View of the main War Eagles Air Museum hangar, with door open to show aircraft and antique auto display. In front of the chain-link barrier fence and by the FASF horizontal sign you can make out FASF Vice President Kathleen Martin and Airfield Site Planning Chair, Bill Madden at the FASF Information Table just to the left of the open chain link gate at mid photo.
For the first time in its 31 year running tradition in El Paso, Texas, the “Amigo Airsho” (AAS) basically started all over from scratch this past weekend, when they held the event in their new location in the nearby New Mexico town of Santa Teresa.
Braving the stiff breeze on opening day, are Bill Madden at left, and Dr. Kathleen Martin on the right, busily setting up the FASF Information Table in readiness for the opening bell.
Invited by both the show’s management team and the well known War Eagles Air Museum (WEAM), at Santa Teresa International Jetport, to join the show, your FASF chipped in with its own volunteers to help the War Eagles present itself to the general public and to further spread the word about the FASF and its mission.
While the old show in El Paso had worked up to crowds of almost 100,000 attendees over its weekend events, this time the crowds were much smaller, but they still met the expectations for the brand new venue of about 12,000 show visitors – and this was without any of the usual heavy pre-show promotional advertising. All in all, both the show staff and the War Eagles administration were pleased with the attendance – and with the public’s hearty endorsement of the new venue in neighboring New Mexico. As a direct result of the largest crowd to ever gather at the Jetport, the War Eagles Air Museum was able to pick up almost 200 new members in just two days!
Amigo Airsho Official (L) and George Guerra (R), WEAM Operations Officer, chatting in front of the FASF Table at the Air Show. FASF Volunteer from the Las Cruces EAA Chapter, Col. Carlos Galson, is by Table at Left and FASF VP Dr. Martin, is on the Right.
Volunteers manning the FASF information table on Saturday were members Bill Madden, Dr. Kathleen Martín, Ric Lambart and EAA 555 Chapter member, Col. Carlos Galson. At Sunday’s show, FASF VP John Orton, Trustee Candidate Roy Mantei, and Ric Lambart came out to help. Both groups of FASF members helped persuade a number of AirSho goers to join the WEAM during the event.
Over a hundred copies of our Fall Newsletter, the Aerodrome, along with FASF membership applications were passed out to the show visitors, and hundreds of other show attendees were informed for the first time about the FASF Mission and its upcoming plans for the once-in-a-lifetime Centennial Celebration for 2016 in Columbus.
Among those attending the AirSho and who visited or who engaged with the FASF volunteers were NM Congressman Steve Pearce, Airsho CEO Pancho Mangan, Airsho Board President, Roxie Samaniego, WEAM Executive Director Bob Dockendorf, Museum Operations Manager George Guerra, museum’s Airsho Volunteer Coordinator Esther Juarez.
The FASF is grateful to those who took so much of their valuable personal time to participate in the weekend aviation extravaganza and to help more of the public learn about the Foundation and its objectives.
Below are some photos of the various aviation displays and aerial aerobatics caught in action during the show.
* Incidentally, while you might think your reporter is consistently misspelling Airshow by “forgetting” the “w” at the end of “sho,” the correct spelling of this particular aviation spectacular is actually the “AMIGO AIRSHO” without the “w!”
This amazing schoolbus is jet powered. It raced several airplanes down the long runway, beating them at a speed clocked at 385 MPH at one point! It goes so fast, its brakes won’t stop it, requiring a drogue chute to do the job. This is faster than any Indianopolis race car ever went during a qualifying speed run!
A sudden downpour on Sunday didn’t manage to stop the show for long, and gave all present a beautiful rainbow bonus.
The FASF Sunday Air Show crew are seen at work. On left is FASF member and Trustee candidate, Roy Mantei, who has just helped set up the Info Table with Trustee Col. John Orton on right.
FASF Fan with Trustee John Orton and Member Roy Mantei waiting under the hangar’s cover for the rain to stop.
Roy Mantei and Col. John Orton, with visiting friend from San Francisco, checking their iPhones to see when the bad weather would break.
Kyle Franklin waves to crowd from his customized Waco Biplane at the Amigo Airsho. His aerobatic skill was put on full display and he roared by the crowd inverted, or going straight up till stalling and then falling back down through his own smoke trail. After the show your reporter was amazed to visit Kyle as he literally removed the wings from his plane in order to pack them into his special travel trailer. The beautiful Waco ship carries so little fuel, only enough for its aerobatic routine, that it can’t fly cross-country any distance. The fuel aboard is only good for about a half hour in the air. Too much fuel would not only make the plane too heavy, but also create excessive “G” forces, endangering the aircraft’s structure during Kyle’s violent and extreme aerobatic maneuvers.
Kyle Franklin flying by the show crowds inverted.
Kyle falling through his own smoke trail in a dangerous inverted spin maneuver.
The amazing USAF Thunderbird Exhibition Team thundering by the crowd in their renowned “Calypso Pass” maneuver at over 500 MPH! Off only a few inches miscanlucation and the crowd would bear witness to a mid-air disaster!
In another masterful and extremely dangerous maneuver, the Thunderbird team displays their brilliant technique in their unique “Reflection Pass” . . .
Four of the six Thunderbirds fly by in echelon review at over 400 MPH.
In their famous grand finale, the Thunderbirds performed their precision “High Bomb Burst” at the end of each day’s air show. The FASF has been negociating with the Pentagon to obtain this great team of top gun pilots for the FASF Centennial Celebration in 2016.