June 7, 2008

Trumbauersville, PA

Free Air Show

(shot with Sony DSC-P200)
(view other photo essays)

On my way from Green Lane to my Dad's place in Trumbauersville, I passed a sign along the road advertising: Free Air Show! Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I had to see what that was all about.

The air show, as I kind of suspected, turned out
to be a model air show. It was pretty impressive
in any case!



As a kid, I had built and sometimes flown model airplanes.
We used control wires from a hand-held yoke out to an apparatus
on the plane that converted your hand motions into elevator adjustments.
Pull back and the plane goes up. Push forward and the plane goes down.
Sometimes the plane goes down precipitously into the ground.

Radio controlled airplanes existed back then, but not for us.
They were expensive and Unattainable. Might as easily be magic
or made from solid gold, for all the likelihood we'd ever own one.



These planes were BIG!!! Five, six foot wingspans!

Unfortunately, the heat seemed to have everyone in a kind of stupor.
By the time my dad and I arrived (around 2 in the afternoon), everyone
seemed more interested in sitting in their sling-chairs than taking
any planes off the ground.











This guy was packing up already.



This plane, at least, fits in the mini-van.
Some of these other, larger, planes required separate trailers
to transport them.



This guy wanted to take his World War II-era P47 Thunderbolt
up one more time, but the others in his party talked him out of it.
They wanted to go do something more fun (probably indoors).



At last, as a sop to the half-dozen or so spectators who had actually
made the effort to come in off the highway, these gents finally rolled
a bright red stunt plane out to the flight line.



Waiting in the wings - probably still waiting - this beautiful
blue and white biplane.


Just a second away from takeoff!





The pilot put the plane through a range of tricks: rolls, an immelman,
eventually, a loop. The whole flight took about 15 minutes or so.



And when it landed, that was pretty much all there was.




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