Fargo Air Sho Fargo, ND June 16-17, 2007

Story and photography by Ken Cheung

 

The 2007 Fargo Airshow is officially marketed as The Fargo Air Sho, without the W, a word play to highlight the city of Fargo, North Dakota. The city is located in the Red River Valley Region nestled along the border of North Dakota and Minnesota.  

The airshow’s venue was Fargo's Hector International Airport. An estimated 15,000 fans were there just for the Saturday show, a great draw considering the size of the airshow grounds. The show included two single-ship demo teams, the Canadian CF-18 Demonstration Team and A-10 West Coast Team.  

The CF-18 has a distinctive painted twin-tails in otherwise flat grey paint scheme. The colorful design is to commemorate the CF-18 Hornet as the workhouse of Royal Canadian Air Force for the past 25 years. The pilot Captain Yanick "Crank" Gregoire demonstrated the agility and the power of the Hornet to the crowds. 

Their US counterpart demo team, based out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, is the A-10 Thunderbolt West Coast Demo Team. Affectionately known as the Warthog, the A-10 puts on an entirely different demonstration. The Warthog is slow and lacks the dog-fighting ability that the Hornet possesses, but it clearly makes up for its lack of speed with deadly effectiveness on the delivery of its ordnance. As the A-10 announcer stated, the A-10 is “on time and on target.” Major Brian “Stitch” Wilits, the A-10 Demo pilot, demonstrated the ability of the Warthog to turn on a dime and return to the same target for a repeat attack. Of course the USAF single-ship demo would not be complete with out a Heritage Flight with the P-51 Mustang flown by Brigadier General Regis Urschler, and they made several profile passes.

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  The granddaddy of the ageless aircraft also made an appearance, the venerable B-52 Startofortress, denoted by its distinct black bellowing smoke. The bomber, based at nearby Minot Air Force Base, made a couple of passes in front of the show line before completing their training mission.

 

  North Dakota native Jim Maroney in his Super Chipmunk and Bill Stein in his Edge 540 filled the aerobatic portion of the show. The local Air National Guard Unit “The Happy Hooligans,” made several fly-bys in their C-21, which is a military version of the Lear Jet 35A business jet. The unit just recently transitioned from the F-16 Falcon to the C-21. Although not as glamorous or powerful as the F-16, the Happy Hooligans still fulfill an important role in our nation’s defense flying the C-21. In addition, the Army National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk demonstrated the capabilities of the water drop. Also in the show's line up were three vintage P-51 Mustangs, which flew several profile passes. 

 

  Working with airshow announcer Phil Dacy, Paul Stender from Speed for Hire did a skit to introduce the jet outhouse act. The comic relief provided the fans something to chuckle at. Paul Stender also amazed the crowd with the jet-powered delivery truck as he powered down the runway in a three-way race against Bill Stein and Jim Maroney in the air.

 

  The headliner of the weekend show was the US Navy Blue Angels. Obviously, the start of a Blue Angels show wouldn't be complete without the workhorse and support of the Blue Angels...the USMC's C-130 “Fat Albert”. This year saw the return of the JATO demo, a special treat for Father’s Day as it was performed on Sunday. The demo gave the crowd a glimpse of the short take off ability of the C-130 with JATO - Jet Assist Take Off bottle rockets.

 

  The Blues treated the crowd to the high show the entire weekend, demonstrating their unique talent and skills with the Diamond Dirty Loop and their trademark Fleur-de-Lis.

 

  Certainly the whole weekend was not only a great Father’s Day event, but also a fun day for the whole family. Everything from the roar of the single ship demo to the graceful acrobatics of Bill Stein’s Edge 540 - and certainly the appearance of the Blue Angels - was worth the price of admission.