Thunder in the Valley   Columbus, GA   March 21-22, 2009

Story by Carl Wilcox

  Columbus, Georgia did it again this year - they put on an outstanding airshow. The weekend had a promise of great weather for a change. That makes for good flying and did it ever.

  The line up for the show had some old timers to the event and some new faces such as Gary Rower and his beautiful red and white Stearman, and the loud and fast F/A-18F Super Hornet West Coast Demo team. Last year before the show started an F/A-18 Hornet took to the skies and did some nice touch and goes for the crowd, but this year Columbus was treated to a modified full F/A-18 Super Hornet Demo. Modified only because of the location of the airport to nearby malls and the downtown area, this airshow takes safety very serious. The Hornet did make some noise and speed for the large crowd.

  The great line up of performers and the exceptional weather brought in a record crowd for the event, and they were not disappointed. Acts such as Gary Rower, Buck Roetman and Dan McClung as the Red Eagles, Columbus’s own Ft. Bennings Parachute team, a nice RC demo by local Chris Campos, the airborne Ranger demo with a Black Hawk, Kent Pietsch Cub comedy act, Neal Darnell’s jet truck, Kent Gorton’s AircraftBanking.com Extra, Newcomer Bryan Taylor’s Red Neck Aviation’s Extra, “Big Dog” Fowler cary’s beautiful T-33 Thunderbird, Fred Cabanas' yellow and black Pitts, the F/A-18 East Coast Super Hornet team, and some outstanding warbirds headed up by the B-25 “Pacific Prowler.

  The flying was awesome but not only the flying was great but at this airshow the fans could get up close and personal with the pilots and planes. After the Hornet demo, the long line of people waiting to talk to the pilot and weapons officer was something to see. The organizers of the show have several thousand U.S. Army recruits from Ft Benning come to the show for a pleasant day off from their normal routine. It appeared that most of the recruits stood in line for turkey legs, hamburgers, hot dog, ice cream candy, and they all seemed to be carrying a bottle of vitamin water. It looked like they had not had junk food in a very long time - I wonder why? One young man told me he had a PT test early Monday morning and he was going to suffer but every bite was worth a little pain. Ah, yes that brings back fond memories.

  The air boss George Cline and announcer Hugh Oldham again did a great job keeping the airshow on time and flowing smoothly. My hat goes off to the organizers and volunteers who did a fantastic job this year making 2009 one of the best Thunder in the Valley airshows ever.