Warriors Over the Wasatch - May 26, 2012

  When Ed was little, he always said he wanted to grow up to be a pilot.  He loves to fly.  Two of his first cousins went to the Air Force Academy and are commercial pilots now.  He greatly admires them.  All week he had been telling us about the Air Show at Hill Air Force Base this weekend.  We weren’t sure we wanted to fight the crowds but, well, you know, we’d do anything for him.  So we psyched up for the big day.  Saturday morning, he insisted he did not want to go.  He didn’t even want to get out of bed.  “What do you mean, you don’t want to go?  We’re going.”  He resisted tooth and toenail.  What is going on? 

With our handicap pass we were able to park right by the planes – right next to the building where DeRay used to work so we were fortunate enough to hear all his “war” stories.  “These kids guarding the gates and directing traffic were not even born when I retired from the Base,” he reflects. 

Our timing was perfect. 

 We had time to walk around and see all the planes and walk through the huge cargo plane before the show started. 

DeRay & Ed in cargo plane.

Off to war.

  We carried chairs and had ringside seats.  This is the first Air Show in three years so it featured some big name draws, including Dave Erickson dazzling the crowd with aerobatic flying in a Zlin Z-50, along with Mark Peterson piloting an old P-51 Mustang, the 3.5-ton aircraft flown during World War II.

Wings of Blue Jump Team from the Air Force Academy introduced the flag; then we sang the Star Spangled Banner, which always bring tears to Eddy's eyes.

The Wings of Blue Jump Team jumped with flares.

They land standing up.

 "Time is eventually going to work its magic and silence these great old warbirds," said Mike Berriochoa, Saturday’s announcer from Pasco, Wash. "But for as long as they fly, we’re going to enjoy them."  Pasco, Washington?  We should have asked him if he knows John and Marilyn.

Red Eagles (Pitts & Talon Eagle)

"Diamondback"/Mark Peterson P-51.  WW II Fighter Plane.
Came out in 1945, according to DeRay.

Dave Erickson Zlin Z-50

Red Bull's Kirby Chambliss (Zivko Edge 540

MiG-17 Russian Fighter

 Truthfully, it was breathtaking. 

After we had been there a little more than two hours, it started to sprinkle.  We were prepared with umbrellas and raincoats but DeRay thought it was really going to pour.  They invited people to go in the hangers if they desired.  Of course, they wouldn’t hold everyone, but some.  We headed for the car and got inside just as it started to rain hard.  “Good thing I watched the weather,” Ed exclaims jubilantly.  So that’s why he didn’t want to go.  Seventy percent chance of rain.  Sometimes it pays to be naive.  Think of what we would have missed if we had worried about the weather like Eddy. 

We ate lunch at home; messed around for a couple of hours.  It rained fairly hard here and snowed on the mountain tops – actually about 1/3 of the way down.  The Thunderbirds were scheduled to perform at 3.  At a quarter to, we decide to drive back up and watch from someplace close.  Grateful to find one empty spot, we park somewhere south of the base.  Very close.  Hang on.  What can we see from here?  The family in the next car was very obnoxious. 

We could tell where they were on the program from the performers.  DeRay figured they were running about an hour behind so we decide to drive back on base.  We parked even closer this time.  The rain really scared those handicaps off.  They searched our chair bags but didn’t have us spread eagle and run the magic wand over us front and back again.  “Weren’t you here earlier?”  “Yes.  We’re repeats.”  “Go on through.”  How could they remember us after scanning 100,000 people?  Are we that weird?  DON’T ANSWER THAT. 

We were even closer to watch the F-16 Thunderbirds in a precisely choreographed series of moves that included the neat diamond formation, knife-edge passes, maximum-performance turns, crossovers, inverted rolls and more — thrilling us half to death.

Catch the Radar Towers and the snow on the mountains.

 

"Those noisy buggers," Ed says.  The element of surprise.
This solo Thunderbird flies 1000 mph; coming in low he could break your eardrum.

 WOW what a show.

Warriors Over the Wasatch.

It’s a good thing Eddy watched the weather.  He can tell you what is happening in almost any city in the world and what the temperature was on this date, according to the newspaper, several years ago.

He’s our information center.