With the turning leaves comes the twilight of another great season… Airshow season that is. On average over 26 million people attend the more than 400 airshows in the USA every year! Not a surprising number for those of us who have attended a Miramar, Nellis, Oceana, or Oshkosh show.
The great thing about Airshows are that they have an appeal for everyone, from the hard core aviation aficionado to the merely flight curious or a dragged along date of some “Blue Angel Groupie”. There are astonishing acts galore, as well as other extremely “campy” ones, we’ve seen it all! And for those of us who sought our fix of professional fliers deftly displaying their prowess at stick and rudder, we were hopefully not disappointed this year.
This year, in late September, I found myself in Grand Junction Colorado on the great Western Slope of the Colorado Rocky Mountains with my wife Ginger and fellow Tailhooker Ken Schoeni, to enjoy the camaraderie of a great series of now legendary,Tailhook parties thrown by Hans and Kathy Schmoldt at their ranch benefiting the Tailhook Educational Foundation and to attend a fantastic airshow.
I consider myself a “seasoned” airshow spectator, growing up in NAVAIR I have attended nearly 100 airshows in my 42 years and I must confess, this smaller show is one of my favorites. Walker Field, the site of this year’s show, has that nostalgic dusty old world small town airport feel to it, similar to Lemoore, China Lake, El Centro or Edwards in the 70’s. It’s an encapsulation of true Americana in the Colorado high desert… unspoiled. It is an inspiring venue with the impressive flightline backdrop of Mt Garfield rising 1,500 feet above the nearly mile high field elevation!
What also makes this field special is the 10,500 ft main runway, easily accommodating the majority of aircraft operating in the skies today, which allows for a great airshow including performances by Navy and Air Force fighters so popular among the faithful. This year attendees were thrilled by the likes of the Army Golden Knights parachute team and the Air Force’s F-16 and F-15 flight demonstration teams, including a great Heritage Flight with both in formation with a spotless P-51.
Also well represented were civilian acts like Gene Soucy’s Showcat, Steve Oliver’ Super Chipmunk, The Red Bull Mig 17 and the Shockwave Jet Truck which always excites the crowd, yes even we purists are prone to a nervous laugh or two at the compressor thumps of Shockwave’s afterburners!
But, as is the case at many a show across the nation, most attending this year were there to be thrilled by Naval Aviation’s best ambassadors, The Blue Angels.
As editor of TDB (with the assistance of Darlyne Merkel the Official Airshow Photographer and Kathy Schmoldt who helped me connect with the right folks in Grand Junction), I was afforded access to the field for the Practice and Media Day events. I was also invited by the Media coordinator, Julie Schafer, to partake in the interview session with the Blues. I accepted. I was privileged to interview Marine Captain Brendan “Cletus” Burks the Pilot In Command of "FAT ALBERT" for the entire weekend. I could not have asked for a better pilot to interview. As is always the case with the Blues, Brendan was professional, polite and affable, but more to the point he is the C-130 pilot, a subject matter I am not as well versed on as I am with the Tailhooked fast movers! Thus I got to ask questions which I do not already know the answer!
I rapidly progressed through the basics… “what brought you to the Blues, the Marines, flying etc...” 
After we strolled through his bio and his list of tours in Portugal, Iceland, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Guam, Iwo Jima, Wake Island, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Australia… I finally received Captain Burk’s well rehearsed, but quite natural in his Alabama drawl, “Ah shucks, I’m just glad to be here representing the guys and gals serving everyday in the fleet!” Which although a bit cliché’ I do know to be sincere, for he and all of the squadron.
Me? I wanted to know some of the more specific elements about flying “Bert” especially in the beautiful yet challenging environments of high altitude Grand Junction. Now I was interested…
You could now see the real joy of flying in Bendan’s eyes as he began his regale, “Because of the high density altitude of Grand Junction (Runway 11 Elevation: 4819.8 ft.) obviously the 'Need for Speed' is a bit more prevalent…”
That’s just fun to hear from a Herk Pilot!
“We’ll run ‘Bert’ up to max nose wheel speed, approximately 130kts indicated, call for the bottles... as the JATO kicks in I'll then pull back on the yolk initiating a 45 degree nose high climb out! Pitching over, going weightless at approximately 1,500 feet (AGL)! That’s a lot of fun!... After that we'll take a spin around the neighborhood at 300+ knots, low level of course... make a few passes by the crowd and end up executing a high approach to a 'short field' precision landing! Backing Bert up to take a bow!"
