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West Coast Ravens at the LA County Airshow 2014

rvmills

Well Known Member
The West Coast Ravens are excited to be performing alongside the US Navy Blue Angels this weekend (3/21-22) at the inaugural Los Angeles County Airshow! The show takes place at the William J Fox Airfield (KWJF), in Lancaster, CA!

Rehearsal is Thursday at noon, and gates open for the show at 9:00 am on Friday and Saturday. We're hoping to see a lot of our RV and VAF family and friends from SoCal, NorCal and across the southwest!! The show organizers have an exciting line-up of performers, and the Ravens are proud to represent the RV community in what will be an action-packed day of flying fun!

The Ravens will be flying a 6-ship show for this event...Rosie is our team coordinator for the show, and our line-up includes Wingmen Mike "KB" Smith, Paul "Rosie" Rosales, Brad "Tailwind" Ransom, Sean "Goose" Farrell, and Mercedes "Cougar" Eulitt. Our Narrator and standby pilot is Tommy "Turbo" Ishii. One unique feature of our line-up for this show is that we'll all be flying side-by-side RVs.

Link to the LACO show site is here, and here are a few pics to wet your appetite (photos courtesy, and copyright; LACO Airshow, US Navy Blue Angels, and West Coast Ravens):

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Rosie and Cougar are both local to the Palmdale area, and work for Lockheed-Martin. They made the LM news as part of the excitement building around the LACO Airshow. Here are screen shots of the article and pics. Perhaps Rosie can fill in some details on the article.

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Hope to see many RV friends at "Willie J Fox" this weekend!

Cheers,
Bob
 
I saw this show last weekend during practice. It is a nice show. The last pass (banana pass) is definitely at good photo opportunity.
 
Do they NOTAM the field closed? For those of us who want to come and go with our RV's

Here is the NOTAM for the WJF TFR. 1700Z-0000Z (1200-1700 local) daily, Wednesday though Sunday. We've been trying to obtain info on aircraft parking and static displays, and will pass that along if we're able to get good info. Turbo and I will be there for a site survey tomorrow, so hope to have more info. Weather looks to be great this weekend, so it should be a great show!

Cheers,
Bob
 
The Ravens practice runs as they arrived WJF were fun to watch today. Somebody in the group has a very interesting prop sound. They used it to good effect. I parked on the ramp and no one bothered me. Just another RV to them I suppose. Now getting back out Thursday May be more interesting. Weather forecast is perfect. It was good to see the Navy making noise out of tax dollars again.
 
Nick,

We saw your plane, but sorry we didn't get a chance to meet and talk today. Getting out tomorrow before the TFR goes into effect at noon should be no problem. Just be careful about where you start up and where you taxi...that show hot ramp will fill much more tomorrow with performers and display aircraft...gonna start gettin' busy!

We asked the ramp boss about static displays and visiting airplanes, and were told tonight that they don't have any ramp space to host transient aircraft. Fuel is NOTAMed unavailable as well. Looks like they are discouraging fly-in traffic. We hope folks will make the drive, or fly in to nearby airports, if possible, as it's a great show line up. Thursday is a full rehearsal (no entry fee ;)), and the Friday/Saturday forecast is good!

Goose thinks the cool prop sound is his fancy new Sensi. :cool:

Cheers,
Bob
 
I have an email from Rosie last night that says: "I'll be on ABC Ch7 news live at 0530 promoting the airshow." I am not going to get that in PA but the local SoCAL residents may be able to see it.
 
I have an email from Rosie last night that says: "I'll be on ABC Ch7 news live at 0530 promoting the airshow." I am not going to get that in PA but the local SoCAL residents may be able to see it.

Angelenos...Look for Rosie's taped interview to play again at 11:00 PDT!

Cheers,
Bob
 
No general aviation fly in availability/privileges

I was planning to fly in and watch the Ravens and those other guys in the blue planes but just heard back from the airshow administration:

Since this is a first year show, we are not having general aviation fly in availability/privileges. We hope to add it in the coming years.

