PHILLIPS, WIS. – There was someone obviously missing at this year’s Price County Fly-In & Air Show, July 2-3, 2010, Price County Airport, Phillips, Wisconsin. Air show performer, Joe Dooley, 56, of Hutchinson, Minnesota, who nurtured the show from its infancy, was absent. Everyone who knew Joe Dooley knew that the 2009 show would likely be his last, and it was. Cancer took his life on December 25, 2009.
Taxiing to the ramp, we could still feel Joe’s presence, and who knows, with a spirit as strong as his, who’s to say Price County Fly-In & Air Show that he was not there. An American Eagle hovering above certainly sent us a message.
Performers this year included Darrel Massman of Waupaca, Wis., in his Panzl aerobatic monoplane; Mike Love of Middleton, Wis., in his Yak-52 warbird; Peter Tallarita of New Richmond, Wis., flying a Pitts S-2B biplane; and Bill Cowden of Menomonie, Wis. in his RV8 monoplane. Serving as air boss was Joe Dooley’s widow, Cheryl Dooley, who flew her Glasair to the show. There was a twilight show on July 2, and a day show on July 3.
A fly-in breakfast was held at the Harbor View Pub & Eatery, located adjacent to the airport on Long Lake. Docking was available for floatplanes at Harbor View. Harbor View owners, Duane and Bonny Grube, are corporate sponsors of the show.
Also absent for the first time this year was the show’s producer, Price County Airport Manager Chris Hallstrand, who was deployed to Afghanistan with the Minnesota Air National Guard. Hallstrand is a crew chief on a C-130 Hercules based at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Hallstrand says that the fly-in and air show is the one time of the year he and the airport commission can showcase the airport to the community. The air show remains free to the public, and is sponsored by Price County Airport and the Phillips Area Chamber of Commerce.
Monitoring the show from the Milwaukee FAA Flight Standards District Office was Wesley Hakari of Luxemburg, Wis.
