Eagle Mountain Airshow - Thunder over Porterville 2009

[Midnight Mover]

Eagle Mountain Airshow 2009

June 13, 2009

7:00AM - 5:00PM
Cost: $10.00

Featuring The Thunder Delfins L-29 jet demo team. The event will honor legendary airshow performer, Wayne Hanley.

Porterville Airport
1893 S. Newcomb
Porterville, CA

Contact Person: Chuck Carson
Phone: 559-289-0887
E-mail: upintheairpics@comcast.net

www.upintheairpictures.com

[phantomphan1974]

Spoke with John Collver yesterday and he left yesterday as well.  Forecast is for good weather up there. 
Told hime Jim was going.  Jim have a good time.

[gfydad]

Should be a blast. Will be hitting the road about 2am to get there in plenty of time for the balloon launch. 

[phantomphan1974]

Should be a blast. Will be hitting the road about 2am to get there in plenty of time for the balloon launch. 

Balloon Launch???

[NikonGuy]

Balloon Launch???

Yeah, im curious too lol...

[gfydad]

There should be a 6am hot air balloon launch tomorrow morning. 

[NikonGuy]

Ahhh cool.. 

[gfydad]

Could've lost Frank "Dr. D" Donnelly today. I just got back home and here is what occured. Frank was about 1/3 thru his demo when the left rubber cable snapped. He immediately went out to set up a long approach. The right cable, being intact, created a deflection which caused Frank's Taylorcraft to want to head right. He held his plane above the runway until he was past the crowdline (to his right). This meant landing long, about 2/3 of the way down. As such, he ran out of runway and, as soon as he reached the ploughed field about 1241 local time, the aircraft flipped over. The huge amount of dust and the visual of the aircraft flipping over made it look much worse than it actually was thank God. An EMT said that Frank was already out of the plane when they arrived.
Besides the rudder cable, there is, at the very least, a broken prop. I would imagine, especially of the prop was still turning when the plane nosed over, there will be some significant engine work to be done.
Tough aircraft + tough and extemely talented and knowledgeable pilot = good news. I talked with Frank a bit afterward and he showed no ill effects he even described the chain of events over the PA to the crowd. For the record it is, by FAA definition, an "incident" opposed to a "crash".

[rander]

I'm Happy he's OK and it sounds as though the aircraft is repairable.

[gfydad]

Yup and Yup, but it was scary.

[phantomphan1974]

Yeah, Kieth told me about this.  Glad he is ok and the plane sound repairable.   Good show otherwise?

[gfydad]

The demos were very good (as Frank's was before the cable broke). John Collver was right on. The Thunder Delphins dd a three ship as one member couldn't get out of his home base. Doug Jardine was great as usual.

A little thin on statics though, largely due to planes not making the trek from the south or the coast due to the June crud. What was there wasn't too bad though. Dan Card's Mermaid (Dan worked on the Voyager project in Mojave in the 80's and we caught up on things that's we've been doing these many years). Al Goss brought Warlock and there were some nice general aviation birds. Nick Baker brought his Waco for rides and there was also a Bell Jetranger providing rides.

Balloons did not go up although one did inflate. Too much breeze.

Wayne Handley was there and in very good spirits. Nice crowd also.

The was the second annual Thunder over Porterville and it went so well that I would believe there will be a third come next year. 

I'm still downloading 64Gb of images. 

[gfydad]

Oh yeah, and a Cal Fire demo with an S-2 & Broncho   

[phantomphan1974]

Oh yeah, and a Cal Fire demo with an S-2 & Broncho   

Can't wait for those.   Love the OV-10 Bronco!!!

[NikonGuy]

Yeah, Kieth told me about this.  Glad he is ok and the plane sound repairable.   Good show otherwise?

Ahhh, now I get the text you sent me Damon...