Monday, August 18, 2014

July 30th: Last Day at Oshkosh, Part Two

After Kent Pietsch flew, the GEICO Skytypers came back for a full aerobatic routine.

This was the tame part of the routine. Within about a minute there were airplanes everywhere!




We also got to see the Gee Bee QED fly, too. It was pretty neat to actually see one in the air!

Nicolas Ivanoff flew a really good aerobatic routine, too.

They did some military demos a little later in the show, too, which were really cool. This Caribou made a short approach, landed, and a bunch of soldiers jumped out the back before it took off again.

Even better, as the demos went on, they started blowing stuff up!

A few helicopters came up over the trees. The Cobra provided cover while the two Hueys landed...

...and picked up the soldiers who had hopped out of the Caribou earlier.


After the Caribou landed at the end of the demo, it taxied down the flight line. The guy waving from the top of the plane had been the crew chief on that exact plane while it was in military service, and he'd just gotten to ride along during the demo. Too cool!

Patty Wagstaff flew after the military demos wrapped up...

...and we got to see one of the new T-6 Texan II trainers do a demo, too.

Toward the end of the show was one of my favorite things: the Smoke N Thunder Jet Car. Strap a 10,000hp jet engine (with afterburner) to a drag racer and this is what you get. It was fantastic!! The Lucas Oil plane kept teasing him while he was driving up and down the runway.

The sound from the afterburner was one of the best parts.   :)

The pilot buzzed him a few more times before they actually got in position and raced down the runway. The car absolutely smoked the plane! I think the jet car topped 300mph before throwing out the parachute.

We also got to see a Corsair and a REAL Japanese Zero do a mock dogfight...

...and the Red Bull helicopter did an aerobatic routine too, complete with loops. It was nuts to see a helicopter do stuff like that!

Tinstix of Dynamite flew toward the end of the show. I loved all the explosions...they were so big you could feel the heat across the field!

Not a bad way to wrap up our last afternoon airshow at Oshkosh...it was one of my favorites of the whole trip!

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