Air Expo a rousing success
By DAVE PAYNE Sr., dpayne@newsandsentinel.comWILLIAMSTOWN - Shortly after the Air Expo 2008 ended Sunday, two Navy F/A-18s shot down the runway at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport as a wall of noise ripped through the airport grounds.
All eyes turned skyward. Immediately after breaking the surly bonds of earth's gravity, the planes climbed vertically and within seconds disappeared into the clouds on their way back to Virginia.
"I don't care who you are," said Wood County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Deem, "that's impressive."
And that takeoff wasn't even part of the show.
There was plenty of excitement before the show ended and plenty of people to enjoy it. This year's event saw 23,000 people, an increase of about a thousand people who attended the last biennial air show in 2006, said Greg Smith, event organizer.
"We were at maximum capacity, I honestly don't know how we could have handled any more. This has been a wonderful air expo," Smith said Sunday.
Bad weather kept Robert Baranaskas' P-51 Mustang, which was scheduled to appear at the show, from leaving New York. While the extremely rare World War II U.S. fighter aircraft might be the last thing one could scrounge at the last minute, organizers were able to bring in Bill York with his P-51 from Maryland for an aerial performance.
During World War II, the P-51 played a crucial role in ending the German Luftwaffe's dominance of the skies, paving the way for not only Allied bombing of Germany, but D-Day as well. As an announcer said during the P-51 aerial display, "if not for the P-51, we'd all be speaking German right now."
In addition to numerous ground displays, there were other aerial displays as well, including a U.S. Navy F-18 demonstration, Chris Keegan monoplane aerial acrobatics, Mike Lakin Citabria acrobatics, a Cessna T-50 flight demonstration, Blennerhassett Area Radio Control Club, Vienna Sky Sharks and Flying Wing Nuts as well as the Mark Mondo candy drop, which sent thousands of children scurrying for candy dropped from a helicopter.
Parkersburg resident Steven Freshour brought his two grandchildren, Keygan, 4, and Hadley, 2, to the air show. For Keygan, it was a special treat.
"He's been fascinated with airplanes and helicopters. Even when he was a baby, he would look in the sky and say 'airplane, airplane,'" he said.
Freshour said he was amazed by the size of the crowd.
"This is my first time here, it took so long to get here with traffic the way it was, we missed a little bit of it, but it was a great show. Not only that, one of the guys that was here with the (West Virginia Air National Guard) C-130, I coached in Little League Baseball when he was a kid," Freshour said.
Musical performances Sunday included Jump Company USA, Pipes and Drums of St. Andrew, Stone Road, The Richards Brothers, The Fossils, Ohio Valley University Express and Johnny Staats.
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mariettaman
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09-29-08 1:24 PM
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GREAT SHOW!!! Thanks to all sponsors, volunteers and anyone else involved with putting this on. Great time with the kids!!
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BfromWV
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09-29-08 10:35 AM
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I would like to thank the organizers and their sponsors for another great Air show. All of the planes were exciting to watch and the Army Golden Knights were great as well. It is hard to beat the impressive site of one F-18 taking off let alone two of them. Looking forward to the next on in 2010.
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mythravere
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09-29-08 8:04 AM
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Dang I missed 2 F-18s taking off at the same time. Kicking myself in the rear for leaving early.
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