Learning the rules

50th Vinton County Air Show, Sept. 26, 2021

The 50th annual Vinton County Air Show was to have been held in September 2020, but it got postponed a year because 2020.

The county has a population of less than 13,000, yet more than a thousand people turned out for the event, on a perfectly beautiful autumn day.

Skydivers, pilots, rocketeers, and airplane modelers demonstrated their skills -- and all, it turned out, live in Ohio.

26 Sep 2021

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Learning the rules

Before an airshow begins, there's a pilots meeting. It is where they learn everything from radio frequencies to the part of the sky reserved for the show.

26 Sep 2021

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Some come for the chicken dinner . . .

. . . and stay for the airshow, while others come for the airshow and stay for the chicken dinner. Still others come for both.

26 Sep 2021

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The show begins on a patriotic note

Flying the American flag, Ted Williams and his fellow jumpers opened the show.

26 Sep 2021

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What colors is your parachute?

The show began with a parachute exhibition. Here's Bob Church of nearby Albany, Ohio.

26 Sep 2021

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Upside down and headed groundward

Emerson Stewart III of Waynesville, Ohio put his Champion Sky-Trac through its paces as the first aerobatic plane to fly on a perfect Sunday afternoon.

26 Sep 2021

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Just upside down now

A Champion Sky-Trac, upside down.

26 Sep 2021

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Almost stopped at the top of the sky

It's called a hammerhead stall. And it's best performed with some sky below you.

26 Sep 2021

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1 comment

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Sideways and smoking, near the ground

Airplanes under control aren't normally in this attitude. They're sure as hell not normally at this attitude this low. When he's not throwing his Pitts Special around the sky, Roberrt "Tico" LaCerda flies a different plane, called a 747. Really.

26 Sep 2021

59 visits

It's called a spin

Student pilots are taught that if their airplane goes into a spin, they need to take their hands off the yoke and kick opposite rudder. Tico LaCerda knows this. That's why the corkscrew does not end at the ground.
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