75 SA Flyer MagazineI
N a nutshell, that’s AirVenture at
Oshkosh. The facts and figures
are mindboggling and everyday it
brought new surprises with more
to see and do.
EAA CEO and Chairman,
Jack J. Pelton, summed it up:
“What an incredible year it was at
Oshkosh. From the US Navy Blue
Angels and Apollo reunion, to new
aviation innovations on display
and two B-29s flying formation as part of
75 years of bombers on parade, it was a
week filled with only-at-Oshkosh moments.
You could feel the energy as thousands of
airplanes arrived early and stayed longer,
pushing aircraft camping to capacity
for most of the event. The aviators and
enthusiasts who attended were engaged,
eager, and passionate, demonstrating
how Oshkosh is the best example of why
general aviation is so vitally important to the
country. I believe it’s the best AirVenture
week that I’ve ever seen.”
For me, this was my third pilgrimage
to the largest gathering of aeroplanes
and avgeeks in the world. Every year it
just seems to get bigger and better, and
2017 was no exception. The figures of
attendance and aircraft participation was up
by an average of 5% from 2016.
I spent 10 days there and I didn’t see
it all. This year I didn’t get to the EAA
Museum, the Seaplane base or browse a lot
of the stands. It’s almost impossible to try
and encapsulate the spectacle of Oshkosh
in one article, but what follows were the
highlights for me.THE US NAVY BLUE ANGELS
The big drawcard this year had to be
the Blue Angels. Considered one of the
best military display teams in the world,
the Blue Angels are renowned for their
incredible ability to fly high speed F-18
Hornets in overlapping tight formations.
The Blue Angels arrived at Oshkosh in
style on Wednesday. The Star-Spangled
Banner had just finished its final note when
the five-ship team flew low level, straight
overhead in vic formation to the screams
and shouts of delight from the massive
crowd.
The crowd line for their shows on Friday
and Saturday was moved back by 50 m, the
airshow centre got moved to accommodate
their display and during the show, only
the Blue Angels tactical crew are allowed
beyond the crowd line ̶ no exceptions.The show is incredible. It’s been a
lifelong dream of mine to see the Blues
and they did not disappoint – from their
formation changes during aerobatic
manoeuvres to the five-ship line abreast
loop. Any formation pilot would applaud
the unbelievable skill required to pull
these manoeuvres off. Their ability to
formate quickly after a bomb burst or
similar showstopper is mind boggling. Six
F-18s converging on show centre from a
huge separation to meet there only with
a few feet of vertical separation, form two
three-ship formations and quickly turn that
into a six-ship formo with high G turns,
all requiring massive skill and timing. The
soloist sneaking passes in his very low
flying F-18 doing 800 mph made me lower
my camera to just take it all in.
The whole show is a masterpiece and
there are moments when the hairs on your
arms stand-up. One such moment is when
the five-ship comes running in for the line
abreast loop and the ‘smoke on’ signal
looks as though it was triggered by one
switch. Then the soundtrack of Disturbed’s
now iconic rendition of Simon and
Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ starts to
play. It’s art.WARBIRDS
Fightertown at Warbirds has always
been my favourite destination at AirVenture.
It’s like stepping back 70 years as you walk
amongst the rows of B25 Mitchell Bombers,
P51 Mustangs, P40s, T28s, Wildcats,
Bearcats, Hellcats, Corsairs and Avengers.
Even the first and second generation
jets are parked here: Sabres, Skyhawks,Shooting Stars, L39s a-plenty, MiG 17s and
lots more.
An awesome sight this year were some
very rare Bell P39 Airacobras and P63
Kingcobras.
But this year one warbird stood out
among her worthy counterparts, even
amongst the stable of Mustangs, as you
walked into the paddock. Her camouflaged
body stood proud as it once did many years
ago in a scrapyard in Salt River in Cape
Town. The Spitfire that many Capetonians
came to know as a rusting piece of scrap
metal for many years in the 70s and 80s
is now flying again. I remember driving
past the scrapyard as a child and seeing
this magnificent fighter up on a pole and
had always wondered what had become of
BR601. After being exported to Biggin Hill
in England to be partially restored, she was
eventually bought by Rob Collings of the
Collings Foundation and fully restored to
flying condition. I was always led to believe
that BR601 was pretty much a SAAF
Spitfire, but little did I know she had a much
more famous history.
BR601 was the sixth Mk IX Spitfire built
and was the first Mk IX to ever fly a combat
mission. Some of her most significant
missions included flying escort on the first
8th Air Force mission (B17s) commanded
by Paul Tibbets, who flew the Enola Gay
to drop the world’s first atomic bomb on
Hiroshima. And she escorted the ‘Memphis
Belle’ on four missions, including the
famous Mission 25. She flew escort on ‘Big
Week’ and flew cover for ‘Operation Torch’.
BR601 completed 121 combat missions
and was flown by legends such as Gaze,Airshows
Two B-29s in formo, not seen
since the Second World War.