb blast in the smoke trail of the white RV-8. Looks cool. Very impressive flyover. I was watching the race on tv and a friend of mine called and said it looked like a bunch of my planes flying over Phoenix. I'm a month away from flying my 8. Good job KC flight.

[acroflyrgirl]

I don't know how Bee Gee, RIpper, Jazz, Boomer and Yobo got it all organized on such short notice but somehow they did.

The KC Chiefs BCA flight last Oct by comparison had at least 5 mo. to prep.
I'm guessing that putting together the PHX flight was only possible due to having already done a bang up job on the KC Chiefs flight earlier.

Y'all made Cat Herding look easy.

Weeble

[flyboy1963]

I don't think we can estimate just how much goodwill this type of flight spreads....especially during last years sequestering.
You've just shown that 'those little plane guys' are competent, capable, patriotic, and want to share the freedom of flight with everyone else.

For a little while, at least, we aren't just a bunch of rich playboys who zoom around disturbing the peace and polluting the air.

thanks to everyone involved!

[JoeBlank]

Originally Posted by flytoday

Jay Pratt in the middle? Wish I saw it in person. I did capture it from FOX onto a DVD. What a great job by all! The drivers were obviously impressed.

Carl

That would be Steve "Shifty" Payne in Juliet 1.

And +1 on the excellent organization by KC guys Bee Gee, Ripper, Jazz, Boomer and Yobo, as well as Leads skills of BeeGee, Falcon, and Nasty... Well done!

[RV-4]

Fantastic job Guys..well done ..

Send it to a few of my ex-Air Force buddies, they were impress..

On a different note ,Please find a new Trumpet player...wow that was painful

A+

Bruno

[Scrabo]

Originally Posted by RV-4

On a different note ,Please find a new Trumpet player...wow that was painful
Bruno

+1. That was bad

[scard]

Originally Posted by RV-4

Fantastic job Guys..well done ..

Send it to a few of my ex-Air Force buddies, they were impress..

On a different note ,Please find a new Trumpet player...wow that was painful

A+

Bruno

Immediately after our debrief was over on the ramp, we were looking at youtube video put up by a friend of mine and the general consensus was "Man, there is no way we looked any worse than that trumpet sounded." Formation flying is all about "Don't let it be you." Many thanks to the trumpet player .