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More Record Heat Follows Team Chaos to Battle Creek
 The Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival was held over the July 4th weekend. Just the title alone makes you think this is a jumbo-sized event – and it is! While the Air Show is just a small part of a much larger 4-day Balloon Festival, it did feature many top civilian and military acts. Team Chaos was the daytime show finale both Saturday and Sunday. This was the first Michigan appearance for the team and we were delighted to have been invited to such a well run event. Barb Haluszka along with an excellent staff of volunteers did a great job of running a seamless show from the wee hours of the morning until well into the evenings. The en mass balloon launches were held at 06:30 - both AM and PM!
Duncan Aviation hosted the aerobatic performers and did an outstanding job. The Duncan facility at Battle Creek is huge. It handles phase check work for just about every type of business jet large or small. This is a first class facility that caters to very exacting customers. Airshow pilots usually don’t run in these circles so we really appreciated the royal treatment. The very friendly staff gave us the run of the place.
Gordon Webb from the Tora Bomb Squad handled the Team’s Pyro duties. He gladly took on the challenge to make Sunday’s Wall of Fire the biggest and hottest thing in the State of Michigan. One has to use caution when challenging the pyro guys to up the ante. A bigger boom is their dream-come-true scenario – so stand back! Gary and Randy moved over a few feet – just in case. Once again Team Chaos drew thunderous applause from the huge crowd as the Show Finale finished with the awesome Wall of Fire each day.
We enjoyed visiting with our old friend John Klatt. He came by the Bus and introduced Neal to some of his staff. See Photo!! We also discovered a dark side of Gary. It turns out that regardless of whether he is asleep or awake; he never stops dreaming up new maneuvers to try in the MX2. And, in case you were wondering – yes, Gary does dream in green.
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| Neal, John Klatt and staff. |
“Gary Ward, Aerobatic Cartoonist, dreaming up new maneuvers” |
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Neal really pouring on the smoke!
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Next stop for Team Chaos will be Denver, Colo. August 27 – 29, 2010. See you there!! |
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Big Bang Blasts GMAS
Words can not describe just how huge the Great Minnesota Air Show (GMAS) turned out. And, no one would have ever guessed that this was the first year for the show. It was held over the weekend of June 26 & 27th in St Cloud, MN. Show co-directors Chris Chapman and Bill Towle executed the weekend event perfectly. At one point Gary and Randy looked down from their airplanes and agreed the crowd was one of the largest they had ever seen.
The show did so many things right and the people of Minnesota certainly appreciated the quality of the event. In addition to Team Chaos, the Navy Blue Angles appeared along with a top notch list of civilian performers. We especially applaud the show for featuring a number of very talented Minnesota based performers such as John Mohr, Michael Wiskus, Bryan Jensen and C.C. Gerner. Air boss Wayne Boggs (word of the day: magnanimous) orchestrated all of the air side action while Danny Clisham kept the crowd entertained with lots of airplane and pilot trivia.
Each of the show’s performers was assigned an ‘ambassador’ to help with logistical duties on the hot ramp. Everyone appreciated the resourcefulness and enthusiasm these volunteers provided while making life a little easier for each of us. They were always one step ahead asking if we needed water, fuel or smoke oil – a great bunch of volunteers.
Jeff and Sandy Parnau from World Air Show News (http://www.airshowmag.com/) attended the show. I would suspect we will see some pictures from the show as well as a report in an upcoming issue. The magazine has done a great job of reporting air show news and creating excitement for fans – and it’s available in retail outlets such as Barnes & Nobel.
Commander Greg McWherter, Blue Angles Flight Leader offered a nice compliment to the Team when, during dinner, he referred to Team Chaos as one of the “top civilian acts in the country”. The guys were humbled. The Team Chaos finale definitely causes the biggest spontaneous crowd reaction anyone has witnessed in recent years. Experience the St Cloud fans reaction to Team Chaos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCDvrW98dgo .
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| Gary attracts media attention every where he goes |
Chaos team vehicles pose for WAN shot |
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Somebody Gets It
Reprinted with permission.
World Airshow News January/February 2010
 Although Sunday at the Hawkins Field Airshow in Jackson, Mississippi was a rain-out, it was a great weekend in many respects. Several of the original Tuskegee Airmen were guests of honor, and I always enjoy hanging out with these amazing men. The entire show was geared to involve the youth of Jackson in aviation and to inspire them to stay in school and excel. More on that in a later column.
But what really blew my socks off was “Team Chaos!” They “get it.”
