Starting the New Year off with an air show
The Cable Airport’s 34th annual air show Jan. 10-11 2009
By Victor Archer

Cable Airport (CCB) in Upland, Calif., hosted its 34th annual air show Jan. 10-11. The event featured plenty of top notch aerobatics performers including Dr. Frank Donnelly, Doug Jardine, Jon Melby and the return of Rob Harrison. The show also featured skydiving teams, several WWll aircraft, a radio controlled aircraft demonstration and a large antique, classic and hot rod car display.

Each morning before the crowd of air show fans roll in Maniac Mike's Cafe gets ready for their annual pancake breakfast. A long line of antique cars, classics and hot rods fills in the car show section, local aircraft owners roll their planes out of the many hangers that line the taxiway and the vendors get ready to show their memorabilia and souvenirs.

Skydivers from the Freedom Parachute Team start the show off by exiting their Cessna 182 aircraft about a mile high to begin their 120-mph freefall, dropping 3,500 feet. Just after their chutes open, the American flag was suspended below one of the skydivers as the national anthem played.
Doug Jardine was the first aerobatic performer of the day. Jardine's aerobatic career started when he went for a flight in a friend’s Pitts S2A biplane in 1982 and Jardine entered his first aerobatic competition in 1990. One of the things that makes his demonstration unique is the sound of the airplane; unlike most aerobatic aircraft that use in-line engines, his Russian built Sukhoi Su-26 is powered by a nine-cylinder supercharged radial engine.

"Dr. D" was up next in his 1946 clipped-wing Taylorcraft T-Cart. A proven performer, Dr. Frank Donnelly started flying aerobatics in a World-War II-era PT-26 Fairchild trainer and graduated to a 1952 British Royal Air Force Chipmunk, he has flown over 100 performances at over 40 different air shows and holds a ground-level waiver. Donnelly's unique, old-time aerobatics demonstration includes a series of graceful loops, rolls and maneuvers inspired by air show great Duane Cole, who wowed spectators flying his clipped-wing Taylorcraft back in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Donnelly finishes his aerobatics routine by climbing to safe altitude and shuts off the engine, he dives straight down to pick up enough airspeed for a series of aerobatic maneuvers, before making a dead-stick landing and rolling to a stop in front of the cheering crowd.

Next Corona RC Club put on a great demonstration with their radio controlled scale model aircraft. The planes covered a great range of powered flight, from a Piper Cub to a jet-powered model. Several of the aircraft were exact scale replicas of some very interesting and unique aircraft which included a Stearman biplane, Pawnee tow-plane, A-26 Invader a Taylorcraft and aerobatic aircraft like the Extra 300 and the Sukhoi 26.

The return of Rob Harrison (the "Tumbling Bear") Harrison got back in the cockpit of a Czech Republic Zlin 50LX making this his first air show appearance since his accident last year. Harrison crashed while performing his 12-minute routine at an air show at the Modesto Airport May 10, 2008.
The crash was the first for Harrison, a veteran pilot than has flow at over 300 air shows. The 66-year-old pilot was performing horizontal rolls about 100 feet above the ground when he lost control of the plane and it crashed in a grass field, far away from spectators.
Harrison hitched a ride to the aircraft in a golf cart, and used steps to get up into the cockpit, but he flew a very good short version of his regular aerobatic routine.

The next aerobatic performer Martin Kennedy learned to fly at Cable Airport and Rob Cable sold him his first airplane, so flying his aerobatics routine at this Air Show has a great significance for him. He is flying a 330 hp Stuadacher S600 with a smoke system. Kennedy flies one of the most athletic 10g routines you will find his routine is full of spectacular tumbles, torque rolls, snaps and outside maneuvers. His routine opens with 8 continuous snap rolls into a -7g spiraling tower, which appears to send the airplane flying backwards.

Next, an opportunity for local pilots to fly their aircraft and a chance to see some of the WWll aircraft that flew-in for the show. Among the many local aircraft that went up were a Ryan PT-22, Boeing PT-13 Stearman and North American T-6, as well as formation flybys from a group of Vans RVs.
Heavy Metal, American WWll aircraft and a foreign visitor went up for some fly-bys.
D-Day Doll, the Inland Empire Wing of the Commemorative Air Force flew their Douglas C-53D Skytrooper and the Pacific Princess, a 1943 North American B-25 Mitchell also made a pass over the field. The unique visitor to the show was the Australian built
Commonwealth CA-25 Winjeel which several passes in front of the large group of air show fans. The highlight of the Heavy Metal group was the beautifully restored North American P-51D-25NT Mustang flown by Nazzi Hirani, Hirani made a few high-speed passes and after he landed the Mustang was parked on prominent display right at show center.

Before the flying resumed, a parade of classic cars came down the flight line and through the crowd. A steam-powered car and a large group of Model A and Model T cars and trucks as well as many classic, hot rod and muscle cars all passed in front of Hirani’s Mustang and disappeared through the crowd.

The next two groups after the break were the Just in Time Skydivers and The Freedom Parachute Team. The Just in Time team of 16 jumped as one group and then formed up to create a diamond formation before splitting off. After the skydiving exhibition, all four of the aerobatic pilots went back up for another round of demonstrations.

The Cable Air Show, formerly, known as the Pomona Valley Air Fair, is traditionally held in early January, making it the first local air show each year. Staffed entirely by volunteers, the event is a major fundraiser for the year. The money raised goes to scholarships awarded to deserving aviation students. For more information about Cable airport please visit their website:

http://www.cableairport.com