Gentlemen,
I received a note on Facebook yesterday from a friend of mine named Vic Cleary. Vic was one of the organizers of the Cox Communications Phoenix 500 Air Races held in 1999 at Williams Gateway Airport in Arizona. In addition to the air racing there were some airshow performances scheduled that included United States Air Force Captain Matt Beal flying a demonstration in the F-15 Eagle and yours truly performing in my Glasair III. During the pilot briefing the morning of the show Matt and I found out that we would be flying back to back. He had become a good friend over the previous two years as we had performed many airshows together and I had even let him take my Glasair III up to show him what a REAL aerobatic aircraft could do!
I could not resist the temptation, given that we would be in the air at the same time, to suggest that we should do a very high speed formation flyby in between our two performances. This stunt would be most illegal and obviously very public to boot. US military pilots are strictly forbidden from flying formation with civilian aircraft with one exception. World War II military fighters whose owners have undergone special training are allowed to perform what are called "Heritage Flights" where current modern military jets do a formation pass at an airshow to display past and present military aircraft together in a patriotic display.
My Glasair III was obviously not a military aircraft, I had not undergone the Air Forces mandatory training, Captain Beal had not gone through Heritage Flight training either, and the on-field FAA monitors were neither aware nor had they given their authorization for such an off-the-cuff stunt. Given all that, Matt's answer to my suggestion was, "Hell yeah, that's exactly what we should do!".
I watched Captain Beals aerobatic performance in the F-15 Eagle from above as I was flying a holding pattern in the staging area just outside where he was performing. When he finished he pointed his F-15 in my direction and hit the afterburner to join up with me. My plane is very small, painted white, and against the clear blue sky he couldn't see me. Closing in fast at about 500 mph I radioed him and said "Matt do you have me in sight? You are about to center punch me! " "I can't see you" he called back and so I turned on my smoke briefly. The moment he had me in sight I started a wide left-hand turn and pointed the nose of my little aircraft downhill. Matt joined up on my left wing at about 275 mph. Throttle, mixture, and prop pitch all to the firewall and as I headed downhill toward the runway threshold we passed through 300, 325, 350, and neared 400 mph as we reach the approach end of the runway and I leveled off at about 30 feet and turned my smoke on again. The F-15 looked and felt enormous off my left wing. I could hear and feel the shock wave from its monstrous engines and when I looked over Matt was grinning ear to ear and so was I.
To quote the great philosopher Ferris Bueller during his day off, "Sometimes you just have to say, What the ****!" I knew there would be hell to pay when I finally got back on the ground after my performance and Matt knew he would have some explaining to do as well. But here we were, the first, the last, and the only time anyone would ever see an experimental, nonmilitary, civilian aircraft performing in an airshow with a current United States military fighter. It was freaking awesome and every other performer in the show was pissed that they were not a part of it.
On the ground, my propeller had not even stopped before the FAA monitors got to my aircraft to ask me what the hell I was doing. I didn't want to tell them the truth which was of course that it is always easier to seek forgiveness than permission. A permission that in this case, would never have been granted. And so I blundered through a series of feigned ignorance and apologies hoping they would not violate me or suspend my license.
Captain Beal self-reported himself to his commanding officer before he could be reported. He told his CO that he had made an error in judgment. That the airshow had some dead space in between two acts and asked him if he would mind doing a flyby with Chip Beck, a pilot that he knew well and who he knew would be safe to fly close formation with. That on the spur of the moment he had agreed to help the show out. But upon reflection he knew that it was a mistake that he would never repeat. His commanding officer gave him a mild reprimand and told him he appreciated his self-reporting and that that the incident was over. I ended up receiving a tongue lashing but no violation. All's well that ends well.
The entire event was videotaped but at the end the show organizers told me that the cameras were not rolling in between Matt's and my performances because they did not know we would be ad-libbing a formation flyby so I thought the incident was lost for posterity. Until last night when Vic Cleary was reviewing some old airshow footage and he came across it and put it up on Facebook. So here it is, the most unique Heritage Flight ever performed at an airshow in the United States and one that will never be repeated. Chip Beck and Captain Matt Beal doing a 400 mile-per-hour formation pass at the Phoenix 500 Air Races.
"Life moves pretty fast, and if you don't stop and look around once in a while, it just might miss it".
