Steamboat Springs — This year's Wild West Air Fest will be louder and smokier than ever.
For the first time, the air festival at the Steamboat Springs Airport will feature aerobatic shows.
Denver-based pilot Don
Nelson is bringing his Sukhoi Su-26, a supercharged Russian plane with
400 horsepower that first was built in the mid-1980s specifically to win
the World Aerobatics Championships.
"There'll be smoke and
noise, and it's fast and dynamic," Nelson said Thursday from the cockpit
of his plane after a practice flight. "I'll do loops, rolls and
tumbles, and lots of gyroscopic maneuvers."
His performance will span from the ground up to about 2,000 feet above the airport.
Nelson, who flies solo, is one of three aerobatic performances scheduled for the air festival here.
The Rocky Mountain
Renegades will do some high flying maneuvers and pilot Dagmar Kress, a
national aerobatic champion, will perform in her Pitts biplane.
The aerobatic show is poised to become a highlight of the annual Labor Day festival at the airport.
"That's a little bit of
what defines an air show," Airport Manager Chris Cole said about the
aerobatic flights. "When people think of these shows, they think of
planes doing loop to loops and flying maneuvers. In the past, when it
was more static, you couldn't draw people that wanted that aspect of it.
It's exciting and fun."
Cole said the Steamboat airport's altitude had made it more difficult in previous years to land aerobatic shows.
The show won't be the only thing having attendees craning their necks.
There will be flights by a 1941 Piper J-3 Cub, a 1943 Beechcraft C-45J, a Long Ranger helicopter and a 1945 TBM Avenger.
Dozens of other airplanes also will be on display at the airport.
That's not all.
Steamboat native Nissa
Brodman will talk about her experience flying Blackhawk helicopters on
medivac missions in Afghanistan, and Ian Runge will tell an audience
about what it was like to fly a single engine airplane over 11,000 miles
of ocean.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 30 and 31.
Air shows start at 11:30 a.m.
"It ought to be pretty exciting," local pilot Don Heineman said.
Schedule
Saturday, Aug. 30
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wild West Air Fest, Steamboat Springs Airport
10 a.m. Spot landing demo by the Piper Cub aircraft
10 a.m. Presentation: "DUSTOFF: One Pilot's Perspective" by Nissa Brodman
11
a.m. Tribute to the troops, Steamboat Springs Airport (including the
Steamboat Springs Civil Air Patrol cadets honor guard, missing man
formation in the air and skydivers)
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Airshow with aerobatics performed by the Renegades, and Don Nelson in his Sukoi aircraft
1 p.m. Presentation: "Flying a Single Engine Plane over 11,000 miles of ocean; You've got to be nuts!" by Ian Runge
Sunday, Aug. 31
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wild West Air Fest, Steamboat Springs Airport
10 a.m. Spot landing demo by the Piper Cub aircraft
10 a.m. Presentation: "Flying a Single Engine Plane over 11,000 miles of ocean; You've got to be nuts!" by Ian Runge
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Airshow with aerobatics performed by the Renegades, and Don Nelson in his Sukoi aircraft
1 p.m. Presentation: "DUSTOFF: One Pilot's Perspective" by Nissa Brodman
- Source: http://www.steamboattoday.com
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