I've been preaching in this column for some 25 years about boring airshows, the need for increased entertainment value, and the seeming dichotomy between entertainment and safety. When I visit my column archives, I find that I have written on this issue for so many years it's beginning to bore me. Some of the response/rebuttal letters to my editor have been downright hostile, calling me and my ideas “uncaring of the performers,” “down-right dangerous,” and implying that I am a “mental case.” One of my favorite quotes is, “If they (the spectators) want more excitement, go to NASCAR!” This performer, like many others, did not “get it.” (And is no longer in the business.)
“Team Chaos” consists of Gary Ward (MX-2), Randy Harris (Skybolt 300), Neal Darnell (Flash Fire Jet Truck) and enough pyrotechnics to re-enact a World War II battle.
The airshow gets four acts: the solos by Darnell, Harris, and Ward, plus the “Team Chaos” finale. It's that finale that so impressed me. There is a competitive set-up about “who” will race the jet truck, decided by competition between Gary and Randy (with Neal doing the judging). Gary wins the honor of racing the truck, which sets-up the pyro run. As each competitor reaches show center, a wall of fire explodes behind them. In that the wall of fire is unannounced, and thus unexpected by the spectators, the effect is electrifying, with gasps, a few screams, and then laughter, applause, and cheers.
Like professional wrestling, all of this is pre-planned for maximum effect. Safety is not compromised. The two aircraft and jet truck are de-conflicted throughout the act, even though it appears otherwise to the audience. This is the part this team “gets.” It's a safe and professional act that can be presented repeatedly, yet appears exciting and exhilarating with a climax that totally blows away the audience.
Neal Darnell has a background in Monster Truck Racing and brings these production values to the airshow business. Randy Harris and Gary Ward are trained engineers, and the act is planned with mathematical precision. All three vehicles are equipped with fore and aft on-board cameras to record video for the debrief. Like the Monster Truck events, “Team Chaos” has orchestrated the sequence of events to maximize the entertainment value while maintaining a level of safety acceptable for the airshow environment.
This is what I have campaigned for in the airshow industry for all these years. Even when I made radical statements about performer safety, I've been cognizant that any accident impedes the industry. It is the responsibility of each airshow performer to choreograph an act so that the easy looks difficult and that the difficult looks impossible. This show appears to push the performance envelope past the point of credibility. It's the kind of entertainment that makes the spectator believe they are witnessing the edge of destruction, yet provides a transparent safety margin that ensures the performer will live to fly another day.
I have often thought that performers lacking in ability or originality hide behind the “safety mantra” to obscure their shortcomings. It's not that a safe act is a boring act. Transparent safety can be built in. It takes a performer with commitment, creativity and drive to work through the nuances that build a dramatic, yet safe routine.
Once a high-ranking airline executive told me that every flight should be boring. That's fine for an airline, but too often we -as an industry of very conservative, safety oriented aviators - reject a thoughtfully constructed application of mitigated risk due to our traditional mindset. Yet, without the appearance of risk - simulated or real - we are boring.
“Team Chaos” has carefully engineered an act that mitigates risk while producing an exciting multi-sensory experience that astounds and amazes the spectators. Our industry needs to embrace this professional approach to risk management, originality, and entertainment. Team Chaos has set the bar.
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Asian in a Strange Land
An Indonesian in Mississippi. Not as catchy as "An Englishman in New York"
Hawkins Field Airshow 2009
http://www.pamudjiphotography.com/blog/2009/10/05/hawkins-field-airshow-2009/
(Reprinted by permission)
"C" is for "cookie"
Last year as Denise was driving back to the house she spotted an airplane doing stunts in the sky. She promptly searched and called around to see what the deal was and found out about the Hawkins Field Airshow. We were too late to go to it last year, so we put it on our running fun-things-to-do calendar for this year, and since it was held on a free day for us we were able to go see it a couple days ago.
For those looking for airshow photos apologies ahead of time for the boring personal family pics, and for those expecting Denise and Sofia pics apologies ahead of time for all the boring airplane shots!
Camera nerd alert–geeky photography talk ahead! The E-P1, which had established itself as the firm favorite for casual photo outings, stayed at home this time. I knew I’d need good autofocus tracking, and the E-P1 is weak in that area. Plus I knew I’d need long focal length lenses, and the longest I have on theE-P1 is an 84mm equivalent lens. So my heavier hitters did the deed instead–5D + 24-70L for close shots and 40D + Sigma 50-500 for long shots. I also brought 3 other lenses since I didn’t know what to expect for my first airshow, which turned out to be a big mistake that my shoulder really regretted after hauling all that junk around.
