Saturday, August 09, 2014

Salinas Airshow promises sizzle and salute to veterans

 

 Last year, thanks to the Congressional budget sequestrations, all of America’s military jet demonstration teams were grounded and prevented from appearing at airshows anywhere.

Locally, organizers of the California International Airshow Salinas agreed that the 2013 show wasn’t bad but that it lacked some of the normal aerial sizzle that a military jet team typically provides.

“Our mission each year is very simple: To produce a world-class, community-based airshow that benefits local charitable organizations. In our 34 years, we have become the most successful airshow organized to support charitable organizations in North America,” said Executive Director Bruce Adams. “We’re pretty proud of that.”

The Airshow – a non-profit, nearly all-volunteer-run event – is known for its philanthropy as much as for the fun and excitement of its aerial shows. Through its first 33 years, the show has raised more than $8 million for local charities.

The good news for this year is that the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds Flight Demonstration Team will be thundering back across the skies of the Salinas Valley.

The Thunderbirds are celebrating 60 years of performing for airshow enthusiasts around the world. The Salinas Airshow, however, will be just one of two places in California where the team will perform.

Based at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the Thunderbirds perform both aerobatic formation and solo acts and fly the striking red, white and blue F-16 C/D Fighting Falcon.

“It’s so great to have them out of sequestration and back into the air where they belong,” Adams said.

Some 50,000 spectators are expect to attend this year’s show, Sept. 27-28 at the Salinas Municipal Airport.

The two-day show will feature a couple of ground-based non-aviation acts that are guaranteed to thrill the crowd, too.

“Metal Mulisha” a motocross stunt team, will perform amazing jumps, twists and spins. Also, two monster trucks will crush cars and create generally fun mayhem. Kelvin Ramer will drive his “Time Flys” truck while daughter Rosalee drives ”Wild Flower.” Rosalee Ramer is the youngest known professional female monster truck driver in the business today.

But make no mistake, it’s what’s in the air that counts at an airshow and this year’s lineup likely will not disappoint.

Hometown hero and world-renowned aerobatics ace Sean D. Tucker and his bright red Oracle Challenger III biplane will be in the air stunning people with a unique routine that is athletic and balletic all at the same time.

Tucker, who started with humble local roots as a Salinas Valley crop dusting pilot years ago, now has more than 20,000 hours in the air and has received just about every honor and award there is to get in their aerobatics business – including induction into the National Aviation Hall of Fame and the International Aviation Air and Space Hall of Fame. Tucker also was named one of the 25 Living Legends of Flight by Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.

Tucker has flown more than 1,200 performances at nearly 500 airshows in front of more than 105 million fans.

“I like to think that I bring the fans’ dreams of flying into the plane with me and there’s nowhere I'd rather be than in the cockpit. That’s why I train so hard to keep a finely tuned edge,” Tucker said in a prepared media statement.

Tucker says his goal is to share the magic of flight with his fans.

“I want them to go away saying that the airshow was one of the most engaging days of their lives,” he said.

This year’s show also will feature a historical theme marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 – a day that marked a turning point in World War II and the eventual end of Hitler’s Germany.

“I think what I am most excited about, besides the return of the Thunderbirds, will be the historic warbirds that will be coming to salute the anniversary,” Adams said. “It’s an ultra-rare collection of historic aircraft that will be in the air with historical narration and backed by patriotic music.”

The Texas-based Liberty Jump Team will leap from vintage C-47s to give fans a sense of what D-Day must have been like as American and British paratroops landed all over France under wilting enemy fire during the invasion still considered the largest air and sea-borne invasion ever conceived or executed in the history of human warfare.

Adding to the historical aspects of the show will be the appearance of a rare operating B-25 Mitchell bomber named “Executive Sweet.”

Finally, in addition to what promises to be a stunning “static” display of a variety of aircraft old and new will be veteran aerobatic pilot Clay Lacy and his famous Lear Jet and a rare Russian MiG-17 fighter flown by aerobatic ace Randy Howell, founder and president of the Patriots Jet Team that wowed the airshow crowd last year.

Finally, Watsonville native Vicky Benzing will be flying her perfectly restored Boeing Stearman biplane.

IF YOU GO

The California International Airshow Salinas will be held Sept. 27-28 at the Salinas Municipal Airport. For tickets and other information, go to the show’s website at http://salinasairshow.com/ or call 831-754-1983. Gates open each day at 9 a.m. and flying begins at noon.

Source:  http://www.thecalifornian.com

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