Madison, IN Airshow
2020 Airshows
Tri-State Warbird Museum
Warbird Flying Showcase
Photo Review
Warbirds at the Clermont County
Airport, Batavia, OH Flying Showcase 2020 - September 18, 2020 - Photos taken
Friday, September 18, 2020.
I found out about this warbird
flying event totally by accident when the Tri-State Warbird Museum
historian contacted me the week before the event. He had
information for me for my research on the "Arsenal of Democracy," which
resulted in my looking at the museum's website. To my surprise,
the museum was doing a warbird flying event for the benefit of its
sponsors. Tickets were available for the public and I did not
hesitate to purchase one. While the ticket price was considerably
more than a normal airshow, it was also a way to help the museum get
through the pandemic. The cost of the guest pass included valet
parking and food and drink on the field.
With all of the airshow
cancellations due to the pandemic in 2020, being able to visit an air
event and watch and hear warbirds fly had been put out of my mind as a
possibility. The Warbird Flying Showcase, as the museum labeled
it, was for all intents and purposes an airshow. This was a Friday
afternoon event, with the flying scheduled between 4-7pm.
According to the volunteer at the
entrance to the event, I was the first person to arrive. It may
have been over a year since I have been to an airshow, but I still know
to arrive as early as possible to get a good location on the field.
This photo shows where I was located, which put me as close as I could
get to the front line and air show center. The white marks on the
grass were the socially distant locations for each family group to sit.
The front line was reserved for the high value sponsors of the museum.
Boy, did these
warbirds look good to me!! A year is a long time to go without any
warbirds.
This location provided a good spot to watch the C-45, F8F, TBM, B-25,
P-51, and FW-190 start up in front of me. There was also a C-47
farther down the taxiway to the right in this photo. Three T-6/SNJs
and an L-17 were staged across the runway.
This photo and the one below shows
the crowd at 6:30 pm. While several airshows this year have gone
to a drive-in concept, this is the only one I am aware of that has done
an assigned location for chairs. This allowed for the guests to
visit the displays inside the hangar and visit the food trucks.
This worked out well. We
kept our spacing and got to watch several warbirds fly.
Unfortunately, the pandemic may well be with us for the 2021 airshow
season. While most of the shows that cancelled this year plan to
be back next year, it may still not be business as usual. Drive-in
shows may become more prevalent, and other shows may want to consider
something like this. It just depends on how much a show can
simplify the event, and keep costs down, while providing a good flying venue
at an increased but hopefully reasonable cost for enough persons to
purchase tickets.
B-29 "Doc" was not staged at the
Clermont County Airport but opened the show. It
flew in from nearby Lunken field and gave us two passes. This
photo was taken after the first pass down the runway. "Doc" is
setting up for a head-on pass.
What a great way to start out my
first airshow in over a year! While the museum did not promote
this as an airshow, as a "Thank You" event for its sponsors,
the flying event smelled like an airshow, sounded like an airshow, and
looked like an airshow. It was an airshow. Normally the
museum has an inside event earlier in the year to thank its sponsors.
This year that did not happen due to the pandemic. So, it decided to do
the safer outside flying event. This is the only thing I can think
of that is a positive event due to the pandemic.
After the B-29 left, the museum's SNJ
was first off.
The SNJ teamed up with two other Texans
and a Navion for multiple formation passes. The Navion was a last
minute substitute for a T-6 that could not fly due to mechanical issues.
What became obvious very early in the event, is that the pilots came to
fly, and the museum wanted its sponsors to see a lot of fly-bys.
They kept it simple. They put the warbirds in the air, and then
flew the heck out of them. No jet trucks. No civilian
aerobatics. No Piper Cubs landing on trucks. Just goo old-fashioned warbird passes. As it should be.
I took over
1,100 photos in the four hours I was at the event. I have included
just a few of then in this report, to give the flavor of the flying.
Jordan Brown from Terre Haute, IN
takes off in his C-47.
He was followed by the museum's
C-45.
The C-47 and C-45 gave the guests
multiple passes before doing several formation passes.
I have never seen this formation
before. The C-47 leading the C-45, L-17, and SNJ/T-6s in formation.
Not only did they do it once, but
they went around, came back, and did it again.
I think I did a pretty good job of
locating myself at airshow center.
This is just one of three or four low
passes each of the T-6s and L-17 did.
The show was
divided into three flying segments. After the trainers and
transports landed, there was a fifteen minute break. Then the Grummans flew.
Tom McCord, in the Tom Wood
Aviation F8F, shows why the Bearcat was built. During World War
Two, aircraft carriers needed to get their fighters off the deck and to
altitude to meet incoming air attacks. The F8f was too late
in the war to put its high climb capability to use.
As with previous aircraft, the
Bearcat and Avenger did multiple single passes before getting together
for some formation work.
While the TBM and F8F were flying,
the museum's P-51 was being moved towards airshow center.
After many passes by the two
Grumman warbirds, there was another fifteen minute break until the final
flying segment.
The last segment had the museum's
B-25, P-51, and Flugwerk FW-190 fly.
This event was the first time the
public would see the FW-190 fly.
The livery of the FW-190 in which
the plane arrived in from the previous owner was incorrect. The museum
did a considerable amount of research and then painted it in this
authentic World War Two paint scheme.
This was a great warbird event
with more flying after this as the P-51 and FW-190 chased each other
around the field in simulated dog fight. For me, it was time to
go, and this was my last photo of the day.
In case you
hadn't noticed, the weather could not have been better. A nice
late summer afternoon with lots of sun and just cool enough for a light
jacket or sweater.
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