Our trip to the Aerodrome started out well. Bill flew there in the Tiger Moth, and Mark flew there in his L-5. Three road vehicles made the trip, and everyone arrived within ten minutes of each other. The weather couldn’t have been better with sunny skies and light winds.
A tour of the museum was held shortly after we arrived so we were able to get some detailed information on the planes no longer flying or restored for display.
They were able to put quite a few more planes in the air than during our last visit two years ago. A couple of the more temperamental planes were only hopped down the runway, but there was a good selection of aircraft.
This is the last season for Stanley Segala’a Flying Farmer routine. I’m glad I got to see it one more time. Stanley takes the Piper Cub and does a high performance (Well, as high as you can get in a Cub.) takeoff. Then he performs loops, rolls, and finishes with a engine-off landing where he stops the plane at the center of the runway to pick up the had he forgot to get when he left.
The show concluded on a tragic note though. The Nieuport 24 bis and Fokker DR1 tri-plane were doing a mock dogfight routine. They were going to do a head-on pass, but the Nieuport appeared to stall in the turn coming back to the field. The routines performed there are quite low, so the pilot was unable to recover and was killed in the crash. I was watching the Fokker at the time, so that is what I’ve heard from people watching the Nieuport. The pilot’s name is expected to be released tomorrow. According to NTSB records, there have been 10 accidents at, or near the Aerodrome in its history. This was the first one that was fatal.