It was in my conversation with Capt. Burks that I learned that we spectators who have come to really enjoy the spectacle of Fat Albert’s JATO departures, had better enjoy the show while we still can, as the rockets “Bert” uses are in scarce supply and JATO is a one shot deal! No refills!... Although I can't help but think it would be entertaining to head down to the local Pensacola “Propane King” with one of the bottles in the back of the Chief’s 1975 Chevy Pickup and ask the unsuspecting clerk behind the counter to “Fill ‘er Up!”
Sorry I digress…
According to Capt. Burks, “Fat Albert” is limited to approximately 20 JATO departures per year, so they are a 
bit selective on when they employ the bottles. We were fortunate enough to see the famed JATO departure on Saturday. Looking forward, soon the Blues will be transitioning from the current “Fat Albert” C-130T to the new C-130J complete with the new engines and the palm frawn spinners! “Cletus” declared, "These new engines equate to the same power rating as “Bert” using JATO so audiences will still see much the same flight profile, just without the sparklers!"
So if you wanna see fire, see “Bert” soon!
At the conclusion of the interview, Capt. Burks asked if I was "joining him on today's flight." I was a little surprised at this, but come to find out many in the press were indeed invited to take the hop, I unfortunately was late to the approval list and alas it was not to be... maybe next time or maybe they're saving #7 for me.
The Blue Angels and all of the other performers at Grand Junction put on an excellent display of high quality airmanship, that is repeated time and time again all across this great nation. If you haven't been to an airshow in awhile you may still have time this year in the waning months of "Show Season," check to see if there may still be one coming to an airfield near you. If not, I suggest you plan to attend a show in your favorite town next year... And if you are an "Aviation Geek" like me, you will not be disappointed!
Some of the remaining shows this Season you may be interest in are (courtesy of Airshow Buzz):
Oct 18, 2008
Neighborhood Leaders to National Heroes Airshow
Riverside, CA
Oct 18-19, 2008
Boshears Skyfest 2008
Augusta, GA
Oct 18-19, 2008
Warner Robins AFB Air Show
Warner Robins AFB, GA
Oct 18-19, 2008
Wings over Marietta
Dobbins AFB, GA
Oct 24-26, 2008
NAS Jacksonville Airshow
NAS Jacksonville, FL
Oct 24-26, 2008
Wings Over Houston Airshow
Houston, TX
Nov 01, 2008
Flight of the Phoenix Armed Forces Day Airshow/Airport Open House
Gilmer, TX
Nov 01, 2008
Jacqueline Cochran Air Show
Thermal, CA
Nov 01-02, 2008
Sertoma Cajun Air Festival
Lafayette, LA
Nov 01-02, 2008
Lackland AFB Airshow
Lackland AFB, TX
Nov 01-02, 2008
Stanly County Fly-In and Air Show
Albemarle, NC
Nov 07-09, 2008
Monroe Airport Veterans Day Celebration
Monroe, NC
Nov 07-10, 2008
VNA Air Show - Stuart
Stuart, FL
Nov 08, 2008
CAF Ranger Wing Airshow
Waco, TX
Nov 08-09, 2008
Aviation Nation
Nellis AFB, NV
Nov 08-09, 2008
Air-Space Expo
Kennedy Space Center, FL
Nov 13-16, 2008
Blue Angels Homecoming
NAS Pensacola, FL
Enjoy the rest of the season... only a few more shopping days left!
More and higher quality photos of the 2008 Grand Junction Airshow can be found here [Link]... All photos in this post are the copyright property of John Carmichael, if you would like to use or republish any of these or the images at smugmug please contact me for permission [here] thank you.
This is one AWESOME post ! Just how long did you work on it? Thanks for your effort to share all this information and wonderful photographs with us.
The photo just below where you mentioned...they're saving #7 for me...
made me do about 3 double takes. Wow!
Darlyne called today and shared the story of, "Number One just took a crap." She took you literally, at your word...
She finally realized you were using typical aviator jargon, and was still laughing about it when she told me the story.
Moving on to a different part of the weekend...thank you again for the beautiful photograph of the moon. Someday, when I grow up, I'll figure out how to take shots like that, too.
Posted by: Swampy aka: The Boss | October 16, 2008 at 19:17