Wings Over Homestead 2010

Over the years, we've had some long air show days, but today was certainly one of the longest. We were away from home for over 15 hours, getting home just after 11:00PM. And the best part about it; the mood of everyone involved was high all day.

We started the day early and drove to the LoPresti factory in Sebastian for their monthly "first Saturday" get-together. When we arrived, Susan made a donation for breakfast and Andrew was given his choice of tiny toy airplanes. He chose an F16; that's my boy! The donation supports a local cause. This month, the local cause was a shelter for animals. The owners were there and had five dogs in search of a new home. Andrew met them all and enjoyed be sniffed and licked on.

This month's featured attraction was J. W. 'Corkey' Fornhof. You probably never heard of him, but I'm pretty sure you've seen his work. These days, he's the demonstration pilot for LoPresti, flying their fabulous little Fury two seat airplane, which he demonstrated again today. But prior to that, he was known for his aerial scenes in many Hollywood movies, including the James Bond movie "Octopussy", where he flies the tiny Bede 5 jet through an open hangar, and the John Travolta movie "Face Off", where he crashes a biz jet into a hangar. He also worked with Harrison Ford in "Seven Days Seven Nights". To see a full list of credits, check out his page on the Internet Movie Database.

But the best thing about him is that he is a genuinely nice guy. He stood up in front of the small group gathered and talked about his childhood - growing up the son of a Navy test pilot, whose good friend was a famous Air Force test pilot named Bob Hoover. He learned to fly in a military trainer - the T-6 Texan - and soon stepped up into Bob Hoover's P-51 Mustang, in which he toured the air show circuit with his dad and Hoover. And then he met Bede and was asked to test the Bede 5 jet, which led to commercial spots and the James Bond movie.

Through it all, he charmed the crowd with his matter of fact talk and his down to earth humility. He talked a little about actors, a lot about his safety team, and he even talked about some of his biggest mistakes. During the filming of the jet crashing into the hangar, he brought along his young (about six at the time) daughter. The scene included helicopters and police cars chasing the plane across the ramp. After crashing through the glass hangar wall at 60 knots, the plane finally came to rest on its nose (nose gear collapsed) exactly where the engineers said it would. His daughter then said to him, "Daddy, don't ever do that again. And now they're taking you to jail."

After his talk, he walked outside and fired up the Fury. By then it was getting late and we still had a long drive ahead of us. We left as Corkey performed barrel rolls and low passes over the field. Check out the Fury site for details about the plane, and be sure to watch the video, in which Corkey directed, did all the flying, and narrated.

Next stop... Homestead Air Reserve Base for Wings Over Homestead.

According to the website, the gates to the base were to remain open for free parking until 3:00PM. According to the GPS, our ETA was 2:52PM when we left Sebastian. Uh-oh. No problem; the Honda Fit was built for speed, with its low profile Goodyear Eagle GT tires and wide open turnpike ahead. The further south we drove, the earlier our ETA became. By the time we pulled off the turnpike, our ETA was 2:25PM! Unfortunately, the base was already closed to civilian parking. We pulled into the $10 lot, finally got parked, and started our long walk back to the base entrance. I was very pleased to see that Andrew was revved up for the show. He was doing his own little air show with his new F16 toy.

We were already late for the start of the air show, but that was expected and planned from the get-go. Our goal was to make it in time to see the Blue Angels, then take some time to explore the static displays afterwards. Once through security, we caught a tram - nice touch - to the flight line. As we approached, the Blue Angels' maintenance plane - Fat Albert - was just starting to roll. We found a good viewing spot near the fence, just west of show center.

Once Fat Albert was back on the ground, the Blues' announcer got on the PA and started the show. After introducing the pilots, the team climbed into their F/A-18's and prepared to fly. Soon, the four diamond pilots rolled to the east end of the runway, while the soloists rolled to the west end. The boss announced "Power up, smoke on" the the four planes started rolling our direction. Once off the ground, they climbed and circled back over the field and the two soloists took off to the east in trail.

To my eyes, the show was absolutely perfect. The formations were extremely tight. The soloists' near-miss passes were amazingly close. They seemed so close that a zoom lens would be too much. The show was fantastic; definitely worth the drive. Speaking of cameras, I unfortunately left mine at home on the shelf. I realized this mistake about 40 miles south of Melbourne. Oh well...

After the show, we started looking at the static displays. I tried my darnedest to educate Andrew and Susan on the differences between the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18 that were parked in a row. To Andrew, it is all about the number of engines. I pointed out that the F-16 is the only modern U. S. fighter with just one engine. And the main visual difference between the F-15 and F/A-18 is the angle of the tail wings (F-15 - vertical; F/A-18 - slanted).

Delta Air Lines had a Boeing 757 on the line and open to the public. We walked through, but I was disappointed to see the cabin door closed. Outside, they had a Mini Cooper dressed up like a commercial jet. Halloween was last week, wasn't it??

Next up was the C-5 Galaxy. This has always been my favorite cargo plane. It is GINORMOUS! These days, it's rare to see one. They were shutting it down to visitors when we arrived, but Andrew did get a chance to run up and down the rear ramp a couple times.

We also walked around a few other planes, including a KC-10 tanker, a C-17 cargo plane, a B-52 bomber, and the totally awesome B-1 bomber. The F-16 display was surrounded by the arsenal of bombs and missiles that it can carry. On the way out, Susan captured a few shots of the F-16 statue, glowing in the evening "magic light".

It was now 7:00PM and we were over three hours from home, the car was almost out of gas, and we were hungry. Even so, Susan called some friends to try to arrange quick visits. Funny thing, they were both planning to see a movie. Hmm, is that the new code phrase for "no, we don't want to see you." :-)

Driving around Miami in the dark is a challenge, even with a GPS. My GPS is actually a Droid phone with a navigation app. Unlike my true GPS, it doesn't nag me endlessly about staying right to remain on the main route. As a result, we quickly found ourselves off the turnpike and on some state route that was under heavy construction. The speed quickly dropped and we passed two crashes in the slowdown. During this time I was unable to catch even a single glimpse of the skyline. How did they hid Miami so well? Eventually, we got ourselves onto I-95 heading north. We stopped for gas, then drove a few miles up highway 1 to a Panera Bread in Boca Raton.