2005 Wheels and Wings Airshow
Millville, New Jersey
May 20-22, 2005
Airshow report uploaded on June 15, 2005.
For the
first time in several years, my airshow season did not start out
at Millville, as it had in 2002, 2003, and in 2004. The original
plan for Millville was to take place on 
Mother's
Day weekend, but a cancellation of an airshow two weeks later had
the Snowbirds coming to town on the same weekend as Andrews AFB's
airshow. That really didn't bode well with me, considering
Millville had a twilight show on Friday night. The plan was to go
to Millville on Friday, Andrews AFB on Saturday, and back to
Millville on Sunday. I came through with my plans, but the
weather did not want to agree with me the whole weekend. Friday's
weather was the worst I have ever seen for any time I have gone
to an airport or military base for an airshow or a practice day.
It was pouring rain all day long (why I even decided to go early
in the day, even though I had a media pass, was beyond me, even
though I did help out in setting up some things for the Golden
Knights) until about 5:30 pm, where the rain stopped and that was
about the time the twilight show was to begin.
Static
display cancellations were high because of the bad weather in the
area, which forced many airplanes to stay away. Low clouds had
wiped out the entire plan for a 
twilight
airshow on Friday night, even though earlier the David Schultz
Airshows gang said it was a go. The clouds did not want to let up,
keeping the ceiling under the 1,000 foot minimums. The Snowbirds
and Golden Knights really wanted to perform, but they couldn't,
which was a big disappointment because I really wanted to see the
twilight display that the Snowbirds put on from time to time. Oh
well, I guess I'd have to wait another year to see them fly at
night. As I said, David Schultz Airshows brought together the
show for the sixth year in a row, and as a typical Schultz show
goes, this was one of the strong points the company has, in terms
of good airshows.
I got to Millville a little early
on Sunday, arriving around half an hour before the gates were
supposed to open to the public. 
However, it looked like the gates were thrown open to
the public earlier anyway. The weather wasn't nearly as good as
it was at Andrews but it was decent, with the cloud deck higher
than it was on Friday night. The one static display airplane I
was a bit skeptical about was the Boeing 707, since I have never
seen an airplane larger than a 
C-130 at Millville, but the 707 did show up. I think
this was the first or second time I've ever seen a 707 (the
military family of 707s don't count) and this one was unique in
the fact that its engines were actual TF-33s that looked like
they came off a C-141! You would think a 707's engine would
resemble one you would see on a KC-135E, E-8C, or E-3B, but not
nacelles and casing from a C-141! Two other larger aircraft were
present, namely a C-130H Hercules from New Castle in Delaware and
a CC-142 Gonzo from Canada (the Gonzo is a militarized version of
the Dash 8). The military collection was rounded off by a UH-1
Huey and an OH-58 Kiowa from the New Jersey Army National Guard,
an HH-60 Pave Hawk from the New York Air National Guard, a T-39A
Sabreliner and a T-6A Texan II from NAS Pensacola, Florida. The
FAA technical center in Atlantic City showed up with the King Air
350 and the Learjet 60. Civillians included a trio of Ercoupes, a
couple Cessna 172s, a Cessna 402, a Grumman AA-1 Tiger, a Fouga
Magister, four different L-birds, a TBM Avenger, P-51D Mustang Glamorous
Gal, a P-47D Thunderbolt, F4U Corsair Marine Dream,
the C-54 Skymaster from the Berlin Airlift Foundation, a T-28
Trojan, a couple T-34 Mentors, a Yak-52, and the A-Star 350 from
CBS3 in Philadelphia.
The
flying got underway around 10:00 with a bunch of radio controlled
model airplanes from a local chapter of the Academy of Model
Aeronautics. The aircraft I saw flying included two scale models
of Stearmans, and a T-6. There was one other airplane out 
on
Runway 14/32 (which was closed for the weekend because static
display aircraft were parked on there), and it looked like a PT-23
but I honestly don't remember or recall seeing it in the air. As
soon as the engines on the Golden Knights' C-31 started up, it
meant time for the RC pilots to land their airplanes, and just as
they did so, the C-31 started to make its way to Runway 28 for
takeoff. The C-31 took off, made its streamer run, and made a
climb to 4,500 feet in a matter of minutes for the first jump run
of the morning. Two jumpers exited the C-31, with one opening his
'chute much higher than the other, mainly because the first
jumper was bringing in the Canadian flag, with the Canadian
national anthem being sung in the background. The second jumper
brought in the American flag, with our national anthem being sung
in the background as well.
