The Santa Fe Airshow returned to the beautiful New Mexico skies this past September 20, 2008 in full force.  A nice list of sponsors allowed for a wide variety of acts.

           The Arizona CJ-6 team got things started with a missing man fly-by while the Star Spangled Banner was played and the Colors presented.  This left a crowd of about 4000 ready for some first class flying.

Ken Kalstad  flew a beautiful SNJ through a number of loops and rolls.  His WWII dogfight maneuvers set the stage for the New Mexico Air National Guard "Taco Squadron" F-16 fly by for a contemporary look at aerial combat training.  Then Gene Soucy took to the sky to show off his Showcat biplane.  It too is a beauty and he drives it to its limits with aerobatic and crop duster maneuvers.  He is a real showman both in the air and on the ground.

Next in the box was an unusual French Fouga jet owned and flown by Larry Salganek  who owns the Jet Warbird Training center.  It has a sky blue camouflage paint scheme that really gets lost at altitude.  Larry also closed the day later in his T-33 Shooting Star with the crowd pleasing Thunderbird's paint.  All of his aircraft are beautifully painted.

More aerobatic antics followed when Gary Dawson launched his Rebel and thrilled the crowd with hammerheads, loops, twists, and tumbles.  The contrast of his dark blue and white plane and the white smoke trail against our clear blue sky is awesome.  The four plane team from Arizona flew their Nanchang CJ-6's in precise tight formations blowing smoke the whole time.  It was the ballet warm up for the ultimate in aerobatic ballet, Bob Carlton in his new Super Salto.  Before the ballet though we have the Stearman flown by Gary Rower.  This candy cane  colored biplane was flown to the extreme.  Gary twisted and flipped all over, filling the area with smoke and waving to us all as he wrapped up his act. 

Bob Carlton has changed the name from Silent Wings to Vertigo Airshows  and has attached an even bigger jet engine to his Salto sailplane and now has one of the ultimate airshow acts going.  This self launching sailplane reaches the usual high altitude for a sailplane performance without a tow plane.  He then flies a very graceful, flowing show choreographed to classical music with all the precision for loops, stalls, and hammerheads but smoke too!  I have never forgotten seeing this show for the first time.  But, and this is a big but, just when you think he's run out of air and needs to land, he fires up the jet again, cranks up the tempo of the music and does a strong low level show.  This one has something for everybody, noise, grace, smoke, and pilot skills.

Then when we were all at almost peak Gene Soucy and Teresa Stokes launched in the Showcat for wingwalking extraordinaire.  What can I say?  These two have been wowing the crowds for a while now and it still is fresh and exhilarating.  Teresa is a little thing but that doesn't slow her down a bit as she climbs around and cavorts all the while Gene is doing loops and flying inverted.  They are a great team.  Both really seem to enjoy performing and hung around afterward to talk with the fans and spectators.

Keep this show in mind for 2009 as visiting Santa Fe in September is a great treat.  The weather is spectacular, the aspens start turning yellow, and the food is always great!