My Son the Airshow Air Boss

          

 

For three years I was Air Boss at the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.  I managed and scheduled all aircraft movement.

This year I will miss the Balloon Fiesta, the first time in 12 years.  I am in Beverly Hills, California, for a senior leadership meeting of my company.  Guess who this year’s Air Boss will be?

  

  

  

  

  

In 1997 my son Carlo won the Ateneo’s grade-level Interpretative Reading competition.  He was in Grade 4.

            

In 1966, I also competed in the same contest.  I won the Silver Medal!  I was very happy to get Silver.  I still remember who won the Gold.  He was good.

That same day, I lost the medal.  It fell from my pocket.  Crushed, I didn’t tell anyone.  At home, I told my Mom that I got second place, but no medal.  “Congratulations,” she said, and she gave me a balut.

The next day, my teacher announced to the class that someone found my medal!  She held it up in front of us.  Greatly embarrassed, I said it wasn’t mine.  Of course it had “Interpretative Reading, Second Place” on it.  Dumbfounded, my teacher looked at me curiously the whole day.
  
  

Thirty-one years later, Carlo was a contestant in the same competition.  He asked me to watch him at the Ateneo Irwin Theatre.  I promised to go.

I arrived at an empty theatre.  They had moved the battle to the old auditorium, I thought.  Where I won my Silver medal decades ago.  I went there.

I found Carlo in tears.  He was completely distraught – he had sent me to the wrong venue.  He was sure I would miss it. 

    

He was 9 years old.

         

I tried to calm him down.  I reviewed his technique and gave him tips.  He was given the reading piece two minutes before his turn.  His face was streaked with tears.

             

He won the Gold medal.  First Place.  He beat 9 other sections.

  

      

Carlo is now 25.  He is the Air Boss at this year’s Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.  As always, this is volunteer work.  Normally he is an English teacher at the Ateneo college.

From today until Sunday, Carlo will manage close to 200 aircraft movements – take offs, landings, flybys, skydivers, paragliders, hot air balloons, ultralights, jets, gliders, balloon-bursting.

   

                                                                  

                          

In Beverly Hills, 1,000 kilometers and 16 time zones away, in conference with the CEO, CFO, COO and a handful of other senior executives, I am wearing a leather flying jacket, not a business suit. 

It’s my link to the biggest aviation event in the Philippines.

My friend Anna asked if I felt like a stage Dad. 

No.  I feel like I’m flying a desk in NATO HQ, and Carlo is in Tripoli.  I feel distant.

 

                          

Carlo isn’t a neophyte.  He was my assistant Air Boss for 3 years.  Still, the Air Boss briefs the pilots, and the assistant Air Boss briefs the girls.

Command is very different.  Carlo is now responsible for safety, timeliness, execution.  He will make thousands of snap decisions over the next four days.

          

           

Sons always do better than Fathers.  My son Julio scored 100% in mathematics on the US SAT.  He is an honor student who advises me on Economics.  My son David, fit and pragmatic, is the person I would want with me on a desert island.  Carlo became a pilot at age 20.  I became one at age 45. 

Sons always do better than Fathers.  It’s how nature strengthens our world.

           

       

         

        

Posted from Beverly Hills, California, February 9, 2012.

Day One of the 17th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

           

Special Feature!

New slideshow of the 2011 Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta!

New video of Rolf’s aerobatic Ka-8 glider flight, at the 2011 Balloon Fiesta!

  

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Aviation Woodstock

       

They converged on a field 70 kilometers from the town of Woodstock.  Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, Santana, Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Janis Joplin.  They expected 50,000 people for three days of peace and music.  Over half a million came, and stayed for four days.

At Woodstock in 1969, the first band to sign up for the festival is still one of my favorites.  Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Click here to see our Aviation Woodstock video! 

  

  

  

                  

Two years ago Carlo and I were working the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta as Air Boss, managing aircraft movement and flight operations.  Our security guy called me to the crowd fence line.  A man stood there.  He was from Missouri, USA. 

He had classic control-line airplane models and he could really make them fly.  It was a flashback to the 1970s. 

He wasn’t on the schedule, but he was such a hit with the crowd that we used him as a gap filler for all four days.  A walk-in performer.

      

Another year, we had a 30-minute gap because high winds grounded the rocketry team and skydivers.  Carlo ran off looking for ultralight pilots willing to brave the gusts.  He came back with an entire marching band and synchronized military drill team.  Ouido time!

