I hope nobody minds that this is a cross-post (I started it as a reply in one of the events forums, and once I read it I reckoned some of ya'll might like to see it here).
Went to the CAF Air Show, took 7 year old grandson for his first real experience with warbirds (he solo'ed single seat AH when he was six, loves "the airplane game" as he calls it )
Tora Tora Tora was in progress as we arrived the flight line (perfect timing). Events included aerobatic displays with Bearcat, several civilian types, the new USAF T-6A Texan II trainer and an F-15, heritage formation manuevers with the F-15 and a nice P-47, and demonstrations with B-17, B-25, and A-26 (low passes, pyrotechnics). A relatively small show but very well presented and run, I was WELL pleased.
The F-15 was the best part IMO, with the T-6A next and then the heavies. Both the USAF boys really pulled out the stops, they flew some ****-hot manuevers.
The coolest thing the F-15 did was a low high speed approach to center of the flight line, then yanked HARD into the vertical. He went fully tangenital to the ground, immediately beginning to rotate around his longitudinal axis. He went to about 6k alt, pulled throttle to stall, dropped the canopy side back to point his nose down, and began rotation again as he dove tangenitally to 1k then pulled HARD to level and exited via flight line axis. It was an awesome set of moves (and I can't believe the prettythanghole's getting paid to do it )
The T-6A pilot just in general wrung that airframe out, for about 20 minutes. Let's just say this - many of the manuevers were low, close, and high-G enough you could actually see visible wing flex. I was really impressed. I made it a point to look the pilot up and have a conversation with him. He said they all love this plane, and get lots of regular hours in it. Our boys are having some fun in that, trust me on this.
I took my grandson to a trinkets booth and told him to pick whatever he wanted. He immediately went to the small die-cast planes. There were a bunch of jet types, but only one prop type was left. He asked me what it was, I told him "that's a Zeke".
"I want Zeke, Grandpa".
I almost broke my smile muscle
culero (had a nice day)
