Chino Planes of Fame Air Show takes to the skies - By Clark Cook, Editor

Chino, CA - What sounded like a re-enactment of the War over the Pacific for those living in the Inland Empire of Southern California and probably had residents scurrying out of their homes and looking skyward - was actually a flight of 5 F8F Bearcats - one of the the opening acts for the 2009 annual Planes of Fame Air Show that took place on May 16 and 17. This year's theme was "The Tough Built Aircraft of Grumman" and featured other Grumman models, including F6F Hellcats, J2F Duck, F3F Flying Barrel and 3 rare F7F Tigercats, one of them piloted by the famed Steve Hinton in a series of aerobatic maneuvers.

After the opening ceremonies, Margaret "Margi" Stivers and Hartley Folstad of Silver Wings Wingwalking took to the skies. Based here in Chino, Margi performed a series of thrilling wingwalking passes on a beautiful Stearman bi-plane. One of the fine qualities of Margi is she always greets the crowd after her performance and signs autographs. Three years ago, Margi performed her 1,000th wingwalk here in Chino in front of an estimated 10,000 people.

After last year's absence at Chino due to a serious airplane crash in Northern California, Rob Harrison and his Tumbling Bear act mesmerized the crowd once again in a high energy aerobatic performance. Rob has made an amazing recovery and even more amazing, he was back in the air within a year of the accident. After the performance, Harrison was presented with a Certificate of Achievement from a local congressman as his lovely wife Susie and Planes of Fame founder Ed Maloney looked on. Other civilian acts included a flight of seven RV homebuilt aircraft making several passes and a formation "break" over the runway.

What sounded like a parade of Great American "muscle" cars, several aircraft representing the European Air War taxied past the crowd prior to taking off. A number of aircraft included the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustangs, B-25 Mitchells, P-40 warhawks, F6F Hellcats, Yak-3, and a very rare British Fairey Firefly. Aircraft representing the Pacific Air War included the SBD Dauntless, TBM Avenger, F4U Corsairs, F6F Hellcats, VAL Replica, FM-2, P-40 Warhawk, P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustangs, a rare authentic Japanese ZERO and two F7F Tigercats. All of the aircraft performed a series of "banana" passes making for wonderful photographic/video opportunities and what was called "music" to many warbird fans. Shortly after the "round motors" were recovered, two rivals, a Korean era F-86 Sabre jet and a MiG 15 launched and performed a mock "dogfight" with a nice pass in formation to the delight of the crowd.

If you ever wanted to know what one of the first Blue Angels performances looked and sounded like, the crowd at Chino had this rare opportunity. Dubbed "The Flying Horsemen", three F8F Bearcats performed a series of precise maneuvers in tight formation. The last time a formation team flew Bearcats was in 1946 by the Navy's own Blue Angels which made this event even more exceptional. The members that make up this team are Jim Beasley, Dan Friedkin, and Ed Shipley.

A favorite performance in many past Planes of Fame air shows, Brian Sanders took to the skies performing a series of high speed passes in his Hawker Sea Fury dubbed "Argonaut". Smoke generators were mounted on each wingtip, demonstrating the effects of wingtip vortices - tubes of circulating air which are left behind a wing as it generates lift. The smoke clearly illustrated the effects of the vortices when the trails from each wing "broke" and joined each other forming circles or rings. Sanders competes in the unlimited class at the Reno Air Races.

As Sanders' performance concluded, several warbirds were on takeoff roll for the mass gaggle of warbirds flyby. More than fifteen warbirds, including a rare formation of three F7F Tigercats in formation made fly-bys high over the runway, which literally stopped people on the airfield and most likely those many miles away within the flight path. This mass formation is the only one of a kind in the Western United States.

Modern military Air Show acts included a demonstration of the A-10 "Warthog" from the A-10 West Demo Team. Base at Davis Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona, Major Paul "Harb" Brown demonstrated the close air support tactics through a series of strafing and high speed passes, combined with several minimum radius turns. After the A-10 demo concluded, two P-51 Mustangs and a P-38 Lightning joined up with Maj. Brown for the Heritage Flight. As the Heritage Flight broke formation over show center, A C-17 Globemaster III from nearby March Air Reserve Base was on the taxi roll. Known for its short takeoff capability and slow flight characteristics, this wide body transport performed a series of tight turns and a pass at no more than 80 miles an hour in front of the crowd. Upon landing, the C-17 stopped well within the distance of half of the runway and even backed up under its own power!

In addition to all the flying acts, several aircraft, old and new were on static display. The general public was also able to tour the C-17 before its performance. Many of the warbirds that flew in the air show and many others are based right here at Chino. The Planes of Fame Air Museum was the first permanent air museum west of the Rocky Mountains. It officially opened to the public in January 1957 with an initial collection of six aircraft. Currently, Planes of Fame houses over 150 aircraft at its two locations, the main facility at Chino Airport near Ontario, California and a satellite museum near the Grand Canyon at Valle Airport in Arizona. For more information, please visit their website at www.planesoffame.org