Date: March 16-18, 2007
Location: Titusville, Florida
Story by: Brian Walker
Photography by: Brian Walker

What do you do on a cool and sunny Florida Saturday in mid March? You go to the annual Tico Warbird Airshow in Titusville. And with this being
the 30th anniversary show, the huge crowd looked to be treated to a special show. And we were.

After arriving at the field, it seemed like a good idea to walk around the static displays and flight line,not only to get a close up view of some beautiful
planes,but also to get some warmth in our bodies.Yes,we do have some cold morningsin Florida. But thankfully they don't last long.

The static and flight line displays were plentiful and diverse with planes from all eras.The Valiant Air Command Museum emptied the hangars and displayed their beautifully restored planes. The F101 Voodoo,Navy A7,Grumman Panther, and S2 Tracker all looked like they just rolled off the line. The just-completed FM1 Wildcat looked great,especially considering just five years ago it seemed improbable that it would ever get to full restoration with the shape it was in. What an outstanding job the museum did restoring the Wildcat and the rest of their planes.

Plenty of great flying included Paul Lopez and his lime green MX2.Perfect for us celebrating St.Patrick's Day.Lots of T-6's ,T-28's and T-34's and other warbirds filled the perfect blue but a bit windy sky.A couple of Marchetti Maverick SF-260's,the Red Baron Pizza Team, and Doug Matthews' perfect looking F4U Corsair all performed well.

The Starfighters F104 Team showed us how fast that 50 plus year old rocket can go and promised to bring three 104's flying in formation next year.One of my
favorites,John Black, did his always awesome demo in his Super Decathlon.Seventy five year old Don Beetle Bailey who just started performing at airshows in 2005, performed in his L-29.Dale Snodgrass did his usual lawn mowing low passes in his F86 Sabre and chased a beautiful Mig 17. And the Air Force got to rattle eardrums with great demo's from the East Coast F-16 Viper Team, the F-15E Demo Team and the Air Force Reserve Jet Car.

About half way through the airshow,a special missing man formation flight was performed and dedicated to Eilon Krugman-Kadi, who lost his life while performing his demo at Friday's show. Needless to say, it was quite moving and heart wrenching. We sometimes ignore advice from an old saying- 'Life doesn't always do what it's supposed to' - and take things for granted,including our airshow friends.

This observer appreciates and thanks all performers and all involved in staging Tico and all airshows. Thank you. And Godspeed Eilon.

(No photo captions supplied.)