by Geoff Sobering
Melissa Pemberton whirls her Edge 540 at the Southern Wisconsin Airfest, Janesville, Wisconsin.
It would be hard to imagine better air show weather than May 28-29, 2010 for the Southern Wisconsin Airfest in Janesville, Wisconsin. Three days of warm weather and nearly CAVU (Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited) conditions let the audience really enjoy the performances, and certainly helped with the high attendance.
Most air shows are happy to get one of the military jet teams, but this year Airfest organizers got both the United States Air Force Thunderbirds and the Canadian Forces Snowbirds. The distinctive styles of the two teams really complemented each other, and the show was rounded out with an equally outstanding collection of civilian and military demo teams.
Fans of loud jets got their “fix” from both the U.S. Air Force F-16 “Viper West” and U.S. Navy F-18 tactical demonstration teams. Susan Dacy and her Stearman, “Big Red,” gave a classic barnstormer’s performance. The U.S. Army “Golden Knights” provided the parachute demonstrations. While unable to leave the tarmac like the other performers, Les Shockley’s “Super Shockwave” jet-truck nevertheless entertained. For the “high-energy” end of the aerobatic spectrum, Airfest featured both Melissa Pemberton and Skip Stewart.
Pemberton is a rapidly rising star in the air show business. Watching her perform in her Edge 540, it is hard to imagine that she only started flying aerobatics seven years ago after seeing the “Stars of Tomorrow” at EAA AirVenture-Oshkosh 2003. Her drive is so intense that only two years later she was a member of the 2005 “Stars of Tomorrow” team herself.
Skip Stewart is one of the best of the “high-energy” air show performers. His solo aerobatic performance is outstanding, but the most exciting acts are the multi-performer extravaganzas. At Airfest, Skip and his Pitts S-2S “Prometheus,” were part of the “Tin Stix” act along with Melissa Pemberton in her Edge 540, Les Shockley with his Super Shockwave jet truck, and Rich’s Incredible Pyro providing an “explosive” backdrop. The combination of high-performance aircraft screaming around the sky with Shockwave belching smoke and fire, along with explosions going off in the background, is perhaps the most dramatic performance in the current air show repertoire.
Airfest has adopted a very successful three-day format. Friday starts with media-day and practice performances by all the teams in the early afternoon. The public show starts Friday evening at 5:00 pm with a full performance by everyone except the Thunderbirds. The airport grounds open Saturday and Sunday at 9:00 am. The show’s opening ceremonies start at 11:30, and the Golden Knights start the aerial part of the show with their parachute demo at noon. The schedule mixes civilian and military performers so that no matter what your preference, there is always something interesting in the air.
This year I decided to do something a little different, so I volunteered to help with Rich and Dee Gibson’s pyrotechnics team. Setup started at 6:00 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, so it made for a long day by the time we hustled out the gates just before the Thunderbirds took off in the late afternoon. It was completely worth it. The group is composed of great people, and everyone works hard to get the special effects setup safely. As a “first-timer,” I was surprised that I was able to help out as much as I did. After receiving instruction on the proper technique, I found myself connecting the pieces of detonating cord for the “Wall of Fire” and helping out with various other tasks. Not surprisingly, much of the setup time is spent placing and filling plastic bags of gasoline for the wall-of-fire and other fireball effects. With a bag every 10 feet, even a “short” 1,000-foot wall-of-fire takes a lot of bags!
Rich Gibson is very focused on safety, with a complete safety briefing every day before starting with the setup. Interestingly, Rich’s biggest safety concern at Janesville was someone tripping and injuring themselves in one of the many animal burrows scattered everywhere across the field we were working on.