                                           

Every performer at the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta is an artist, skydiver, enthusiast, sportsman or pilot.  Most perform for free.  There is a 12-hour non-stop program, daily.  And if weather wipes out our schedule, we make up gigs on the spot. 

It really is the Woodstock of aviation.

 

Once, a fighter jet was training nearby.  We radioed the pilot, asking if he could do a low pass. The military jock let his hair down with three aileron rolls over the showline.  The crowd loved it.  Jimi Hendrix couldn’t have matched that for sheer decibel dynamite.  The next year, the Air Force sent four airplanes.

    

 

 

The international airport operates normally throughout the Fiesta.  Commercial and military flights pause only for our aerobatic flight displays and hot air balloons.  Very few flights are delayed.

One year we had to delay a Cebu Pacific A320 departure.  On the radio, we politely pointed out a week-old NOTAM, a Notice to Airmen, that said the airport was closed for an hour, to give way to hot air balloons.  The Airbus pilot sputtered, “WHAT BALLOONS?!”  Outside his windshield, over twenty hot air behemoths, each the size of a 6-story building, drifted across the runway.

     

    

That Captain sure didn’t get with the beat.

          

That year also, the ‘Meynard and Bill’ aerobatic flight display slipped past their NOTAM period.  A FedEx freight dog marked time on the ramp.  Now, it’s a felony to hold Cebu Pacific, whose routine departure delays are biblical anyway.  It’s a high crime to delay FedEx, whose hub connections are measured in minutes.

             

            

We orbited the aerobatic airplanes as FedEx departed.  To fill the gap, the airport firemen did a fire-fighting demo and gleefully smothered a burning tire with tons of foam, and sprayed the overheated crowd with water.  Then Meynard and Bill blasted into their aerobatic gig with snarling snap rolls, Cuban Eights, hammerheads.  It was like having cops as a front act for Santana.  Wild.

            

              
At our Woodstock, the Air Boss is the choreographer, and Air Traffic Control is the musical director.  Known collectively on the Tower frequency as ‘Fiesta Alpha’, our partnership burned through three or four Icom radio batteries daily. 

Flag jump 06.20, paragliders and hot air balloons 06.30, ultralights flour-bombing a drift car at 07.30, aerobatics at 08.00.  By the time most people woke up on a weekend, we had moved more aircraft than the airport handled on a normal day.  Safely.

                 

 

We had foreign performers — a Cessna 182 from Malaysia.  Turboprop Malibus from Japan and Singapore.  Cessna Caravan from Thailand.  Every airplane flying in the Fiesta wants low passes for their curtain call.

  

  

One year, a pilot at the fence line asked to join the balloon-bursting competition, a crowd-favorite event.  He had a Beech Sierra, a sexy airplane.  Despite its size, he chased party balloons in front of the crowd, topping the day’s scorecard with three kills.  Another walk-in performer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

   

We’ve raced ultralights against a Ducati bike, while monster scale radio-controlled jets screamed by.

  

   

       

Last year we paired synchronized kite flying with Rolf’s aerobatic glider in an aerial ballet that had the crowd ooohing and aaahing.

     

      

It really is a four-day rock concert, versus, say, the rigid theme park script of the Singapore Airshow.        

    

The next Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, now the biggest sport aviation event in Asia, starts Thursday, February 9, at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. Join us for four days of peace, way cool and jet fuel. Hippie beads and tie-dyed shirts optional.

                  

    

        

  

Posted February 4, 2012, from San Francisco, California

   

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Acceleration

  

  

One of my favorite airplanes in the world, tied for second with the F-14 Tomcat (1513 is of course first in my affections), is the SR-71 Blackbird.  Mach 3 with 1970s technology.  Steam gauge cockpits and primitive space suits that were later used as the template for NASA’s stuff.  "Though I fly through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for I am at 80,000 feet and climbing." 

  

The thing broke world speed records on its retirement flight.  The Soviets, annoyed at the Blackbirds’ intrusions, sent waves of missiles and interceptors to try and catch them.  None ever succeeded.  The jets would flame out.  The standard procedure for dealing with an incoming missile was simply to accelerate.