As both
jumpers packed their parachutes, it was time for some opening
ceremonies speeches to take place, namely by members of the
Millville Army Air Field Museum 
and
local politicians from Cumberland County. After those speeches
were given, the Golden Knights had control of
the show and the C-31 came back for a mass exit, again at 4,500
feet. A total of five jumpers exited the C-31, with one trailing
a candy cane smoke system, as they performed a showline spread. I
was lucky enough to get the one with the New Jersey flag to land
closest to my spot, so I'm happy about that, mainly because I
live in New Jersey, albeit about 55 miles away from Millville. It
seems funny how I went to Andrews AFB on Saturday and saw the
Golden Knights, and then on Sunday I go to Millville and the
Golden Knights are at that show also, with the Black team at
Andrews and the Gold team at Millville.
After the C-31 landed and shut down, Ron
Saglimbene took off with his newest
investment in the airshow industry - a Siat Marchetti SF-260. Ron
Saglimbene and Ron Spencer decided to call it quits on the
formation performances so that both can persue 
individual airshow acts or something else in the airshow
industry. Ron Spencer had purchased a Yak-55 and with Drew Hurley,
both pilots proposed a Yak-55 formation aerobatics performance,
but as soon as it was made public, it seemed like the idea faded,
and now Ron is in the process of selling the Yak and looking to
purchase a warbird of some sort, although that could change.
Anyways, back to Sag. His new performance does not load a ton of
Gs as other popular aerobatic pilots, but the neat thing is that
Ron managed to somehow fix his smoke system so that by the flick
of a switch, he could dispense either red, white, or blue smoke.
It's a good performance, if I may say, and I believe the SF-260
is painted to look like one operated by the Italian Air Force.
After
Ron landed, it was time for the only ground act at Millville this
year - dubbed "The Torch". Essentially, there's a tall
platform set up at show center with a pool of 
water
at the bottom, which had to be about ten feet deep. The Torch
would essentially climb up to the platform, which sat up about
forty-five feet in the air, light off some explosives, which, in
turn, lights himself on fire, and jump into that pool of water
below. It sounds really strange, especially for being at an
airshow, and like an airshow act, safety is a gigantic priority.
I don't know this for a fact, but I would assume that the person
is wearing multiple layers of clothing, with at least one or two
of those layers covered in fire retardant. No part of his body is
exposed whatsoever - not even the face, since the fire from the
explosives could result in some serious burns and we all know how
serious and dangerous fire is. I don't think gasoline is involved,
as gasoline-related fires are tough to put out with only water.
It's a short act, lasting less than five minutes.
After
the Torch got out of the pool unharmed, there was a farmer out at
the show area riding some cart which looks like it can only tow
private airplanes. Speaking of an 
airplane,
a Piper J3 Cub was running at the same time, mainly because that
farmer wanted a little ride in the plane. Heck, he wanted to fly
with "that pretty blonde girl in that bi-winger over there",
referring to Teresa Stokes and the Showcat. He got that, and he
kicked out his pilot, which meant that the farmer was in control
of the airplane... which it didn't look like! However, it was not
really a farmer - it was Roger Lehnert, who flies the best Flying
Farmer act that I know of. After the Cub was taxied off the
runway, five RV-6 and RV-8 aircraft departed Millville to hold
for their performance, as these were members of the Vultures
Formation Team, while Gene Soucy had
fired up the Showcat for a performance a little later on in the
day.
But first, the military flybys had to take place. The
first of the two aircraft to make itself 
known was a KC-135E Stratotanker from the New Jersey Air
National Guard, based at McGuire AFB. With the retirement of the
C-141B Starlifter, the KC-135Es out of McGuire have to take over
the role of being the 'ol smokey aircraft, which was the role the
C-141s had played for many, many years. The first pass from the
Stratotanker was a slow speed pass, with the gear and flaps
extended and the refueling boom down. The KC-135 powered up,
banked right, retracted everything and continued a racetrack
pattern for its second pass. As the Stratotanker was making its
way down runway heading 010, you could see a C-17 slowly
lumbering behind the KC-135. The second pass, which would be its
last pass, had the aircraft all cleaned up and the boom extended
on a high speed pass, exiting to the left.
As the KC-135 exited, the C-17 Globemaster III was
inbound. As far as I know, this 
was the first time a McGuire-based C-17 appeared over
the skies of any airshow (McGuire C-17s have been a part of
static displays already). Since it was a McGuire C-17, I have
this new curiosity to find out which C-17 flew, and some research
told me it was 04-4131, which was delivered
around the end of February of 2005. The Globemaster's first pass
was in the dirty configuration and it is about the only time
where the C-17 is actually loud (except for when the thrust
reversers are activated). The aircraft utilized the racetrack
pattern that the KC-135 used and came back around for its final
pass, which was in the clean configuration. Even while it was
clean, it appeared the C-17 was lumbering around in the sky. The
C-17 exited the show area with a nice climb into the clouds. I
personally think the C-17 is a very impressive aircraft, but I
will and already do miss seeing the C-141.
