Click here to skip ahead to the gallery
This year, 95 airplanes converged on Midland, Texas, from all directions to take part in the world’s largest unrehearsed airshow. Not that each pilot hasn’t logged a lot of time in type and a lot of practice flying formation: they have. They just have never done it all together. In past years, the smaller show on Friday afternoon gave pilots a chance to get comfortable. This year a cold front blew in from Canada about mid-morning on Friday and low ceilings and high winds grounded the fleet for the day.
So on Saturday morning at 0900, the pilots met in the High Sky Cafe to get a thorough briefing from AIRSHO Boss Ralph Royce. About an hour later, Royce had reviewed the procedures and times for startup, taxi, takeoff, holding, routes and altitudes for flying the show, recovery (landing after the show), and had assigned flight leaders for different categories (trainers, fighters, bombers, cargo, etc..). For that hour, it’s Royce’s room. Peer pressure alone is usually enough to keep pilots’ attention, but Royce has a light-hearted "dunce chair" at the front of the room to keep heads in the game. Latecomers (See image of Kermit Weeks below) and chatterboxes earn time in "the chair," but this year the Boss gave himself a few minutes there after he caught himself in an "oops."
Calling the show is tough enough, but Royce also has to keep an eye on scheduled air carrier traffic in and out of MAF. He’s a pro. The only thing that didn’t run like a Swiss watch on Saturday was a 30-minute delay when one of the USAF Thunderbirds had to switch to the two-seat media plane to fly the show.
By the end of the briefing, the skies had cleared and Saturday was a drop-dead gorgeous day with light winds. Attendance figures hadn’t been totaled by AVweb‘s deadline, but it’s safe to say that more than 25,000 people attended the show.
AIRSHO 2001 also gave CAF a chance to hold its general membership meeting at 1500 on Friday. Members heard from retiring CAF Chief of Staff Ray Kinney, CAF "Spirit of Flight" Award winner Waggoner Carr, and voted on new Board members and CAF’s new name, which will be announced on December 7th, 2001. AIRSHO’s Friday night Black Tie event at the Midland center honored eight heroes of WWII: President George H. W. Bush, Col. Clarence "Bud" Anderson, Cmdr. Harold Buell, ATC Wayne Colley, Lt. Gen. Keith Compton, Lt. "Hap" Halloran, Col. Ralph Parr, Lt. Gen. Jay T. Robbins (posthumously), and the 19th Bomb Group. The event, coupled with a silent auction, was a sellout.
AVweb’s AIRSHO 2001 Image Gallery
Click any image to view a larger version.
BTs taxi back to the barn
Sierra Hotel AT6
Trojan….Horses
“Sacktime” hangs in the new CAF Nose Art Gallery
Friday’s general membership meeting in the CAF hangar.
“Mission Completed” hangs in the new CAF Nose Art gallery
USAF Thunderbird solos pass at AIRSHO center
One generation lands while another prepares to launch
The USAF Thunderbirds
Waggoner Carr receives CAF’s “Spirit of Flight” Award
Pilots sit in rapt attention as Air Boss Ralph Royce briefs the show
Kermit Weeks gets some time in the chair for being late
Avro Shakleton
They also serve…
Bone nose
Zeros and Vals simulate the attack at Pearl Harbor
Charlie Tilghman and Paul Stojkov at the controls of “Fifi”, the only B-29 still flying
“Fifi” simulates the bombing of Hiroshima
A rare Polikarpov Russian fighter from the ’30s
Dawn greets the B1
An F-8F and an F/A-18 form up for CAF’s “Heritage Flight”
