2009 MIRAMAR AIRSHOW WRAP-UP

Story and Photos by Frank Lorey III

The 2009 MCAS Miramar Airshow thrilled the usual crowds with a new twist this year. The Canadian Snowbirds flight demonstration team performed for the first time in the airshow’s long history. The team is based in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, and only rarely makes shows this far to the south.

The theme this year was “A Salute to Teamwork.” Featured performances built on that theme, including the Snowbirds, the USN Blue Angels, and the USMC MAG Task Force demonstrations.

The Canadians fly the CT-114 Tutor, a jet trainer that was common to pretty much all the flight training done in the country’s air forces from the 1960’s until 1990. Since just about everyone went through training on it, there is a wide background of pilots who join the demonstration team—all the way from helicopter pilots, transport pilots, and the usual fighter pilots. This makes the team very different than one like the US Navy’s Blue Angels. Another difference is that the formations use up to nine aircraft.

The Snowbirds put on a very interesting performance--the nine jet aircraft featured in the show go through 50 formations in a 35-minute time span. Lots of precision formations, opposing solos and four-jet displays, smoke—all done at lower speeds (100-320 knots) than the Blue Angels but never the less very well done. At times there even is four feet of wing overlap in some formations.

“We have gone as far as Guadalajara, Mexico—the most southern place we have been,” said team member Eric Willrich. He added “we do 65 shows a year, all in North America because of the aircraft.” Willrich is in his second year—his last—and will go back to flying helicopters or transports as his next assignment.

The Blue Angels were there, of course. They were still the featured performance in the afternoon, and despite the weather were able to do the more spectacular high show. The MAGTF simulated combat missions were another highlight that always “wows” the crowd, as well as the AV-8B Harrier and F-16 Fighting Falcon flight displays.

Attendance might have been a little lower this year, and there were certainly fewer aircraft on display and doing demonstration flights. The economy might have caused some scaling back. No Osprey flew or were on display, no B-52 Stratofortress, Hawkeye AWACS, F-15, B-1 or B-2 aircraft either! The civilian planes on static display were still fairly well represented, as were the vintage warbirds.

One of the most unusual (and rare) aircraft on static display was an immaculately restored World War II PV-2 Harpoon, owned by Dave Hansen of Heber, Utah. Only two are left flying in the world, and this one is a testimony to his dedication. The plane was used as an agricultural sprayer in Alabama, and had malathion tanks installed. He found it basically sitting derelict in Buffalo, Wyoming, and got it airworthy enough to fly from there to his hometown in 2007. Lots of work ensued, and it flew in 2008 until it lost an engine. More hard work got it back flying in time for this year’s airshow, however. He continues to search for more original interior equipment, but it is almost complete.