As far as images go, I have no idea of the accepted aesthetics in the aircraft and aerobatics (acrobatics in the air) photography sub-genre, but based on my general knowledge of photography there were quite a few shots I was happy with, a few of which I’m sharing here. I’ve photographed helicopters in flight before, so I knew that some propeller motion blur makes images of propeller-powered aircraft look more realistic (if you freeze the propeller in the shot, it looks like the aircraft isn’t moving), but other than that I was definitely… ahem… winging it. For those who shoot airshows all the time and consistently come out with sharp images, big props to you. The combination of lower shutter speed to allow propeller blur while trying to steady a 500mm lens handheld and keep a rapidly flying object in focus meant a lot of my shots were either blurry from camera shake, motion blur, or a combination of both; and when I set the shutter speed higher to compensate for that, I didn’t get enough propeller blur. Practice, practice, practice? Maybe that and a membership at a local gym, because all that up-down-and-around movement meant a lot of reps with a heavy camera and lens combination. During some of the airshow routines my arms started to shake from the effort of keeping the camera steady.
Sorry for any banding and color gradation blockiness in these blue sky shots. They aren’t that way in the originals–only in these 80% quality, web-sized JPEGs. This isn’t a fine arts print showing after all; you get the idea even from the crummy JPEGs. It was a beautiful, sunshiny day, as you can see from the mostly cloudless blue skies.
Despite there being a healthy crowd at the event (A few hundred? A thousand maybe? I’m terrible at estimating crowd sizes), finding a prime spot wasn’t hard. We could’ve plopped down our chairs a few feet from the barricade fence if we wanted to, but I think sitting slightly further back allowed us a better view and less crowding. You can see from the first shot above that there was plenty of elbow room.
Randy Harris of Bearfeat Aerobatics
When I think “biplane” I think “World War I” and “slow and not maneuverable”. So I was shocked to see this biplane and a couple others later in the show perform amazing stunts. This plane is named the Skybolt300, and is apparently the only plane ever built in the living room of a condo. Extreme DIY indeed. I’d never fly anything I built myself.
Gary Ward in his MX2
Even more phenomenal than the biplanes was this custom-designed stunt plane. Makes sense now that I know it, but there are actually planes designed specifically for aerobatics. This plane did some insane tricks; really pushing the envelope of what I thought was possible within the laws of physics. If I recall correctly at one point he hovered his plane, completely stationary. He also did some really scary looking stall and spin maneuvers that a lesser plane wouldn’t be able to recover from. Think Top Gun tail spin on a slower scale but scarier since it’s in real life. Awesome stuff and something everybody should get to see at least once in his life. Randy Harris and Gary Ward are 2 members of the 3-member “Team Chaos” that performed together later in the show. Their individual performances were amazing enough, but they really blew it out with their team performance.
Neal Darnell's Flash Fire jet truck
No, really–that’s a jet-powered pickup truck. It’s not just for show, because the truck can go a reputed 350miles per hour. Neal Darnell is the 3rd member of Team Chaos. Caution: spoilers ahead! If you don’t want to find out everything about their act and its spectacular ending, skip ahead to the next photo and paragraph. Their act is first the 2 pilots “fight” over who gets to race the jet truck by trying to out-stunt each other. Once a winner is chosen, the jet truck starts revving up and blowing short bursts of fire and smoke everywhere while prowling back and forth on the runway, supposedly to intimidate the pilots. The pilots respond by making some very low altitude runs over the truck. After all the back-and-forth is through, the designated race pilot gets a running start (obviously, since he’s already in the air) while the jet truck starts from a standstill and the other pilot comes in from the opposite direction. They time it so that all3 of them meet in the middle of the track at which point a huge explosion goes off. Seriously, I felt the concussive blast of air as well as the heat all the way in the crowd, as did Denise from further back. As I was absolutely not expecting this while framing a tight shot through the 40D viewfinder, my first thought when I saw, felt, and heard the explosion was, “Oh no, something’s gone wrong!” So my 2nd reaction was relief upon discovering it was just a stunt. Completely botched the shot so no photographic evidence for you, but if they come back next year I’m nailing that shot. You just watch. I kinda feel like I’m giving away the twist to an M. Night Shyamalan movie by telling you how it ends, but really you just have to go out there and experience it anyway because it’s totally awesome. |
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