 

The heat of air friction would have melted standard materials.  They had to build the thing out of titanium – bought from Russia, no less!  "industrial purposes," they said.  An accident was caused during testing when an aluminum bolt melted.  Legendary Lockheed man Kelly Johnson reacted: "How did a piece of aluminum get in this airplane?"

 

I have a very charming story about the time Dad first told me about the Blackbird, but that’s his story to tell.

 

I thought about the Blackbird today because there are times when the solution to life is simply to accelerate.  That seems to be the theme for this year so far.  It’s amazing what’s happened in the past few months.  I’ve participated in the very wonderful Landmark Forum, gotten in touch with old friends, set up a checking account and credit card, started driving more, and, to my Mom’s astonishment, got in the habit of making the bed every morning! 

Teaching in the Ateneo has been extremely fulfilling.  Teaching drama and poetry is more fun than I ever dreamed.  All of this success has helped me get comfortable with dating again after my breakup last year.  We’ll see how that goes.

 

And of course, I’ve been flying more.  A recent flight to Loakan airport in Baguio left me feeling confident that I can go it alone later this year.  I got to fly my friend Helmuth’s amazing ultralight, which is very fun to fly – it has a joystick and is designed to fly at altitudes that would make 1513 nervous!  You can see every individual cornstalk…

 

It’s that time of the year again.  I’m going to be the Fiesta’s Air-Boss-in-training this time around!  Dad has wanted to retire from it for some time and has looking to train a replacement.  Guess who he found. :-D   He claims this will be his last year as Air Boss, just as he did last year – for now, we share duties.

 

 

 

 

It’s a tremendous privilege and a brain-warping challenge.  The Air Boss is a bricoleur, constantly juggling safety, schedule, crowd relations, and talking to every specialist on the field.

Come and join us!  Thursday to Sunday at Clark Field, Feb 10-13.  Tickets are P150 each, available through Ticketnet and at the gate.  And look me and Dad up at the control booth.  When we’re not busy looking up, we’ll be looking out for you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s time to get accelerated!

  

  

  

  

Posted from Manila, February 8, 2010

Links:

Images from the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

 

The 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

 

Hunting Down and Bursting Balloons!  With An Airplane!

Aerobatics at the Fiesta!

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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 swarming attack.  Fighter jets drop bombs ever closer to the shrinking perimeter to keep the attackers at bay.  Other airplanes land under heavy fire, lifting out frantic civilian, dependents and combatants.

The last team is almost left behind, surrounded.  A pilot makes one last landing for a dramatic rescue.

 

 

 

 

 

On May 12, 1968, 40 years ago today, Technical Sergeant Mort Freedman was rescued at Kham Duc, Vietnam.  He was the last man out.

Kham Duc had a 6,000 foot runway, surrounded by mountains.  The North Vietnamese had the high ground.  There were 1,700 defenders — Montagnard tribesmen, their families and dependents, American soldiers and US Green Berets.

Before dawn a decision was made to evacuate the camp.  C-123 and C-130 cargo airplanes launched from Cam Ranh Bay, Danang and Tan Son Nhut for the evacuation.

A three-man Combat Controller Team, or CCT, was already on base.  The CCT was composed of a C-130 pilot and two enlisted combat controllers.  Their mission was to control air traffic in the combat zone.  They were now the control tower, working with a radio jeep by the runway.

Every fighter and bomber mission in Vietnam was diverted to Kham Duc.  Cargo airplanes, some based out of Mactan air base in the Philippines, orbited overhead, with helicopter gunships, fighter jets, B-52s, and Forward Air Controllers flying small Cessna 0-2s.

A CH-47 Chinook, a UH-1H Huey and a Cessna O-2 were shot down in the middle of the runway.

A C-130 Hercules, still loaded with cargo, landed under fire and was mobbed, people running into the propellers in a frenzy.  Fuel gushed from bullet holes in the wing, and a tire was shredded.  The pilot aborted his takeoff.  The passengers abandoned the airplane.  The crew hacked the rubber tire away from the wheel and tried again.  With just 4 passengers aboard, they made it out.

The passengers were the 3-man CCT and another officer.  They flew to safety in Cam Ranh Bay.

Another C-130 landed and slammed to a halt.  Hundreds of civilians mobbed the airplane.  Women and kids were crushed in the rush to get in.

The airplane stayed on the ground for only a couple of minutes, then hurriedly took off.  As it rotated off the runway, it was hit by ground fire, and crashed and exploded a mile from the camp.  All who had made it on board died.

