Date: March 10-11, 2007
Location: Miami, Florida
Story by: Adam Haley
Photography by: Adam Haley

Wings Over Miami is a small, all-volunteer aviation museum located just south of runway 27R at the Kendall–Tamiami Executive Airport in Miami. Their airshow always seems to out-do the previous year’s show. This year was no exception.

Upon entering the airshow grounds, the open and friendly atmosphere is all around you. Pilots are anxious to talk with you about their aircraft, war veterans are willing to educate you on the history of the airplanes. There is even a spot for those recreational flyers to bring their planes right up to the flight line, and park among the warbirds and performers. Right down the center of the area marked for the crowd is an active taxiway, and it was not uncommon to find the Civil Air Patrol volunteers directing traffic (pedestrian and aviation), to make sure the planes are safely ferried out to the runway.

By national standards, the Wings Over Miami Airshow may not rate among the larger venues, however, for everything it lacks (modern military jets), it more than makes up for in nostalgic, historic planes. The first plane that you see upon entering is a Cuban Air Force Douglass A-26C Invader, used during the Bay of Pigs Assault, parked just outside the hangar. The show included high energy performances by the Oregon Aero “Skydancer” flown by Steve Oliver, Fred Cabanas in his Pitts Special S2-C, and some aerobatics performed by Gary Ward in his new 350HP MX2. He topped that flight off with a NASCAR style burnout on the taxiway while the smoke was still on!

The Wings Over Miami Airshow is known for their T-6 Texan formation flights, and this year did not disappoint. Four aircraft took off from runway 27R and proceeded to make multiple photo passes over the crowd. Following the T-6s, 4 Nanchang CJ6-As took to the air, led by pilot Sam Sax, first flying in formation, then breaking to single file for those sought after photo passes.

Bring on the jets. Out comes Dale “Snort” Snodgrass in his US Air Force F86 Sabre and an L-29 Delfin flown by Manuel Rockaford. Chasing these two down in a Yak-9 Russian Fighter was pilot Sean Carroll. This flight made multiple passes along the crowd line, and each subsequent pass became lower and lower to the point where most were not convinced that Dale would be able to pull out. I would estimate that on two passes, Dale’s wingtips were no farther than 10-15 feet off the tarmac! To top it all off, the F86 and the Yak-9 flew their own style heritage flight, even though the planes are from different countries and different era.

The highlight of the show was the flight of the “Black Cat”, a PBY5-A Catalina flying boat, built for the US Navy by Consolidated Aircraft in the late 30’s. Flown by Charlie Clements, the Black Cat lumbered down the runway and made several slow passes past the crowd. It’s amazing how large this plane actually is, as it towers over the other planes in the flight line.

Photo captions left to right: (1) The PBY5-A Catalina "Super Cat". (2) Dale "Snort" Snodgrass flies formation with Sean Carroll in the Yak 9.