Commie Invasion - Flying with the Red Stars
Every year the company that I work for does the website of the local airshow as comp work in exchange for a little advertising. I’ve personally built the site the last 5 or 6 years. The airshow was this weekend.
Anyway, the different acts give a limited number of rides to the big airshow sponsors depending on availability and scheduling. This year the airshow folks offered up a pair of rides for my boss and me. So Thursday afternoon (6.22.06) the boss went up with the Lima Lima Flight Team and I took a flight with the Red Stars.
The Red Stars fly in mass formation. I originally thought I would be flying with a pack of 16 to 20 planes. Instead I went up in a group of 7 planes. Not quite as impressive as a 20 plane formation, but still something pretty rare to see today.
I was paired up with a pilot and we headed out to the planes to get suited up in a parachute and settled in. When we got to the plane my pilot told me we weren’t going to worry about the parachutes. “We’re not gonna be high enough that you’d get to use it anyway”. Instead, he told me ” If I need to put her down I’ll tell you to open the hatch just before we crash so it will already be open. Wait for the plane to completely stop before you undo the 5-point restraint and climb out”. Piece of cake!
We sat and waited for the other planes to get ready and I snapped a few photos. These planes were designed as trainer planes, so all the controls are in the back seat as well. On the left near my knee was the throttle. I had to keep my knee out of the way of it as it would be moving during flight by the pilots action. No, problem except right in my lap was the stick. I was told it would be swinging around while in flight and to keep my legs out of the way of it too. All of a sudden the cockpit was starting to feel a little cramped! On the right side was some kind of emergency release for the landing gear. I didn’t even ask about that one.
Here is my view looking forward at the back of the pilot’s head from my seat in back.
The other planes in our group were still getting ready. We saved time in preparation by forgoing that whole parachute thing
As we waited, two of the Lima Lima planes head out to start their flight. My boss is in one of these two planes.
Finally everybody is ready and we start our prop and line up to ask for clearance from the tower.
When these planes are on the ground the nose is tipped up in the air making it impossible for the pilot to see over the nose of the plane. So on the ground the pilot snakes the plane along a zigzag pattern looking out the sides of the cockpit to see where he is going.
All of the planes line up and turn sideways to wait for the final “go” to enter the runway, which gave me a great view of this red CJ. There is a commercial jet in our airspace and I hear the tower warn him to keep an eye out for 7 Chinese prop fighters. The pilot of the jet responds in a bewildered tone, “I’ll keep my eye out for the unexpected”!
We are going to take off in formation. Three planes in a wedge, followed by one solo plane, then another wedge of three. The plane I’m in will be the point of the second wedge so we have a plane right off both our left and right wing. Four planes line up in front of us and take off. Then it’s our turn.
This green CJ carrying a local tv camera man as a passenger will be on our left wing for the flight.
We get airborne and I snap a shot of glorious downtown Springy-G at the tip of our commie stared left wing.
I look back at the green CJ and the camera man has the hatch open. At one point later in the flight I looked back and saw him hanging out with the camera. I have no idea what channel he was with, but I bet he got some great footage.
We fly past the local mall heading south towards Chatham.
We catch up to the four planes that took off before us to join their formation.
When we reach them the planes on our right and left wing move ahead to join the line. We form a christmas tree formation with our plane in the back in the trunk position and buzz around above Lake Springfield.
The I-55 bridge over Lake Springfield just south of town.
We fly several turns in formation.
One of the turns is at a pretty steep roll and I get a good view of the ground and this famer’s bean crop
After probably 10 or 15 minutes of formation flight our two wing men fall back into their original positions on our right and left wing.
At one point I look at the gauges, just over 120mph
We circle around the lake and up the east side of Springfield to prepare our landing approach.
As we come around I snap another shot of downtown Springfield
Our approach brings us past the Illinois State Fairgrounds…
and Lincoln’s Tomb
We return to Capitol Airport for a nice smooth landing.
Our string of seven planes roll back to the hanger.
After the flight I get some shots of the planes. This Yak was on our right wing for the flight.
And here is the plane I was flying in.
