Bill's Aviation Log

September 20-21, 2019 - Easton Airport Day Part II
We mounted up, started engines, and then because we had so many planes, taxiied all the way down to the other side of the airport and back up again. With the sun beating down on my black cowl, my oil temp was only 20 degrees below red line by the time we took off. Here we are doing the pre-flight run-up.

Taxiing by the crowd. JMac was riding with me and operating the smoke switch. Here he is waving to his wife, who took this great shot.

Speaking of the crowd, here's a good look.

Most of the mass formation passing overhead. Ten T-34s are in front, followed by seven T-6s with a CJ stinger, and then the seven RVs.

Another look at the T-34s and T-6s.

A nice close-up of the big T-6s.

An excellent shot of the RVs! (my RV has the black wings on the bottom) I was pleased with my smoke quality. I had cleaned the smoke injectors last night just to be sure they produced maximum smoke.

The RVs just after we shut off smoke.

The view from the cockpit.

Looking straight ahead, following the big birds.

Approaching Easton Airport. Smoke on!

The mass formation including the four Episolons bringin up the rear.

PPP

A great shot by Bruce Vinal of the crowd down below with the T-6s and smoke overhead.

I liked this shot because you can see the RVs, including my plane, at lower right.

Zooming in on the Bruce's previous shot. It's a little blurry now but that's OK. It's rare you can the RVs from this perspective.

Following the debrief, we enjoyed an excellent lunch. Then JMac, Annabelle and myself checked out the State Police hangar and helicopter.

I could not believe how clean it was. If there was a single bug on this shiny bird, I did not see it.

The helicopter was well-equiped for the paramedic and rescue mission.

It was as big as a Navy SH-60.

The P-51 Tiger's Revenge was parked right outside the hangar where we spent most of our time.

Out on the ramp just before our afternoon practice flight, a flight of three does a low pass.

Ah, those T-6s, showing off. Looks good, though.

In the late afternoon, I led a practice flight of six RVs. During the flight we split up into two 3-ships. I was the lead of one 3-ship. My passenger Greta took this shot of Mugsy on my right wing.

ZZZ

And Big Al was my other wingman.

The second 3-ship breaks off to the east.



I led Big Al and Mugsy through some echelon turns, breaks and rejoins.

Nice looking echelon formation.



A picture from the other 3-ship in a steep echelon turn with a nice view of Jolly and his passenger Karl.

I recombined back into a 6-ship and we did a pass at 500 feet over Easton Airport.



The last hangar on the left down there was our base of operations this weekend. You can see the P-51 Tiger's Revenge sitting out in front.

Climbing turn to the right after the low pass.

Mugsy is probably looking right into the sun at this point.

Claw Lead turning final at Easton Airport.

Taxiing in.

Enjoying happy hour after a great day of flying. Looking forward to a sumptuous dinner.

The bar is open at left in the back! The bar was literally a real aircraft horizontal stabilizer.

After dinner though, the fun was over. The Judge was holding court. Those charged would pay dearly.

The Judge administers justice to the Epsilon drivers.

The outstanding aviation photographer Bruce Vinal was on-hand as he usually is at Easton Airport Day. The next few pictures represent some of his great work. Check out his web page. Buy some of his photos! The Epsilon in echelon formation. The Epsilon is a French trainer aircraft; the equivalent of our T-34. A number of Red Star Association pilots bought retired Epsilons and had them shipped to the States.


A Beech 18 wsa on hand and flew around during the Mass Formation flight.

Nice.



The only CJ at this year's Easton Airport Day.

On the other hand, I've never seen more than one or two T-6s and this year there were seven! The CJ flying wing on a big T-6.

Speaking of the seven T-6s, here they are practicing.



The next morning as I was preparing to leave, all these colorful Plymouth Road Runners showed up. And a lot of people were hanging around. They seemed to be waiting for someone to show up.

The Plymouth Superbird was a highly modified, short-lived version of the Plymouth Road Runner with well-known graphics and horn sound. It was the factory's follow up stock car racing design, for the 1970 season, to the Dodge Charger Daytona of 1969, and incorporated many engineering changes and modifications (both minor and major) garnered from the Daytona's season in competition. It has also been speculated that a motivating factor in the production of the car was to lure Richard Petty back to Plymouth, which it did. (In Autumn 1968, Richard Petty had left the Plymouth NASCAR Racing Team for Ford's.) Petty did reasonably well against strong Ford opposition on the NASCAR tracks that year, winning eight races and placing well in many more. The Superbird had a horn which mimicked the Road Runner cartoon character. Petty's Superbird appears as a key character in the 2006 Pixar film Cars, with Petty as the voice of seven-time champion Strip "the King" Weathers. Petty, of course, was the first driver to win the NASCAR Cup Championship seven times.

A VIP of some sort climbed out of that nice turboprop on the far left, was met, and is here walking towards the Superbirds.

It turns out the VIP was The King himself: Richard Petty! He looks pretty good for 82. He, of course, is one of the most respected figures in motorsports.

Taxiing for takeoff, behind the twin Beech and Tiger's Revenge (pay no attention to that spam can in between).

I didn't get too close behind the P-51 as he did the pre-flight run-up. That big 2,000 hp Merlin engine could blow my little RV across the Bay. After a nice flight home, I cleaned the bugs off the RV and that was that. Another successful Easton Airport Day in the bag.


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September 20-21, 2019 - Easton Airport Day Part II