Evansville Freedom Festival Hadi ShrinersFest Air Show

On Saturday, June 9, before the bicycle race I went down to the Evansville river front to see the air.

This is the best shot of the opening act. The flag was going west and the planes east. I was just a moment late on the shutter.






The next couple of shots are of a guy named Gary Ward flying an MX2.

The MX2 is a carbon fiber structure with a 350 HP motor. I guess the carbon fiber is what keeps the wings on when it does things planes aren't supposed to do.

Here is in a flat spiral spin basically falling out of the sky upside down.

I used a 120-400 mm lens on a gimbal head to take the pictures. Sort of like taking pictures of birds in flight.

Here is a closer look. I don't see how he keeps is stomach under control much less keeps track of where he is and which way is up and which way is down.

He has a nice website here -->  Gary Ward Aerobatics


Click any of the pictures to enlarge them.

These guys fly really low and fast.

Here he is flying sort of sideways.










These next couple of shots are of a plane associated with SCA or Sky Combat Ace. If you have some serious money you can go up and participate in a simulated dog fight.

You know they are low when you can see the reflection on the water.

They are based in Las Vegas. Next time you hit it big out there you should check it out.

The planes can pull up to 8 Gs. That is a lot.

Here is a link -->  Sky Combat Ace

I can't figure out what the devices on the end of the wings are.

This is twin Beech 18 piloted by Matt Younkin.This is basically a cargo aircraft but he can sure fly it.

I don't know if it is true but it seemed a little slower than the others but that might be just because it is bigger. It is certainly noisier.

He does rolls and loops in this thing.

It will be of some interest to a few family members that he is based in Siloam Springs, AR.

Here is a link to his website. -- >  Younkin Air

This is another carbon fiber composite aircraft. It is an MXS. I wonder if it is a sister of the MX2 earlier?

The pilot is Jim Weber.

He is right down on the river. There were a few boats on the shore and a lot more in the middle of the river watching the show. Barge traffic was halted.

Here's a link. --->  Tim Weber Air Shows

This is a Team RV coming is for the start of their multi-plane show.

The website says there are 12 but I only counted 11. I guess someone didn't make the trip.

These planes are all homemade. Most by the person flying it.

I don't recognize the left-hand plane from the website but the others are Jerry Morris, Ron Schreck, and Mike Stewart.

A couple more of the planes.

According to the web site the pilots of these 2 planes are Mike Stewart and Jerry Morris.

Here are 6 of them flying in close formation.

All eleven.

Here is a link to their website. -- >  Team RV

Here are Danny Kight, Tad Sargent, Greg Reese and James Clark.

They are really close to each other.






I demoted the Flag Counter to a lower position on the right-hand side of the blog. Seem to be stuck at 66 countries. The newest addition was Austria about a week ago.

Still missing 5 states - North Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico and Vermont. If you know someone there please send them a link to the blog. Thanks.

Here are links to a couple of recent postings - the bicycle race and the car show.
River City Bicycle Classic Race
Evansville Hadi Shriners Car Show