The Majestic B-24 flys over.
The Roberts Indy Airshow Experience at Mt. Comfort was a grand affair and a great event. Bruce says we will be back next year.
With German, British, Chinese, Russian and American vintage military planes on hand the war-birds from before WWII and after, were wonderful in there restored splendor. Among the bomber group there was a B-17, a rare B-24, a B-25 and a Dive Bomber as well as others.

Fighter Group solo photos.

Sean Tucker's Ribbon cutting ceremony,
We were treated to several aerobatic displays throughout the day, I heard I missed a wing walking demonstration, but I saw several biplane stunts each getting more daring than the previous. The cream of the Aerobatic crop was Team Oracle's Sean Tucker in his 1100 lb. 410 hp, Red Oracle Extreme biplane (check out the link).
Blue Angels Nose To Nose at over 450 MPH each.
Sean was talking live to the audience through 7+ G-load climbs and corkscrew spirals, but most impressive was the climb stall and backwards drop like old "Charlie from Texas" used to do it, then there was the ribbons. Suspended handheld just twenty-five feet above the runway were three sets of poles at 750 ft spacings, at 220 mph Sean turned the wings perpendicular to the ground, and sliced the first ribbon, rotated 180° for the next ribbon, then flipped the plane 270° in the opposite direction for the upside down "wheel" cut of the final ribbon. I got one shot (shown above) of the first ribbon just after the cut in front of the Roberts Chalet.
After the Oracle came the Finale show from the Blue Angels. Doing precision stunts and timed maneuvers for over 45 minutes. The time just melted away. Each breath taking moment followed by a more incredible one.
This is one moment where words alone are totally inadequate, mere words can only fail to describe it. Between three cameras Jenni and I brought home over 400 shots. Jeff Penn and Jason Stewart from Nikon loaned me a D200 DSLR with 70-200 AF-S 2.8 VR lens, and 210 of my photos were done with that amazing equipment. Brian Matsumoto and Mark Stephan from Canon were also on hand loaning camera gear to the over 80 Roberts guests and staff at the Chalet. I got one or two amazing shots including the 2 plane 450mph (each) cross directly over the Chalet. The Two plane "dirty" inverted over each other 250mph pass, and the Stacked pass of the primary 4 planes with wingtips 18 inches over canopies. The final farewell shot of the Angels as they headed back to Indianapolis International signaled the end of the day but not the memories.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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