After the C-17 left, Gene Soucy took to the air with the Showcat. Gene has the one
aircraft that is based at Millville for the airshow (in terms of
planes with a propeller) that makes the most noise, and with an
airshow, the more airplane noise, the better. Gene can put the
Showcat through a full aerobatic performance if the ceiling was
only 1,500 feet! Luckilly for us, with the clouds 
being the way they were, it gave some backlight for the
aircraft instead of washing it out among the clouds. After Gene
landed, it was time to launch some warbirds. Taking off in order
were a P-47 Thunderbolt, the P-51D Mustang Glamorous Gal,
F4U Corsair Marine Dream, TBM Avenger, and an SNJ Texan.
Each aircraft made three passes, with pyrotechics going off on
the ground from the Tora Tora Tora guys, before each one made a
photo pass and landed. What was strange was that the racetrack
pattern for the warbirds was out behind the crowd, instead of
being in front of the crowd as it normally is at most show sites.
Even the SNJ had some pyro going off after its passes, which
seemed really strange since our T-6s and SNJs were never armed
with any weapons.
The Vultures came back for their performance, but instead of having the LongEZ and VariEze in formation, it was a mix of five RV-6s and RV-8s. I have seen them fly the six-ship formation with the two Burt Rutan-designed aircraft and I actually prefer that show because I think the VariEze and the LongEZ have nicer lines than the Vans series of aircraft. It also helps to have five of those Vans RVs in formation, since one airplane alone is about as loud as a feather falling through the air. Following the Vultures was Drew Hurley. As I said before, Drew and Ron Spencer were supposed to debut a new airshow act at Millville involving a formation aerobatic act with two Yak-55s, but that fell through, but Drew still has his Yak-55 and is still flying his solo aerobatic performance. Drew is, hands down, the best performer from New Jersey (I would say the Delaware Valley but technically he's not from the Delaware Valley and Matt Chapman gets that title).
Millville
had a nice little surprise of a demonstration after Drew Hurley
landed. It was an experimental fire truck being tested by the FAA.
Traditional fire trucks have hoses that firefighters drag out to
spray water on the 
flaming
subject (the object that's on fire, okay, so don't think of it as
something else!), but this new truck had its hose and nozzle on a
crane-like structure, with the hose and nozzle where a cherry
picker's operator would stand. It also has a nozzle in the front
part of the fire truck that does not elevate like the main one,
but can shoot water at a high rate of pressure over a distance of
about 300 feet. At the optimum setting, the other nozzle can
shoot water over a distance of about 500 feet. The nozzle above
the fire engine is actually designed to pierce inside the
fuselage of an airliner and spray water inside in an umbrella-like
fashion, since the actual spray jet can seriously hurt someone if
they get in its path. The purpose of the fire engine is simple -
the firefighters actually stay inside the truck and let the truck
do all of the dangerous work, keeping the firefighters out of
harm's way until the fire is out or close to being out.
Jim
Beasley took off in his P-51D Mustang Bald Eagle and
flew a small aerobatic performance with the aircraft. I love the
Mustang, and it looks like Bald Eagle got either a new
touch-up on the aluminum paint job or Jim decided to give it a
new shine because it looks more polished than it has in the past
(and it showed under a somewhat 
overcast sky!). He flew an aerobatic display that lasted
about six minutes, before departing off behind the crowd, waiting
for the F-15 to come in for its demonstration. But, it wasn't the
F-15 that was the next aircraft to fly, it was the F-117
Nighthawk. This was the same F-117 that made the flybys at
Andrews AFB that weekend and for a first pass, the pilot decided
to sneak up behind the crowd at about 150 feet off the ground and
going really fast! The second and third passes were decent flat
passes, with some nice turning profiles utilized to reposition
the aircraft for that next pass. The fourth pass was the last
pass, involving his speed and dipping the wingtips as he departed
back to Andrews AFB. I will say that F-117 demos that are staged
from a different show site seem to be more aggressive than when
the aircraft does the demo at the place where it is staging from.
Now it was time for the F-15 Eagle to perform its
demonstration. Seeing that the East Coast Demo Team was at
Andrews AFB, its only fair that the West Coast Demo
Team is at Millville. I wish I could
easily compare both demonstrations, but I can't, since Capt.
