Air Show

This weekend was the Nevada County Air Fest. They alternate between here and Auburn. Every time I've gone it was the local airport. Chuck Yeager sometimes comes to the show. I've seen him there. I opted to step back and leave him alone, but many others shook his hand and thanked him for his courage, bravery, and patriotism. He was the first man to break the speed of sound and live, and proved that transonic flight was possible, leading to our space program, jet planes, and the moon landings. Since he wasn't a college graduate he wasn't allowed in the space program. See "The Right Stuff" if you're curious. He lives around here because its like West Virginia used to be.

The air show is at the local airport, perched on a high flat mesa, with a view from the runway west across the valley, a hundred miles away and the peaks over its western edge, which often have snow in the winter, and generate their own clouds at night. It is visible on radar.

I would be showing you these pictures, only my CF card reader is on strike and needs replacement. Good news is I can do that later so I'll be updating this with all my groovy pictures.

The air show is put on by two important piloting groups in this area. These being mostly air force veterans retiring from nearby Beale AFB, they have many either warplanes, if you have the money for fuel, or experimental aircraft from the EAA. The home-built  RV-6 aircraft are really nice. Unlike commercial planes, the modern homebuilts are QUIET, with actual mufflers on their engines, and the rivets are smoothed and filled so they barely whistle through the air. They're so much more refined than Cessnas or Piper Cubs.

Why is that important?

Why do I watch car racing? Because technology in race cars eventually gets into passenger vehicles, technology like fuel injection, which massively increases fuel economy in cars and reduces pollution too. Stream lining first used in aircraft was eventually applied to cars to reduce drag and fuel consumption. Materials like aluminum used in aircraft eventually got used in cars, reducing weight of things like engine blocks and suspension parts and even the outer skin, reducing the power requirements to move a car, allowing smaller and more efficient engines. Again, improving fuel economy.

WHEN the roads go, it won't be practical or safe to drive through war zones of unemployed people waiting in ambush of those who can afford fuel or electric cars. Instead, if you have to go a great distance and have the money, you can fly a small plane. These homebuilts can land on reasonably short runways, and by reasonable I mean 2000 feet, half a mile. I suspect eventually they'll upgrade the landing gear to deal with rougher surfaces like dirt landing strips such as you find in Alaska. But the planes themselves are really lovely, small, quiet, and fast. I respect that level of craftsmanship. I have no desire to fly a plane. But I still think they're cool. They're a great way to avoid a lot of urban traffic. As the pavement goes, its going to get faster and faster to fly, compared to crawling along through dirt roads and gravel and washouts. A plane ignores the interstates and provided a pilot is intelligent and plans well and understands the science, they can do so safely. It is worth pointing out that small planes are way more dangerous than motorcycles. Just in case you didn't know. Motorcycles can roll to a stop if they have engine trouble. A plane falls out of the sky.

If you don't have the money to pay for a plane, storage, fuel, and keeping up your license etc, then you step down into other options, like the previously mentioned RVs, Trailers, and even motorcycles with an overnight bag. Sometimes leaving town is the right answer. But while I live up here, I must take advantage of the things I like. There's world music on the radio, from the fest at the fairgrounds, being recorded for lots of future shows and air play. I learned that one of my neighbors has a hanger, just a couple houses away. I got to meet them formally. Nice folks, very friendly.

The pilot of the family got a ride in one of these. Normalement, the Rutan canard planes like the Veri-EZ and Long-EZ are pusher-prop driven aircraft. This is a jet, with the engine bought surplus from some govt aircraft with only 200 hours on it. It was amazing. And really loud. The engine went from nothing to full power in about 2-3 minutes. I was amazed. The materials required to accomplish that are significant. The pilot later said he went through 124 pounds of kerosene in that 20 minute flight.

Shortly afterwards, the aircrews for the fire (retardant dropping) bombers left, heading South to a real fire and the air show resumed without them. I have pictures of those too. Very cool. They keep the nasty wildfires from burning up the state. I am grateful to them. Thank you, Cal Fire!

Sometimes those planes, flying so close to the fire, go down, killing all aboard. Bold pilots, indeed. See "Always", which is about this subject. Cal Fire is also using trusty convicts to help clear brush on the ground so wildfires slow down, burn cooler, and don't get into the tree tops and destroy the whole forest. Its very hard work. It saves homes and lives. And its expensive, which people who live in high fire danger areas must pay their fair share for. They insist on putting themselves at risk. They must assume the burden of the cost. Clearing their own underbrush dramatically cuts the costs to them personally, so its pretty obvious what they need to do.

Hope to have those pictures up later. Enjoy your weekend or week.

And I'm still a fan of Hope Sandoval.