Tom Martin
Well Known Member
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!
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!
