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Purdue Aviation Day
TBM Reunion/Salute to
Veterans
C-47 "That's All, Brother"
At National Museum of the USAF
Coles County Airshow
Wings by the Wabash Airshow 2024
Photo Review In August 2024, at the end of my review of the 2024 Coles County Airshow in Mattoon, IL, I stated this, "There should be more small shows like the Coles County Airport Airshow."
It turns out there is one, and this is the
Wings by the Wabash Airshow on the eastern border of Illinois, not far
from the Wabash River, which divides Indiana and Illinois at this
location. This show had the A-1O Demo Team, the Canadian CF-18 Demo Team, the
Misty Blues Sky Diving Team, Susan Dacy, Bob Richards, Erik Edgren,
Michael Vaknin, and the Ladies for Liberty. When all put together,
these acts made for a 2 to 2-1/2 hour show that had free parking and
free attendance. The show, like the one at Mattoon earlier in the
year, was fully sponsored by local businesses for the benefit of local
populace. That being said, there were many vehicles with
out-of-state license plates in the parking lot. There were the airshow
enthusiasts like myself that were not going to miss the opportunity to
see the A-10 Demo one last time along with the very rare appearance of
the CF-18 in the United States. The CF-18 only performed four
times in the U.S. in 2024. On Saturday, with the exception of the Misty Blues, all of the acts flew. The Misty Blues were not able to jump as the high winds from Hurricane Helene were still in the area. There was only one short rain shower during the day, and it only lasted for several minutes. On Sunday, just as I was getting ready to go pick up my son and grandson, I got a phone call that they had a pet emergency and could not make it. As I had already planned to go, I once again headed out to Illinois. Sunday's show included all of the acts, although there were several showers that came in during the afternoon. The showers caused a few minutes' delay in the show but once the showers passed, the show went on. When I returned Sunday evening, my truck odometer showed that I had traveled 696.8 miles. But the mileage and the eleven hours travel time was well worth it.
While an airshow always wants to be able to
have its show no matter what the weather, for the Crawford County
Airport this event had more importance and significance than normal.
This is because the show was originally scheduled for 2023. But
this was not to be because on March 31, 2023, the Crawford County Airport
was totally leveled by a tornado. No one was hurt at the airport,
but all of the buildings and hangars were destroyed along with many of
the aircraft on the field. The 2024 Airshow was the airport's way of
telling the public that it had recovered and was back in business.
The weather for the weekend was gray skies. They will show up in all of the photos. However, there was enough ceiling and visibility for all of the acts to fly both days, with the exception of the Misty Blues on Saturday. This was a high wind issue. The two jet teams were restricted to their low shows, but they flew, and that was the important thing.
The next series of photos features the A-10 Demo Team. This section is the largest portion of this report because it is the last time that those at the airshow and I will see an A-10 Demo. The Air Force previously made the decision that 2024 would be the last year for this demonstration team. No doubt the rest of the A-10 fleet will be retired in the near future. I have been associated with several airshows since the early 1980s which was the same time period the A-10s replaced A-37s with the 434th Tac Fighter Wing at Grissom AFB. It turned out that the 434th TFW had a low level cross country route that took the A-10s right over the first house my wife and I purchased when we got married. Sometimes we would be outside and see them coming from the south. At other times, we would be inside and hear the first one fly over the house. We would (at least I would) then rush out of the house to see the second one as it flew over us. There are many airshows, including those at the former Mt. Comfort Airport, now the Indianapolis Regional Airport, which do not have runways long enough for either the Air Force's or Navy's afterburing aircraft to land at. However, the A-10 could. So, for shows at Mt. Comfort before its recent runway extension, Purdue University, and Crawford County, the A-10 could come in and operate for the airshow. This will be missed by these types of airshows in the future. When planning my airshow season, I always look to see where all of the Air Force single ship demonstration teams are going to be, especially the A-10. I will surely miss it in the future.
This all reminds me of the "Blues Brothers" movie where Jake and Elwood are always wearing sunglasses. Near the end of the movie, they are sitting in their surpluse police car and are getting ready for the movie's finale. This is where they make a run for the Cook County Clerk's Office in Chicago to pay the property taxes for their former orphanage. It is in the middle of the night and as they are sitting in the car getting ready to go, Elwood says "We're 106 miles to Chicago…. It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Most likely these are also being used by the maintainers as safety glasses while they go about their pre-flight checks with the engines running.
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