Jason "Bondo" Costello flew the high show at Andrews on
Saturday and Capt. Joel "Deuce" Hemphill was stuck with
flying the low show on Sunday at Millville. Deuce is in his
second year as a demo pilot, and strangely enough, flew at
Millville in 2004. To make things more interesting, Air Combat
Command has scheduled him to 
perform at both McGuire AFB and Atlantic City. Think
about it... the F-15 West Coast Demo Team (which is based in
Eglin AFB, FL) will be at all three major airshows in New Jersey.
I think I have had a little bit of pull in this, or Deuce had a
little bit to say in it, since I don't think its a coincidence. I'm
not complaining, even though I have seen more F-15 demonstrations
than any other tactical demonstrations. Even though Deuce was
flying the low show, he did put on one heck of a performance,
liberally using the afterburner where it shines the best in the
demonstration, except for the end of the level eight, where it
shut it off about ten seconds too early. The resulting high speed
pass afterwards made up for it, as well with the dedication pass.
Deuce followed up with the knife edge pass, going behind the
crowd as Jim Beasley made a pass, heading out in front of the
crowd, with Deuce following behind him to form up the Heritage
Flight.
According to my new Heritage Flight titles, Millville
had a Classic Heritage Flight, since the F-4 Phantom and/or the F/A-22
Raptor was not present in the formation. It was simply an F-15
Eagle (Deuce) in formation with a P-51D Mustang (Jim Beasley).
Both aircraft formated out in front of the crowd and made a total
of three passes - the first pass being out in front and to the
right, one from the left as a banana pass, and the final pass
being from behind the crowd and a break. Deuce made one final
high speed pass before heading back to Atlantic City (the runways
at Millville are not long enough to 
support an F-15), with Jim Beasley making a barrel roll
before landing. After Jim landed the P-51, the Golden Knights took to the sky
once again, in hopes to perform their full show. The C-31 came
around for the streamer pass before climbing to altitude and
giving the airspace over to other performers, like Gene Soucy and
Teresa Stokes, whose Showcat was the
next aircraft in the air. If memory serves me correctly, this is
the first wingwalking act that has ever appeared at Millville and
its the first time in seven years that both pilots were in the
Delaware Valley for an airshow (they performed at Willow Grove in
1998, back when Gene had also done shows in his Extra 300). After
landing, Jim Beasley had the P-51 running once again and departed
Millville, heading back towards Philadelphia.
The Tora Tora Tora group of replica five A6M Zeroes, two Kates, and one
Val took off next as they went out to set up for their
demonstration, which was to be a little bit 
later on in the day, while the Golden Knights had the
airspace to begin their full show. I had some doubt that they
would perform their full show, considering the aircraft was at an
altitude of about 4,500 feet because of the overcast that was
still lingering (but trying to break up), but somehow the team
managed to pull it off, sacrificing the diamond track, since that
needs the full 12,500 feet of altitude to pull off. The Golden
Knights had performed an accelerated performance, mainly because
there was a time window for the Snowbirds to work with. That time
limit was shown as the C-31 had made a quick turnaround for the
last pass, since those jumpers had exited sooner than I expected
(they were in the air when the jumper that performed the cutaway
maneuver had landed).
The Tora Tora Tora gang of
aircraft had returned for their recreation of the Pearl Harbor
attack back in 1941. The Tora group did a great job with the
recreation (I can't say that from experience because I was not at
Pearl Harbor back in 1941..lol) but there 
was one thing lacking from the pyro on the ground -
there was no wall of fire. The last time I saw the Tora group
perform was at Lakehurst in 2001 and I do remember there being a
wall of fire in the demonstration. Nevertheless, it was nice to
see the replica Japanese warbirds in the air, since the only time
I would get to see at least one of those types flying is at World
War II Weekend, which I won't be at this year because it is on
the same weekend as McGuire AFB's airshow. All of the aircraft
landed and fire crews were ready to put out any fires the Tora
pyro crew had set. They sprayed the area with water as a
precaution before letting the show go on.
