The Second Annual California Capital Air Show
Saturday, June 9^th, and Sunday, June 10^th, 2007

 

I attended the air show on Sunday. I decided to ride my bike this year as it took forever getting out of the parking lot at the end of the show last year. Getting there wasn't bad but after having walked and walked and sitting in the sun for several hours, the ride home was not fun at all. Also the organizers had improved the traffic flow to the point where there wasn't much delay getting the cars out of the parking lots. So next year I intend to drive again. Then at least if there is a delay, I can sit with the air conditioner running.

There was a high, thin overcast most of the time so there wasn't the nice deep blue sky as a background this year. It did clear up now and then and I got a few shots with blue sky.

The Warbirds were not here this year which was a little disappointing but there was a demonstration of the F-22 Raptor. This is the most amazing fighter jet I have ever seen. It can fly straight up of course but then while appearing almost motionless, pitch over to the horizontal position. It then did a controlled flat spin, like doing donuts in your car, with no perceivable horizontal motion. It was descending during this maneuver. Another impossible maneuver it can do is what I would call an in place loop. Again it would fly straight up and almost come to a stop, then do a loop where the nose of the plane would stay at the same point in the sky through the whole loop. Kind of like the second hand of a watch with the nose of the plane at the center. Yet another impossible maneuver: fly straight up, come to a stop, then do a controlled decent backwards, pitch over to normal flight as if nothing special happened. There's a website for this plane at www.f22-raptor.com.

I missed the first couple of demonstrations but I did get to see the wing walker. That was pretty cool. And of course the Thunderbirds who were grate. The official Thunderbird website is http://thunderbirds.airforce.com/ .

 

On a sad note:

The California Capital Airshow lost two good friends during the past year: Chuck Lischer, and Lieutenant Commander Kevin Davis. These highly-skilled pilots played a significant role in the success of the 2006 show, and both passed away doing what they loved.

Chuck was lost last June while flying a U.S. Department of Defense research mission. He thrilled the audience at the inaugural California Capital Airshow with his performance in a Siai Marchetti F-260 Warrior.

"Chuck was a consummate professional and an extremely well regarded pilot by his peers," said Mike McCabe of AirSupport, which helped produce last year's show. "He was equally a nice guy, and we are all deeply saddened by his loss."

Kevin (callsign "Kojak") was lost while flying an F/A-18 Hornet in a Blue Angels demonstration at Beaufort, South Carolina in April. At the California Capital Airshow, he served as narrator for the Blue Angels' spectacular performance.

Everyone who interacted with Kevin prior to and during last year's show was impressed by his warm and friendly personality, combined with complete professionalism. He was the very embodiment of "an officer and a gentleman."

(copied from this year's program)