I'm back... WOW, that was a lot of fun!! Nothing like seeing eight warbirds flying 50 feet off the deck, at 475 mph, wingtip to wingtip.
In one of the Sport races on Friday, there were two Maydays during the race, and an additional four Maydays after the final lap but before landing commenced. The chase plane had his hands full. Everyone got down safe.
Oh, and the warbird that started smoking bad, and pulled up and out of the course, calling Mayday... you should have seen all the oil plastered down the side of that bird when they towed him back to the pits.
Rare Bear's pilot almost had to bail out on Saturday, due to a gear malfunction... he was low on fuel after the race, and only one main gear would come down. Not sure why he'd bail rather than try to land with it like that, but he said that he would have bailed if the high-G pull he did as a last-ditch-effort (which WORKED, thank goodness!) hadn't pulled the gear down. He landed with no issues.
No crashes while we were there, though I heard a lady competitor died in early qualifications, before the event opened up.
Definitely something everyone should see!!
Oh, and the F22 demo team did their Freedom flight not only with a Mustang, but also a very special P-38 Lightning... Glacier Girl!