Tim Weber then got into the air for his performance. It has been
many, many years since I last saw him, and the last time that I
saw him, he had just gotten his Extra 300 and his sponsor was
LifeUSA. Nowadays, he still has the Extra 300 and his sponsor is
now Geico. Out of all the performers at Millville this year, Tim
has the most energetic aerobatic performance out of anyone! I
actually didn't remember him being this aggressive when he was at
Miramar in 1999, but you could put that up against me not
remembering too much from that show! After Tim landed, it was
time for the F/A-18 
Hornet demonstration. The demo was being conducted by
VFA-106 Gladiators out of NAS Oceana in Virginia. It is
the same squadron that performs the Super Hornet demonstrations,
but unlike the Super Hornet demos, traditional VFA-106 birds are
used in the baby Hornet demonstration. I originally thought the
demonstration would stage out of Millville, but it staged out of
Atlantic City, which made the demo less exciting because the
pilot did not use the afterburner all that much in the
performance. My explanation to that is because the Hornet has a
smaller fuel load than the Eagle, and to me, that makes perfect
sense.
The
clouds had just moved out enough for the sun to shine through and
give the area around show center some clear skies, just in time
for the Snowbirds to take off. I ran
over to their hot ramp to catch their ground show and the engine
startup sequence (luckilly I made there just in time, as the
engines were just about to start up when I started recording). As
they taxied out to Runway 38, I headed back to my spot to catch
them taking off. Their takeoff sequence is still the same, with
three elements of three aircraft for the smaller runways, like at
Millville, 
rotating at different points along the show area. All
nine aircraft formed up and did some warmup formations before
coming back to the show box. Meanwhile, Roger Lehnert had fired
up the Piper J3 Cub once again for the serious part of his
performances. Roger usually gives himself three attempts to land
on top of the airport, and if he doesn't land successfully, he
will call it quits. There was a slight crosswind that foiled the
first two attempts, but on the third, Roger got it right and
landed beautifully on top of the Teenie Weenie Airport. I
remember one time it took Roger about five or six attempts to
land the Cub on the Teenie Weenie Airport - in fact, I think it
was at Millville back in 2002! Roger got out of the Cub and sat
on the rear portion of the plane to hold it down while his driver
drove around to the end of Runway 28, got back in the aircraft,
and applied power while his driver started accelerating, released
the Cub from the truck, and landed on a real runway.
Then it
was time for the Snowbirds to begin their aerial display. Every
year, as far as what I've seen, the Snowbirds totally revamp
their performance in one way or another, moving maneuvers here
and there or adding a maneuver here and there. The last two 
years had the team starting their show from behind the
crowd, but this year, they've reverted to their classic show
opening maneuvers (coming from in front of the crowd) and music -
In Flight by Steven Vitali. The team also utilized a lot of new
music including some from Celine Dion and Kelly Clarkson (it's
one of her more recent songs...I downloaded it in October 2004,
if you want to be exact), to name a few. I must say, the
Snowbirds look spectacular, even after their second weekend of
flying airshows. I couldn't really tell, but it looked like the
team flew their high show on Sunday. It goes to show that the
Snowbirds put in a couple more months of training and you can
clearly see it in the performance. I also want to clear one more
thing up - everyone tells me how boring the Snowbirds are... that's
because they're not as fast or make as much noise as our jet
teams, but, you see, for an American, I love the Snowbirds.
If it wasn't for that last minute trip I made to NAS Oceana in
2002, I would have had to wait a little longer to see the team
and I probably would have gone out of my way and travelled afar
to catch a Snowbirds performance. They were here in 2003 when the
Blue Angels were here as well and everyone loved their
performance. I only wish I'd be able to get to see them more than
once or twice a year (2005 would have been three times, but the
main London Airshow was cancelled...but it was brought back, but
I cancelled my plans). I am especially looking forward to seeing
them in Rhode Island on Father's Day weekend.
And that was it! As soon as the Snowbirds shut down,
preparations for aircraft departures began almost immediately.
Millville didn't see a whole lot of fly-in traffic this 
year (at least on Sunday), but all of those aircraft
left, along with the P-47, P-51, AT-6, F4U, and TBM. I was also
fortunate to catch the T-39 Sabreliner departing, but the one
plane I wanted to see depart, but didn't because I wanted to get
home also, was the Fouga Magister. That's okay, though, because I
have seen it in the air before, but its been almost eight or nine
years since I last saw one in the air (it might have been that
very Fouga as well!). This year's edition of the Millville
Airshow was great - and I applaude David Schultz and his team for
at least getting some of the statics in despite the bad weather
on Friday. I will be back for sure next year, and I hope there's
no conflicting airshow dates!
Military Demonstration Teams
Tentative Military Demonstrations
Civillian Demonstrations
Participating Organizations
Announcer: Howdy McCann
Gates Open: 5:00 PM Friday, 9:00 AM
Saturday and Sunday
Showtimes: 7:00 PM Friday, 10:00 AM
Saturday and Sunday
David Schultz Airshows' Millville Airshow Page
© 2005 Steven Holzinger