WIX Archives

Porter County Airshow, Valparaiso, Indiana

Posted by Jim Church on Mon Aug 25, 2003 01:44:23 PM

Just got home from a wonderful weekend in Valparaiso, Indiana. Jim Reed and Cathy Harrell of the Indiana Aviation Museum hosted their first airshow, and it was a good one. Besides a few 'civilian' aerbatic acts (Jimmy Franklin, Jim Maroney, Kent Pietsch), it was mostly a Warbird show. One of the many highlights was the fantastic 'Dueling Mustang' act of Vlado Lenoch and Dale Snodgrass. Following their routine they both formed up on the Shaw AFB East Coast Demo F-16 for the Heritage Flight. The line up at the show (as I recall,it varied over the weekend) consisted of:

The Lima Lima T-34 team (6-ship, Friday night only)
-plus another 5 or so T-34s present over the weekend-
Bill Leff T-6 aerobatics (Friday night only)
'Scream N'Rebel' T-6 formation team (Jim Greeson, Dave Folk, Duane Carroll and Bob Pingston)
-around 8-10 T-6s were present over the weekend-
CAF Missouri Wing B-25 'Show Me'
Mike George's F4U-5 Corsair
Jim Reed's F4U-5 Corsair, P-51D Mustang, A-37 Dragonfly, T-34, T-28, T-6 PT-17 and L-2.
Tim Savage's Beech C-45
Chuck Greenhill's Grumman Goose
Tom Buck's TBM Avenger
Vlado Lenoch's P-51D
Tom Wood's F8F-1 Bearcat
Jim Maroney's DH Chipmunk
Jimmy Franklin's jet-powered Waco 'Mystery Ship'
Kent Pietsch (unbelievable crazy-flying act)
F-16 East Coast Demo Team, Shaw AFB (2 aircraft present)
F-18 demo (2 aircraft present)
A-10 (2 Mich. AFRES aircraft on static)
T-45 Gosshawk (static display)
Indiana National Guard Huey (static display)
B-2 Spirit fly by (Saturday only)
Rob Lock's New Standard D-25 (giving rides)
3 L-39s
2 PT-17 Stearmans
L-17 Navion
O-2 Skymaster
LOTS of WWII reienactors with restored millitary vehicles-

The 'Dueling Mustangs' were great, and I hope Dale and Vlado will consider taking this act on the road. Each would perform several aerobatic maneuveres, then exit the display 'box' for the other to come in and perform his maneuveres. Kind a 'anything you can do, I can do better' deal, and it worked very well. Lots of low passes too! They finished their rputine by landing from opposite ends of the same runway!!!! Again, a great show, and one that I hope Jim and Cathy will consider doing again in the future. WIX members that I saw included Tim savage (with son Job in the C-45) and Mint Moore III. Did anyone else show up? Pat? Jim

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