Mort’s Rescue at Kham Duc

It would make a rousing movie, the same genre as the siege of Zinderneuf in Beau Geste, the firefight around the DC-3 in The Wild Geese,the evacuation of the ice planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, the fall of Osgiliath in The Return of the King.
A Special Forces camp is overrun.  Defenders desperately hold off a [...]

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Julio Rescued at Sea!

The three survivors float in the open sea in waterlogged life jackets, wilting under the brutal sun, weak, despairing, losing hope.  No drinking water, no food, no land in sight, no chance of survival.
Then a Britten-Norman Islander spotter airplane roars overhead.  The Coast Guard!  Salvation! 
Just 50 meters away, the audience cheers.
  
  
Audience?  Cheers??
Well, yes.  This was a Search and [...]

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Canopy Cacophony

Like the balloon bursting event, skydiving was a crowd pleaser at the Fiesta.  Sixty-six skydivers from the Philippine Air Force, Army, Marines, and National Police jumped out of 28 aircraft sorties by five aircraft.  They were joined by six civilian skydivers from three countries, 215 jumps in all.

 
 
 

Impressive statistics.  Yet the best number here is zero.  Zero accidents and zero reserve parachute [...]

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Mike Oscar and the Hovering Helio

Clark, or Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, never stopped commercial operations during the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.  So Air Traffic Control was a critical resource.  Our ATC partner was no less than the Tower Chief himself, call sign “Mike Oscar”.
  
MO worked side-by-side with us all four days.  Then he went on duty in the Tower at night on Saturday and Sunday.
He never refused [...]

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Close Your Eyes And Let The Force Be With You

I could only watch the aerobatic displays with envy.  But Carlo and I did actually fly an aerial dogfight, against the Navy, Malaysia and SEAir!  Well, sort of.
  
  
  
  
The balloon bursting boondoggle – airplanes prowling above the crowd and hunting down helium-fattened prey.
Most pilots quail at colliding with an object in an airplane! 
But there we were, chasing drifting [...]

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Real Men Do It Upside Down!

 So there we were, behind schedule. 
The gusting winds had grounded the hot air balloons, skydivers and paragliders.  
The crazed windsock threatened to rip itself off its pole and blow away altogether.
The morose crowd packed the ramp.  
Buddy Lopa, our untiring “Voice of the Fiesta” Program Director, kept apologizing for the wind.
We were stressed!  The airshow was dying.
     
That’s when [...]

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The 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

Over 90 aircraft sorties, not counting hot air balloons.  STOL airplanes, helicopters, microlights, paragliders, S-211 jets… .
Brass bands and silent drill teams.  Rocketeers.  Six volunteers winched from the audience into rescue helicopters.  Three lost parents found and returned to their worried children.
Thirteen aerobatic flights.  Plus two Air Force training jets doing chandelle rolls low over the show. 
Zero accidents.  Zero incidents.  Four UPS cargo flights delayed.
Balloon-bursting – 11 airplanes vs. [...]

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