Everything from jets to hot air balloons at Manitowoc County air show

MANITOWOC — From jet fighters’ ultra-loud wall of sound to the quiet of hot air balloons flying over farm fields, the air show at the county airport has something for almost everyone.

Brooke Walesh, 25, got up Saturday before dawn — “when the stars were still out” — hoping, she said to have the coolest experience of her life.

Walesh, and her boyfriend and hot air balloon buddy, Bill Stahl, had just that after lifting off at 6:30 a.m. and landing about 10 miles later in a field near Valders.
Hayden Brandt, 9, can’t take the flight of his dreams, yet. “I’d like to go up in an F-16 … it looks cool,” said the Two Rivers third-grader of the Air Force plane that costs some $30 million and can fly at twice the speed of sound, about 1,500 mph.

The 2009 edition of “Thunder on the Lakeshore” concludes today with the gates opening at 7 a.m. Admission is $5 per person, with children under age 10 free.

Performances are scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. by everything from single-engine propeller plane stunt pilots to jet aerobatics to a motorcycle to airplane transfer to a jet truck going down the runway from zero to 300 mph in four seconds.

Cool winds, overcast skies and a light drizzle Saturday afternoon didn’t stop most of the aerial acts, enjoyed by adults and children, including Zoe Kolar, 7, of Baraboo.

She was another youngster who’d like to go roaring through the sky in a fighter jet. The first-grader does get to fly in her dad’s single-engine Cessna 172. “Sometimes I drive it,” she said.
Respects pilot's courage

Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Williams is responsible for the communications and flight control systems of the F-16 Viper appearing at the air show, after arriving from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.

He is part of the extensive squad supporting the plane flown by Major George “Dog” Clifford. All of them are on two-year assignments with one of the Air Force’s two demonstration teams.

“I respect their courage … not everybody is built to be a pilot,” Williams said. “We fix ‘em, but ultimately it’s in their hands.”

Capt. Brian Bann is the safety officer on the squad and a pilot. He said he respects the efforts of Williams and other engineers and mechanics for keeping the planes in prime condition.

It’s been more than a decade since a U.S. fighter pilot engaged an opponent in the sky, “but probably every pilot would like to get tangled up (in a dogfight) sometime during their career,” Bann said.

But, he said the reality of 21st century air warfare is that an air-to-air missile would probably be launched from 30 miles away if another country’s plane was up in the air with hostile intent.
Admires finesse flying

Rural county resident Don Kiel flew commercial jetliners for three decades, including flights from Detroit to London.

At Friday night’s V.I.P. show, Kiel was impressed with barnstorming pilot John Mohr as he performed loops, slow rolls and hammerheads in his 1943 bi-plane.

“You really have to have a feel for it,” said Kiel, who has a 1,000-foot strip in his backyard that he can take off and land his own single-engine plane following his retirement several years ago.

Missouri-based stunt pilot Kyle Franklin, 29, displayed his aerobatic skills Saturday, performing a routine where he had his single-engine plane skipping along low to the ground, dropping a wing within a few feet of earth.

On Friday, he flew about eight feet over a speeding motorcycle as his show partner, Andy Rosso, transferred from the back of the two-wheeler to a ladder hung out the door of the plane.

“Yes, it is inherently dangerous, but you take a risk crossing the street,” Franklin said nonchalantly.
Cows, deer stare at balloonists

Saturday afternoon — hours after getting out of the balloon’s basket — Walesh was still flying, figuratively.

“It was very silent except when the burners were on,” she said of the propane-fueled devices keeping the balloon at pilot Rod Yngeeren’s desired height.

“It was neat … we could see the other seven balloons,” she said of the others also allowed to take off with winds out of the northeast assuring a Lake Michigan dunking wouldn’t occur.

Yngeeren had the balloon go to a maximum of about 800 feet but then dipped far closer to earth.

“We brushed the tops of some trees and had cows and a deer look up at us,” Walesh said. “We were lucky to be able to fly around Manitowoc County and see so many things we knew.”

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