Another C-130 crash landed on the runway, hit the CH-47 wreck and slewed into a dirt mound off the runway.

Other C-130s, a C-123 and helicopters landed and lifted out 600 remaining civilians and defenders.  A last C-130 picked up the crashed aircrew and the last rear guard.

The camp was now almost entirely in enemy hands.

  

  

Then one more C-130 landed.  The same 3-man CCT got off.  In the confusion of the battle, they had been ordered back to control air traffic for the evacuation.  They ran into the camp and found it empty. 

They were the only ones left in Kham Duc.  They were stuck in a base that was now in enemy hands.

The C-130 could not wait.  No one came to be rescued.  The pilot saved the airplane and flew out.  As he climbed out, he heard the order to the orbiting fighters to destroy the entire base with bombs and napalm.  The C-130 pilot screamed into the radio that they had just inserted an American Combat Controller Team.  The entire frequency went silent as the blunder sank in.

The CCT — two enlisted Combat Controllers and a C-130 pilot officer — hunkered down in a ditch beside the runway.  They held off the North Vietnamese with their M-16s.  They had just 220 bullets among them. 

A C-123 Provider then landed on the runway, the pilot hoping to flush out the CCT.  He had to immediately take off again because of heavy fire.  As he banked left, his crew members saw the CCT running back to the ditch.  They were alive!

The next C-123 in line made a steep combat approach and stopped on the runway.  The CCT ran out onto the airplane, and the last men out of Kham Duc were finally rescued.

  

  

The C-123 pilot, Joe Jackson, got the Medal of Honor.  One Combat Controller, James Lundie, met Jackson again by accident at the Charlotte Speedway in North Carolina in 1997, 29 years after the battle.

 

The other Combat Controller, Mort Freedman, made the Philippines his home.  He has been the skydiving safety officer at the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta for 2 years now.

Mort is a gentle, quiet person.  He told me about Kham Duc at the Fiesta.  He holds the C-123 pilot in very high regard.  I’m glad Mort was saved.

  

  

 

 

The picture is the only known photograph of an ongoing Medal of Honor action.  The wrecked C-130 is in the foreground, the CH-47 in the middle of the runway.  A crashed Cessna O-2 is just above the C-130, and across the runway from it is the wrecked UH-1H Huey.  At the top of the photo is Jackson’s C-123.  Three tiny dots to the right are the CCT running for their lives.

Kham Duc is annotated in Google Earth.  You can still see the broken up asphalt runway.

 

 

“Rescue at Kham Duc”, an article by John Correll published in the online Airforce magazine, is a detailed narrative of this exciting episode.  Some of the photos here came from that site.  There is also a book, The Airlift Evacuation of Kham Duc, by Alan Gropman.

 

 

 

Posted from Manila, May 12, 2008.

  

 

    

  

  

  

  

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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 Rescue demonstration at the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

The Philippine Coast Guard was scheduled to do SAR demos on Saturday only. 

They hoisted volunteers from the audience by winch into the rescue helicopter. 

This was so much fun that we did it again on Sunday.

When they asked for volunteers, my intrepid son Julio was right there.

     

  

  

It was cool.  After the Islander marked the locationwith flares, the Messerschmitt-Bolkow Bo-105 helicopter arrived over the “survivors”. 

Each volunteer was winched up into the helicopter, one at a time, clutched safely in the arms of a rescue specialist.

    

Julio was the last to be rescued.  It turns out that after a survivor is winched aboard, the helicopter flies away and makes another approach, to avoid rotor downwash on the remaining survivors. 

  

  

    

Imagine you’re the last one, sharks are closing in, weather worsening, but after your friends are winched aboard, the helicopter flies away… 

“Wait for me!” 😀

But it only takes seconds for the chopper to come back, and the rescue crewman is ready again. 

  

    

This must be a fun ride! 

The Bolkow flew off with my rescued son, made a couple of low passes with the Islander, and we went on to the next event.

Julio didn’t appear until an hour later, cool and loose from his helicopter ride.

  

  

   

LTJG Christine D. arranged the demo with us, and did the commentary on some of the demonstrations.

     

  

  

  

  

  

  

In another demo.  Captains Ezra H., a newly-minted helicopter pilot and Xavier E., her instructor at Airworks, displayed hover and pattern maneuvers in front of the crowd. 

