Date: May 25-27, 2007
Story by: Jay and Juanita Richardson
Photography by: Jay Richardson

Watsonville opens the gates on Friday afternoon to all who want to see a spectacular,one of a kind air and ground show. On Friday night there is a spaghetti feed for mom,dad and the kids. And they can sit down next to an F/A-18 pilot or talk to Dr. D. Now you can’t do that at the local 7-11. There is a twilight airshow with fire works and pilots putting their planes through their paces. This is a great way to jump start the Memorial Day Weekend.

This year’s theme is “A Salute to Heroes” and is a tribute to all of the men and women who served in all the wars in all the capacities of support and defense. There will be hundreds of antique, classic, neo-classic, and home built aircraft from as far away as the state of Washington. All of the aircraft that fly in will be on display for the public to see. Some of the vintage and modern planes are going to be judged for awards in the field of “antique, home built, etc” that makes them stand above all the others being judged.

And new this year will be the “Shine N Show”. There will be over two hundred pristine vehicles on display both Saturday and Sunday to the delight of the young and old alike.

This year will be a first for the Watsonville Air Show and Fly-In. There will be three jet teams performing. This will be the second time that Marine Corp AV-8 Harriers. Boy, what a jet. These guys came all the way from the Marine Corp station in Yuma, Arizona. These jets go up, go down, go forward and I’ll even bet they could go backwards. They are loud, whip up the dirt and are a lot of fun to watch.

The F-18’s came from Lemoore Naval Air Station in Southern California. And they put on one heck of a show. The real jaw-dropper was when the pilot, Lt. Chris Harris, put on the landing lights, put the gear down, and made a perfect touch and go on the little Watsonville airstrip. Lt Harris hit the afterburners and took off like lightning. Car alarms were going off everywhere. Talk about thunder in a can. WOW! Several grown ups along with their offspring were jumping up and down and heard to say “Do It Again!”

There is a tradition that precedes the airshow. It is the flight of the War Birds. First up were the T-6s followed the P-51s. A very rare appearance of a Mitsubishi Japanese Zero was one of the highlights of this year’s fly-by. This is only one of three flying planes of its kind. This is about as rare as it gets. Its parts were salvaged from the jungles of Borneo and restored in a factory in Russia.

Tony Banda came with his P-51 Mustang and P-40 Tomahawk flown by Jim Thomas. Jim Thomas in the Tomahawk and Jason Somes in the Zero did a spectacular fly-by to the delight of all and shutter bugs.

The TUTIMA Academy of Aviation did a spectacular start of the airshow performance. This academy was started by Sean Tucker as a place for future stunt pilots to get the best training and wisdom of from experienced aerobatic pilots. The pilots on this team are Ken Erickson flying his Pitts S-2C, Bill “Guru” Stein flying in his multicolored Edge 540, and Ben Freelove flying in his Extra 300. They did a graceful job of formation flying.

Next up from Southern California were the Thunder Delfins. This is a group of four ex-military pilots that all fly the Aero L-29 jet made in Czechoslovakia. Flying in the lead position is Doug Gilliss. Wing position #2 is Cas Casullas. Wing position #3 is Jim Ostrich. In solo was Don Goodin. Precision in formation, detail to maneuver, and elegance in flight describes this great team.

The airshow was cut short due to heavy fog. The fog was in Watsonville most of the weekend. It was not low enough to stop the airshow, lifting just enough every now and then to tease us with what might have been.

THE Watsonville Air Show would not be “The” Watsonville Air Show, without the fabulous Eddie Andreini in his Super Stearman - “Mr. Reliable”. This will be Eddie’s 43rd performance at Watsonville. As always Eddy put on an unbelievable “I can’t believe he could do that” aerobatic show that wow’s the crowd every time. It is hard to believe that this plane was built in 1944 for the Second World War as a trainer. It has been modified to do spectacular maneuvers, but it is still 63 years old.

Doctor Frank Donnelly, know as “Dr. D” in his 1946 T-Cart, puts on a performance that shows the audience what old time aerobatics looks like and how well it can be done. Dr. D. does a perfect demonstration of “the dead stick” landing, showing that a plane without power does not become a rock but a glider. John Collver in his T-6 “War Dog” puts on a heart thumping, neck straining aerobatic show that kept them in their seats.

Photo captions left to right: (1) P-40 and Zero. (2) John Collver's War Dog T-6. (3) Thunder Delfins. (4) Tutima Team. (5) Hornet Vapor.