The Yuba County airport at Marysville was the place to be the last weekend in June. Friday, PRA Chapter 5 members set up Air Expo '99 in record time, as they roped off the aircraft display areas and did other various setup work for the show.
The big event Saturday proved successful, drawing double the crowd of last year at over 6000 people. Ken Brock flew his beautiful Mac powered KB-2 gyroplane at 11am. A nice performance featuring a quick climb right off the runway, followed by steep turns and a whole routine of impressive airwork. At one time he seemed to be in a "death spiral" as the gyro was turning around and around as it descended straight down towards the earth. Finally Ken shut the engine off and glided on in for a power out landing on a taxiway entrance, right in front of the onlooking crowd.
The rest of the show included aerobatics by Eddie Andreni and Barbarossa, a Yak-9 and then later Eddie flew a Super Stearman with wing walker Anders Brandi. The Stoli MIG jets performed with new beautiful bright red paint jobs. And the F-15 Eagle appeared with its impressive tactical demonstrations.
My favorite, though, was Wayne Handley flying the Oracle Turbo Raven. With its positive thrust-to-weight ratio, the airplane appears to defy the laws of physics. Such as taking off in 250 feet, flying straight up, stopping, and flying straight up some more! Then he can reverse the pitch on the prop to come straight in for a landing from thousands of feet above the airport. Simply amazing, a must see.
During the air show, Chapter 5 had an excellent turnout with over a dozen machines on static display, up from 9 last year. Mark displayed his KB-2 and new Predator that is nearing completion. Gary and Tim brought their shiny new RAF 2000s. Gary's isn't so new at over 700 hours of service, the last year as a dependable training workhorse. But it sure does look new thanks to the updated cabin and nice two-tone paint job. Tim's new RAF is not quite finished yet with wiring and engine burn-in still to do, but it was complete enough to make it to the show.
The rest of the gyroplanes displayed were all Joe Souza Super Bandits! Most all flavors were represented from the Rotax and HKS powered Ultra Bandits to the standard EA-81 powered machines, including Paul's which is tricked out with electric starter and pre-rotator and even a turbocharger! Tom Sled brought his Super Bandit all the way up from Oceano and took the best gyroplane award. Congratulations on the award Tom! Must have been the Bandit painted on the tail, or that impressive instrument panel. Tom's machine is also sporting a Super Trap muffler which quiets that Subaru down to neighbor-friendly levels.
As always, all these whirly birds attracted a lot of attention from the crowd. Lots of curious looks and questions with several people interested in getting involved. It was quite a day at the airport.
Unfortunately, on Sunday the annual club picnic and gyro flying contest turned out to be only a picnic. Somehow we forgot to publish a newsletter two times in a row and then forgot to plan and schedule the events and tell all the pilots when they were! So sadly, not much flying happened. Some went up early in the morning but no one bothered to fly the expected flour bombing and timed event contests. It was later decided to meet again at Marysville this month (July 25) and to have the flying events in the morning at 8am.
We did vote on the Best Man and Machine award and it went to our favorite CFI Gary Brewer. With his newly-rebuilt machine and all the training they've done together this past year, the award seems appropriate. Good job Gary!
The excellent food at the picnic at least partly made up for the lack of flying. Everyone enjoyed the tasty grilled chicken and corn on the cob. Plus a whole table just loaded full of food complete with great desserts. There was plenty of food to go around multiple times. A big Thanks goes out to those who prepared the most excellent meal.
We did have our monthly meeting Sunday and everyone that paid their annual dues got their nice new Chapter 5 patch. We enjoyed the company of 3 guests and 2 new members. We discussed the air show and how we can make it better next year. For example we need to get some shade canopies and a large barbecue grill. Finally, we opened nominations for officers for the next year. They lucky nominees are:
Thanks to Ken Brock for performing in the air show and staying to chat with the guys on Sunday. We all enjoyed your visit very much. Thank you also to everyone who participated in this year's air show and picnic. You made the weekend a huge success! Let's make it even better next time!
Elections will be held at the next meeting of PRA Chapter 5 on July 25, 1999 at 1 pm, Yuba County Airport, Marysville. Bomb Drop and Timed Pylon events will be that morning at 8am!