IFlySlowPlanes

What a great little air show! I thought it was a bit expensive for what it was ($20?), but aside from that, it's what little air shows used to be like. no Blue Angels or Thunderbirds...but plenty of action with established acts like Sean Tucker and Jim Franklin (holy COW I loved the jet powered Waco!...every time he'd pour the coals to that thing on an upline, I'd laugh out loud at the sheer absurdity of it!). Can you just picture the night Franklin and his cohorts came up with the idea to strap a Lear engine on a 1946-ish Waco biplane? I'm betting mass quantities were consumed. Be that as it may, here are a few pics from the show. Sorry for the quality since the point and shoot digital is hard to use for action photos).

1 & 2) Jimmy Franklin doing his thing. The black paint job doesn't photograph well.

3) Local pilot looking like he's about to crash his Cub into the trees, but it's only the timeless "Flyin' Farmer" routine...this is one of the less crazy moments in the act....I swear I never get tired of this bit! Sorry I don't remember the pilot's name, but he restored this cub himself and he's clearly its master. Amazing skills! A cookie for anyone who can identify the odd taildragger on the ground in front of the Cub.

4) Sean Tucker after his usual amazing performance (darn that guy with the hat!). Ever get the impression this guy just plain LOVES what he does for a living?

Thanks for looking guys!

TOPGUNNER

that 3rd picture of the Cub doesn't look to good, it looks like its on its way to a very bad day.....

I'm sure he pulled out of the step dive right into the ground, but since you were there what did he do????

Dago Red

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the odd taildragger in the background is a plane[8D]

IFlySlowPlanes

That was the LEAST dramatic position that Cub was in all day! As I said before, the Flying Farmer routine is a classic. He pulls the thing straight up on takeoff....and I mean STRAIGHT up...just 50 feet in the air or so. You're thinking as you watch this, "He HAS to stall this thing...planes aren't meant to DO stuff like this!" And yet he always has complete control and recovers. There's a tremendous amount of skill required to be in control while making it appear for all the world as if you're completely OUT of control. If you haven't seen this bit done at an airshow (you were off getting a hot dog probably), you're really missing something amazing. I'm a real life pilot and both my friends are also, so you know the act is good when even we would gasp at some of his maneuvers. Good times...good times....

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I have seen the flying farmer at old rinbeck, all i can say about it is that he is damn good at looking bad

skier

I just saw the flying farmer at Rhineback. I didn't know a cub could do some of those things. but he pulled them off without much trouble