Air Venture Day 4

05:40 and I have to get up due to too much Arnold Palmer (half ice tea half lemonade)

ah I’ll hit the showers before too many old guys show up. Yep hardly a soul in there this early. Still dark and cool but it looks like it’s clear and maybe today will be another shorts day.

What a great night airshow last night, I think the best was the helicopter named Auto. He had streaming trails and fired and dropped exploding fire works completely through his show. The finally fireworks were huge. I’ve never seen so many.

Everyday the crowds grow bigger and more aircraft arrive.

It’s 06:32 and commander Bill is up and back from the shower singing an unfamiliar tune. He is doing amazingly well for a guy of 80. Heck I struggle to crawl in and out of the tent.

The fellows we camp around are really enjoying him telling them all about the different aircraft he flew and some he didn’t. He’s a wealth of knowledge when it comes to aircraft. Funny thing though. The one he seemed to be most interested in was the Brezzy. It’s the one that’s just the frame that you sit out front on in huge side open, no windshield sides or anything.

I think it maybe it’s that the Brezzy poses quite a challenge being wide open to the elements. I’m sure many of you don’t know but my father faced many challenges to become a pilot. He came from family with little to no money, from a small tiny rural area of Cape Breton that did not encourage leaving or making something of yourself, and could not afford to buy an education in aviation. He had to take any job he could get to gather up money to pay for flying lessons and because they were low paying he could only take short a short lesson every week. Well I can tell you from my own experience that if you can only do a little each week you forget a lot that you did last week. This causes you to take a lot longer to get the licence and causes you to spend a lot more. What I’m trying to say is that without being a man who faces challenges head on he would not have made it. He’s like a pit bull when he starts something and he won’t quit until it’s done. I’m sure if he could he would fly that Breezy today.

Its strange that I started to right about the Breezy first thing thus morning because unknown by us but the airport was shutdown for forty five minutes thus morning and we knew there had been a problem but we did not find out till thus evening that a Breezy pilot had been killed in a crash on the airport and his passenger is in critical condition. At thus time we do not know what really happened we have just heard rumours.

We spent quite some time this morning talking to Mac before he left. I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture with him. I was so engrossed it what he had to share I completely forgot. After about an hour Mac finally decided he had to go. We were sad to see him go we were just getting to know him. I hope we can keep in touch.

Dad and I were trying to decide where to go for coffee and a light breakfast and then our neighbour Dave asked that if we go near a store could we pickup a coffee pot for them that would go on the gas stove so they don’t have to run their generator to make coffee. So we decided to go in the direction of Walmart to get some breakie and get the pot.

We stopped at IHOP which really wasn’t that great and then we got a pot for Dave. We find time to get the laundry done and changed into shorts since it warmed up and headed down to the main gate.

Our normal parking was full so we made our own along the fence and headed towards the tram to head north to the west area which we have not been to. The tram system can take you all around the airport which saves your feet. The average person at Air Venture walks about five mikes in a day.

We went into a pavilion that Customs and Border Protection was in and talked to an officer that was serving in Columbia catching drug dealers. It was interesting to hear all they do.

Here are is sone photos of rare and different aircraft.

We waited for a draw we didn’t win and then went to a coffee stand we really like and sat there for quite some time sipping our ice coffee and watching all the airplanes come and go.

Next We went to Jeppesen to see what freebies they had and found nothing and then we stopped by the a Helicopter association and got a bunch of goodies.

Then we went by the Ford pavilion and did a tour and got a Mustang hat.

After our Ford stop we went to Progessive to give Katie a card with the blog address on it so she could see her picture.

We then headed down the aircraft line checking out all the different types and the airshow announcer said a storm was coming and it was going to be a big one so we high tailed it to the bike and started riding as fast as we could to Friar Tuck’s a restaurant at the end of the runway that someone told us about. It started to pour so I pulled over and we put on the rain jackets and continued up the road. We got a little wet but we ended up inside before it really let loose.

Really good coffee for $2.50. I haven’t written about the cost of the food on the field but it’s somewhat pricy for what you get. Hotdog fries and pop for two was $22.00

Oh no it’s going to rain.

Friar Tuck’s as it turns out it was good. We had soup and a sandwich with sides for $30.00

Back to the airport in search of different aircraft.

This big monster is a C-17

This one below is a Lockheed Vega that was flown by people like Wiley Post and Amelia Earhart.

Okay we just got into this tent when it started to pour, hail and lightning. The tent was for the Vintage club(1969 or older) for a picnic but they were kind to let us stay. Funny thing, there was a retired Fedex Captain there who played a trumpet that he has taken with him all over the world and he entertained everyone until the rain stopped. He told everyone that he normally plays on the praise and wòrship team at his church in Houston Texas but he would attempt it along.

After we returned to our campsite we met up with Dave and two of his friends who just showed up along with our neighbour  Al who is on a site kitty cornered to ours. Al is really funny, he is a teacher who says stuff to shock or surprise you and has us in stitches laughing all the time. Al and Dad are discussing the arrival of his daughter Maggie and the upcoming arrival of his wife.

Well it’s 12:09 and I only hot four hours of sleep last night so I’m going to bed, mistakes in the blog or not.

Good night all!