December 6, 2006

Mike Goulian, CAP232, Somewhere in Nevada

Wing-walking, air-splitting jet take-offs, and parachuting dominated this week's reader submissions, but after the dust had settled, we had to award this week's highest honor to Mike Shore of Austin, Texas.

Not only is Mike the second Texan in a row to win an Official AVweb Baseball Cap®, but he also managed to capture the spirit of this week's theme — excitement!

I Feel the Need ...

By not completing the thought, Wayne Dippold of Depew, New York formed a strong psychic bond with AVweb this week:  We're finishing his sentences, and he's predicting our heart-stopping theme for the current edition of "POTW."

Three Generations: The Kazian Family of Wing Walkers

Tim Adams of Minooka, Illinois snapped this shot at what he describes as "a one-time-only event" in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Sunburst

Jim Murphy of Norton, Massachusetts didn't have a super-sized version of this photo, but we're glad he submitted it.  The photo, Jim tells us, was taken "by a passenger on break-out on top."  The vertical lines seen here are the propeller frozen in time by the camera.

Kirby #1

What's more adrenalin-inducing than an air race?  That would have to be an air race sponsored by Red Bull! 

Brendan Searle of Kaleen, Australia was on hand for the Red Bull Air Race in Perth and snapped this pic of U.S. champion Kirby Chambliss doing his thing.

Pure Excitement

Larry Raulston of Neosho, Missouri writes:

"This Waco flies out of the airport that is approximately 200 yards from where I work. When we hear that big radial engine, my boss knows I'll be distracted for a while."

Thinking of Spring Break

John-Francis Mergen of Baltimore, Maryland and Daniel Pupko of Grand Forks, North Dakota were on the same wavelength this week.  Faced with dropping temps, both AVweb readers cast their mind's eyes back to the warm and pleasant days of summer.

It was a tough call, but we decided to run John-Francis's photo instead of Daniel's — if only because it was taken during spring break, and the one thing we miss even more than summer weather is summer vacation!

Stay warm, fellas.

Wisconsin State Capitol

It's been a while since we ran a no-planes-in-sight overhead view of a government building*, but this shot of the Wisconsin Capitol was too nice of a postcard to pass up!

Matthew Byczek of Waunakee, Wisconsin writes, "I was out flying in early November, on my way back to MSN from the west. ATC vectored me for a 'city tour,' which gave me this great shot of the state capitol. I was looking around and suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see what you see in the picture. Luckily I had my camera with me and I got this great shot."

* Yes, that really is a significant sub-genre of "POTW" submissions!

Snowbirds & Lima Lima

John Rippinger of the Lima Lima Flight Team (and of Schaumburg, Illinois if you're more of a geography buff than an aerobatics fan) has a habit of sending us cockpit photos we can't resist.  This week, he's back — with a set of colors any air show fan will recognize immediately.

"The Snowbirds had no problem with us taxiing over and lining up for the shot," according to John.