Thanks for your interest and support!
LA County Air Show Team
 
For a public airport they sure made it sound private. I just arrived and didn't ask. Left today after the Navy finished. Ravens did an awesome job. Very professional. Tonight at Havasu. Bikinis not gust locks. Well, someone has to be here.
 
Thanks for your help moving airplanes around yesterday Nick...nice to meet you!

Security will be much tighter today and tomorrow, as the field closes for the airshow traffic, and PPRs are now required, per the airshow coordinator and ramp boss.

If you drive in, please come and find us over near the west-end aircraft parking area!

Cheers,
Bob

For a public airport they sure made it sound private. I just arrived and didn't ask. Left today after the Navy finished. Ravens did an awesome job. Very professional. Tonight at Havasu. Bikinis not gust locks. Well, someone has to be here.
 
Though it would have been great to see a bunch of RV fly-in visitors (the other thread on this 'splains why), the LA County Airshow turned out to be a really fun show! Combine the Blues' first show out of El Centro, with Kirby and the Red Bull gang, tons of warbirds, a flying wing, and 100K plus airshow fans, and it makes for a great weekend!

The flying was challenging Friday, due to winds, but the Raven team hung together and worked hard to make it a nice show. Saturday provided great conditions, and we just simply had a great time! We spent a lot of time with the local crowd, and had a little taste of what our friends at Team Aerodynamix must experience all show season...and we gained a lot of respect for the demands of large airshow that they work through regularly! From pre-dawn TV interviews to Chamber of Commerce Breakfasts, to community parties at the local AAA ball park, it was just a blast! Chatting with Blue Angels, F-22 test pilots, Skunk Works (the real one) engineers, and locals that love aviation was pilot nirvana, for sure! We tried hard to represent the RV community well.

Perhaps the most gratifying part was seeing the excitement and inspiration in the kids. Here's a couple shots at the autograph booth...lots of smiles all around:
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We were excited to wake up Saturday to see this on the front page of the local paper:
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Rosie and Cougar (Mercedes) got a lot of local buzz as local pilots flying as part of the airshow, as did our engaged couple flying as Raven 5 and 6 (Cougar and Goose)!

Thanks to KB Smith (2), Rosie Rosales (3), Tailwind Ransom (4), Goose Farrell (5), Cougar Eulitt (6), Turbo Ishii (7/awesome narrator), and Axel, Slick and Rabbit, for making this a great RV weekend!! Kudos to Tuppergal Rosales and Alisha Alvarez for lots of help and support too!

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Cougar, can I get a WOO HOO! (She says that a lot!) :D

Cheers,
Bob
 
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RV Formation team

I observed the RV Formation Team perform on Friday. They looked great as they made numerous formation passes in front of the crowd. Judging from the comments I overheard from spectators standing nearby I can say that the crowd was impressed.

Now that I have seen their team uniforms posted in this thread I can say they look just as sharp on the ground signing autographs. Way to go showcasing the RV airplane and your skills flying on formation!!
 
I observed the RV Formation Team perform on Friday. They looked great as they made numerous formation passes in front of the crowd. Judging from the comments I overheard from spectators standing nearby I can say that the crowd was impressed.

Now that I have seen their team uniforms posted in this thread I can say they look just as sharp on the ground signing autographs. Way to go showcasing the RV airplane and your skills flying on formation!!

Thanks for the kind words and feedback Doug! Here's the Team, looking like a 'TEAM' :D Rosie

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L-R: Turbo (#7, Team Narrator), Cougar (#6), Rosie (#3), Nasty (#1), KB (#2), Tailwind (#4), Goose (#5)
(Tommy Ishii, Mercedes Eulitt, Paul Rosales, Bob Mills, Mike Smith, Brad Ransom, Sean Farrell)
 
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