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2002 Wings Over Wine Country Airshow
August 24 & 25, 2002
Santa Rosa, CA
by
Bernardo
Malfitano
Air
Performances
The show ended
with a bang - or, rather, the sweet purr of powerful piston
engines. Throughout it, a few Sea Furies (one of which flew),
and a Wildcat (which flew) and a Hellcat, several P-51s (most of
which flew), a P-40, a P-47 and two B-25s were sitting by the
flightline:
(The P-47, P-40, one of many P-51s, and one of the B-25s. To the
right of the B-25 is a T-28 Trojan painted in a blue Navy
scheme, trying to impersonate a Grumman 'cat)
The B-25s started
up their engines and headed for the runway, closely followed by
the Warhawk, the Mustangs, and the Thunderbolt:
The Grumman 'cats
weren't far behind,
and that
Australian Sea Fury followed.
They took off,
 ....
 ....
..and got in two
awesome formations: First, the 3 naval warbirds:
Then, this
incredible formation: The two bombers followed by the Warhawk
(left end), two Mustangs, and the Thunderbolt.
Not counting Chino
and Oshkosh, these formations are very, very, very, very rare. I
was blown away by this show.
This was, as advertised, THE warbird event in northern
California.
(The P-47 is one
big WW2 fighter)
Anyways...
The show ended
with that Sea Fury demonstrating its smoke generators (the
little pods
under the wingtips). Apparently, it's the demonstrator aircraft
for the manufacturers of
the smoke pods.
And cool smoke
pods they were - They took so long to fade away, and made such
sharp,
thin lines at the wingtip vortices, that you could see the
vortices hundreds of meters
behind the Sea Fury turn into rings:
Well, that's it. One awesome show, I'm VERY glad I took the time
to drive up there. Twice.
I'm afraid I'll be in Brazil during the Reno races, but I'll be
back for SF Fleet Week, the Las Vegas
Airshow, and of course, EDWARDS!!! It will be my first Edwards
show, and I've dreamed of going
to that Airshow since I was 15. Valeu, and come again!
If you want hi-res
versions of any of these pictures, or if you just want to say hi
and talk airplanes,
or if you have any comments about this Airshow or feedback about
this site, please write me at
supersonicaviator@hotmail.com (or just click here).
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