Showtime!

I've had the opportunity to meet some really great aviators by volunteering at the Airshow. Kyle and Amanda Franklin have a wingwalking act. In the acts we all know, the daredevil rides the wing while the airplane is pretty stable. Nope, Kyle snatches the airplane through loops, hammerheads, spins, and inverted passes while his wife, Amanda gets the best view in the world. And she moves around the airplane waving swords! The airplane travels with them and two dogs in a custom trailer behind their Class B motorhome and has to be assembled at each show, by Kyle.
Skip Stewart surfs a Pitts Special. At least that's how he describes pulling the airplane off the runway way too early, holding it in ground effect and riding a cushion of air three feet off the ground in a knife edge.
No prima donnas, they shove airplanes, do their own maintenance , and in Skip's case, change diapers.
My little Remos has the wings folded and is shoved in an aisle in the former Commander factory on the east ramp. Skip needed a little more room for a cherry Twin Comanche in the hangar.
Today is the first day of the show, but yesterday the Blues did a show for make-a-wish and the MO veterans home. They are really on the game! That first low diamond pass is advertised as eighteen inches wingtip-to-canopy. Looked a lot closer!
More tonight, if I can stay awake!