Chip
[video=youtube;PtX01zufCDU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtX01zufCDU[/video]
I received a note on Facebook yesterday from a friend of mine named Vic Cleary. Vic was one of the organizers of the Cox Communications Phoenix 500 Air Races held in 1999 at Williams Gateway Airport in Arizona. In addition to the air racing there were some airshow performances scheduled that included United States Air Force Captain Matt Beal flying a demonstration in the F-15 Eagle and yours truly performing in my Glasair III. During the pilot briefing the morning of the show Matt and I found out that we would be flying back to back. He had become a good friend over the previous two years as we had performed many airshows together and I had even let him take my Glasair III up to show him what a REAL aerobatic aircraft could do!
I could not resist the temptation, given that we would be in the air at the same time, to suggest that we should do a very high speed formation flyby in between our two performances. This stunt would be most illegal and obviously very public to boot. US military pilots are strictly forbidden from flying formation with civilian aircraft with one exception. World War II military fighters whose owners have undergone special training are allowed to perform what are called "Heritage Flights" where current modern military jets do a formation pass at an airshow to display past and present military aircraft together in a patriotic display.
My Glasair III was obviously not a military aircraft, I had not undergone the Air Forces mandatory training, Captain Beal had not gone through Heritage Flight training either, and the on-field FAA monitors were neither aware nor had they given their authorization for such an off-the-cuff stunt. Given all that, Matt's answer to my suggestion was, "Hell yeah, that's exactly what we should do!".
I watched Captain Beals aerobatic performance in the F-15 Eagle from above as I was flying a holding pattern in the staging area just outside where he was performing. When he finished he pointed his F-15 in my direction and hit the afterburner to join up with me. My plane is very small, painted white, and against the clear blue sky he couldn't see me. Closing in fast at about 500 mph I radioed him and said "Matt do you have me in sight? You are about to center punch me! " "I can't see you" he called back and so I turned on my smoke briefly. The moment he had me in sight I started a wide left-hand turn and pointed the nose of my little aircraft downhill. Matt joined up on my left wing at about 275 mph. Throttle, mixture, and prop pitch all to the firewall and as I headed downhill toward the runway threshold we passed through 300, 325, 350, and neared 400 mph as we reach the approach end of the runway and I leveled off at about 30 feet and turned my smoke on again. The F-15 looked and felt enormous off my left wing. I could hear and feel the shock wave from its monstrous engines and when I looked over Matt was grinning ear to ear and so was I.
To quote the great philosopher Ferris Bueller during his day off, "Sometimes you just have to say, What the ****!" I knew there would be hell to pay when I finally got back on the ground after my performance and Matt knew he would have some explaining to do as well. But here we were, the first, the last, and the only time anyone would ever see an experimental, nonmilitary, civilian aircraft performing in an airshow with a current United States military fighter. It was freaking awesome and every other performer in the show was pissed that they were not a part of it.
On the ground, my propeller had not even stopped before the FAA monitors got to my aircraft to ask me what the hell I was doing. I didn't want to tell them the truth which was of course that it is always easier to seek forgiveness than permission. A permission that in this case, would never have been granted. And so I blundered through a series of feigned ignorance and apologies hoping they would not violate me or suspend my license.
Captain Beal self-reported himself to his commanding officer before he could be reported. He told his CO that he had made an error in judgment. That the airshow had some dead space in between two acts and asked him if he would mind doing a flyby with Chip Beck, a pilot that he knew well and who he knew would be safe to fly close formation with. That on the spur of the moment he had agreed to help the show out. But upon reflection he knew that it was a mistake that he would never repeat. His commanding officer gave him a mild reprimand and told him he appreciated his self-reporting and that that the incident was over. I ended up receiving a tongue lashing but no violation. All's well that ends well.
The entire event was videotaped but at the end the show organizers told me that the cameras were not rolling in between Matt's and my performances because they did not know we would be ad-libbing a formation flyby so I thought the incident was lost for posterity. Until last night when Vic Cleary was reviewing some old airshow footage and he came across it and put it up on Facebook. So here it is, the most unique Heritage Flight ever performed at an airshow in the United States and one that will never be repeated. Chip Beck and Captain Matt Beal doing a 400 mile-per-hour formation pass at the Phoenix 500 Air Races.
"Life moves pretty fast, and if you don't stop and look around once in a while, it just might miss it".
Chip
[video=youtube;PtX01zufCDU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtX01zufCDU[/video]
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