Paying it back

Time for the annual trek to Sun 'n Fun, paying it back to everyone who got me here. Behind the Rope Line, a Day in the Life at Sun 'n Fun Air Ops.

For the last several years I've been working in the Air Boss Tower, trying to anticipate problems and take a load off Air Boss George Kline. I had been thinking about becoming an Air Boss, but decided against it when I weighed the time required vs my spare time, and I have no regrets. 

Years ago I had trained my backup, LAFFR, who I knew was impatiently chomping at the bit, wondering when the old f---- was going to retire. For some reason, after Tuesday's show I decided I had had enough, and it was time to hand it off. It was a great call. I knew I was burned out, wasn't having fun anymore, and it was Joe's turn.

 

And I went back to working hard, being a line dog.

 

An airshow visitor might go for the planes, but for those of us who volunteer our time, it's about the people. Seeing everyone year after year, accomplishing tasks together and making the show run, talking about it later over dinner, it's why we do it.

It's about talking to Thunderbird 8 and seeing him going nuts over a dog after a long time on the road...

or escorting some parents out to see their daughter in her F-18 for the very first time. She'll always be their little girl.

 

Yeah, we had some shit weather, but nothing like 2011. 

 

A common joke in Air Ops is seeing people come down from Oshkosh to observe us and hearing "That's not how we do it at Oshkosh." While we cooperate and many people volunteer at both shows, there's also a good natured rivalry between the shows. This year I decided to take some inspiration from Chuck Jones and had some stickers made up. 

I will neither confirm nor deny the many places they turned up, but always with the permission of any aircraft owner. I can't show you the really cool ones, but we had fun, and they are legendary. (The EAA booth crew kept finding and taking them off, no matter how creative/sneaky we tried to zap them.)

I didn't know Sun 'n Fun's new boss was from Oshkosh, but he was a great sport about it,

even posing with our Ops Shack poster and his family.

Pilots are cool but without mechanics and ground crew, they're nothing. Thanks to the Thunderbirds ground crew for taking a few minutes at the end of the Sunday show. ThunderShaka!!

And this was something we had done a few years ago, and got to do again. Sun 'n Fun claimed the highest, fastest, and quietest flyby in airshow history when the International Space Station flew by during the night airshow, 254 miles up (Flight Level 13,411) at a speed of 17,500 mph.

Just as the SOCOM jumpers landed the station flew over, and talented photographer Erik Kuna caught it. 

 Sun 'n Fun claims the record!!!

 Pics proved it DID happen

A poignant note, a key member of our Air Ops team missed the show, he's still deployed overseas. Miss you, Booger.