2013 Fall Flying Festival

Yesterday was the Chester County Airport Fall Flying Festival. Nancy and I got there early and she kindly helped me clean up the plane.

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Within the first half hour, we have jets parked next to us and a classic car show behind us.

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Our son, Sean, is with the CAP detachment at the air show.

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The crowd arrives at 10:00 and the warbirds start flying. That's a Mustang climbing out.

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Lots of people stop by to look at and ask questions about the Velocity. After a while, we decide to close the doors and walk around the show a bit.

Here are some pictures as we stroll around.

There's even an Amish contingent

A Texan taxies past us

A Mustang thunders by on takeoff

This Lear 36 did 2 low passes. It was great.

These things look huge up close.

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After lunch, the air show starts. We pull the plane up to air show center to get ready for takeoff.

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My friend, Mike Fleck, has agreed to ride along and take photos and videos. As you will see, he is a real pro.

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You only get this close to a Mustang on a taxi from a spot like this. Gorgeous.

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A Mustang owner checks us out as we start up. I'd like to trade rides.

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We start our taxi up to the run up area behind a Long EZ owned by my friend, Mike Bem. We are to do two low passes for the crowd.

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We pull up behind Mike's Long EZ and do our run up.

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Here come the two Texans who are going out ahead of us.

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A nice shot of the Texan framed by my winglet.

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The air boss clears the Long EZ and me out for takeoff. Here we go.
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We're off!
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At 1,500 feet. we turn for downwind and look for the Long EZ ahead of us.

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There he is, turning base. Click on the picture to see him. Look for a white triangle.

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We turn base to final for a long approach and a fast low pass for the crowd.

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Short final and 175 knots. We lower the nose and get ready for a low pass.

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View of the show as we scream past.

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I can't help but grin as we complete a hard pull up, climbing 1,500 feet in a couple of seconds, then making a sharp turn to downwind for our second pass. Mike is going to get this one on video.

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This is a video of our pass taken by Rick Longlott, who was displaying his helicopter next to my plane. Thanks, Rick.

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Here is the same pass from the pilot's point of view, taken by Mike Fleck. You will notice that the camera's view drops down after we pass the crowd. We did a several G pull up and Mike couldn't hold up the heavy long lens.

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Once more around the pattern and we land.

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Mike took some cool shots as we taxied in behind the Long EZ. There was a lot going on.

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After we land, Mike and I pulled the plane back to our display spot. Can you tell I was having fun?

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After we parked, we got the cameras out for some shots of the warbirds as they did their thing.

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Mike got my favorite shot of the day. You need to click on this to see how great the detail is. This could be framed on a wall.

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Here are some of the other beautiful shots taken by Mike.

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Here are some shots of the folks at Chester County Airport who made this all happen. I got there at 7:45 to help out and there was nothing to do. They have really refined things this year.

Nice work guys!

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It was terrific show and I look forward to next year. If you are anywhere in flying range, you really should check it out.

Our next adventure should be a trip to Vermont in two weeks. Fingers crossed for good weather. Should be great pictures.

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