Snowbirds

[Tom Martin]

This past weekend we had the Wings and Wheels Airshow as the St.Thomas Airport. It is billed as the largest air show in Canada and I found it to be a spectacular event. We had, to name a few, F18s from Canada, US F15s, F16s and an amazing c-17 transport plane. The pilot stopped that mammoth aircraft in about the same runway distance as the rocket!
The final act was the Canadian Forces nine plane formation Team, the Snowbirds. It is a show of grace and beauty that keeps the crowd in awe for 30 full minutes. Years ago I had the opportunity to do a media flight with the Snowbird team and it was the flight of a lifetime. This year I was working as a volunteer at the show and my job was to make sure the Snowbird pilots and ground crew had what they needed to make their stay enjoyable. I offered a ride in my rocket to the crew and two of the pilots were eager to try out prop flight. It was indeed and honour to give a ride to Captain Brett Glaeser and Captain Marco Rusconi. Both pilots were in awe of the performance of this plane and felt that it handled more like a jet then any other plane that they had flown. I relish the times when I have experienced pilots in my plane and I always ask for constructive criticism of my airmanship and the only comments I received this time was that I did not use the entire runway that was available. By that I mean that I purposely made an intersection departure and landing. It was a valid comment and I will certainly take it into consideration in the future.
After the flight I spend a few hours over lunch with the guys and I think I have converted at least one of them to consider our world of flight as the converstion had drifted to side by side vs tandem, four cylinder vs six cylinder. We all know where those type of questions can lead!

[RickWoodall]

Pretty cool Tom.

Having a couple Snowbird aces take your homebuilt rocket for a spin is a great story and pic to have. Dont suppose they let you try theirs?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHMck0p3NtY

[Bob Axsom]

All I can say is, "I know that guy Tom Martin!" I've also seen the beautiful show put on by the Snowbirds - I don't know which impresses me more.

Bob Axsom

[B25Flyer]

I talked with Marco alot about the Rocket at Airshows in ND and Barksdale this year, I couldn't get him a ride, glad you did. Harb Brown the A-10 west demo pilot flew '84 once with me and then I let him solo it...

He loved it and had similar comments, but he got some wheel pant shake and it scared the **** out of him. It did me too the first time it happened....

Tailwinds,
Doug Rozendaal

[Tom Martin]

Here are some pictures from my ride 10 years ago. Sorry for the file size but that reminds us how far cameras have come in just ten years.

[Kevin Horton]

I was lucky enough to get a ride with them many years ago during one of their last workup flights before the airshow season started. What an experience!

The formation changes in the middle of the aerobatic manoeuvres were what impressed me the most. They fly with several feet of wing overlap. During one of the changes, the aircraft I was in had to move ahead one position, to fly off the wing of the guy that was directly ahead of the aircraft we were currently flying off of. My pilot pulled up about three feet so our wing would clear the guy whose wing we were on, went to full throttle to move ahead one spot, then a quick slam to idle/speedbrakes for a microsecond to kill the extra speed, and dropped down in our new position. All done in less time than it takes to read it. The rejoin after the bomb burst manoeuvre is a sight to behold as well.

Unlike the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels, the Snowbirds hit the road without a support Herc. They've got one spare Tutor that has a big box bolted in where the right seat would be to carry spare tires and a few large tools. Each of of the other aircraft carry one pilot and one mechanic, and they have room for a tiny bit of luggage. They head off on the road, and it could be several weeks before they get back home again.