Except that the instructor was not inside the helicopter.

Ezra, flying a Robinson R-22, followed hand signals from Xavier, who was on the ground.  It was almost like Xavier was flying the aircraft like a genie, merely pointing to where he wanted the helicopter to magically appear next.  

Of course it was really Ezra, in the cockpit, making it happen. 

Which just goes to prove that women are really in charge, but men are smarter than helicopters!

Or something like that 😀

  

  

    

   

We had a lot of helicopters at the show — Air Force and Coast Guard Reserve, civilian, even US Marine CH-46 Sea Knights that were passing by 🙂 

The airplane pilots among us watched them with wary skepticism. 

A gazillion moving parts, ‘wings’ flapping in circles, rotor blades changing angles every split second, the entire caboodle teetering on the edge of controlled flight, with all the control inputs backwards.  

Ask any airplane pilot:  helicopters are beyond comprehension, and fly only because they are so ugly the earth repels them 😀

  

But then again, if you need to be rescued at sea… .

‘Shipwrecked survivors” pose with PCG’s LCDR Tito Alvin A., pilot in command, PO3 Eugene B., crew chief and hoist operator, and SN1 Harold B., Rescuer

  

  

  

  

Photos by Carlo, Pinky and the Philippine Coast Guard

Posted from Guangzhou, Mar 25,  2008

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

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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 deployments at the 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

  

  

  

  

  

  

     

The Philippine Army skydiving team jumped the Philippine flag every sunrise.  This heavy flag would span four parked cars.  The jumpers were flown by Army pilot Major Alex A. in “Army 072,” a Cessna 172. 

Maj. Alex was a sharp aviator.  On Sunday I briefed him for an 0555 engine start and an 0625 TOT over the drop zone, one minute before sunrise. 

He hit every time hack on the dot — on the dot.  Disciplined flying.  

    

  

The day before, the flag jump was delayed an hour.

The wind muscled at us, 16 knots gusting to 26.  We held the airplane on the ground, and again at altitude, until our skydiving safety officer OK’d the jump.

Descending with that BIG flag in those winds was like towing it behind a car at over 50 kilometers per hour.

  

Atypically, as the sun rose, the wind got worse.  After two more jumps, we regretfully grounded skydiving for the day.  

Our Skydiving Event Director hosted a “boodle fight” for skydivers and pilots instead, at the 505th Search and Rescue Squadron hangar. 

“Ready on the right…?”  

  

  

  

  

    

Here, Philippine Army skydiver Major Jess D., does a “dirt dive ” — formation practice — with two other Army skydivers.

Sgt Pangga F., rightmost, is one of our flag jumpers.

  

  

Maj. Jess recently deployed to the Sudan as part of the Philippine contingent there.

At the Fiesta, he helped us pool aircraft from four different service branches of the Armed Forces to lift a mix of skydivers from the Air Force, Army, Marines, and Police.

  

  

  

  

  

Every morning at 0530, Fr. Ronnie A. (with the helmet-mounted camera on the right), a PNP skydiver, gathered all the skydivers on the field for a short prayer. 

It was a comforting routine, and some of us who were not skydivers began to attend also.  

  

    

  

The Army and Air Force teams flew these house-of-cards formations — CRW or Canopy Relative Work.

Two or more skydivers stack up in the air, with the higher skydiver wrapping his ankles around the risers of the lower skydiver, so that both jumpers go down mated to each other.  Is that kinky or what?!

The crowd loved these, especially when the skydivers flew the formation all the way to the ground.

  

The Army skydivers also flew a “downplane” formation, legs locked together, canopies sideslipping in a heart-stopping descent.

This one had the audience “Ooohing”.

             

  

We had four jump aircraft, and we worked them hard most of the day.  Many of our lifts were unscheduled — we plugged idle time with skydiving.

At times we had four lifts in the air at once, converging on the same jump altitude over the same drop zone.

We briefed the pilots for different climb corridors and sequenced them by time-to-climb, for separation. 

      

    

The jump pilots were led by Army Maj Alex A. in the Army Cessna 172, , the PNP’s PCI Alex C. in an AS350 helicopter, PCG’s LCDR John E. in the Coast Guard Islander, Navy LT Leah G. in the Naval Air Group Islander, and Air Force Capt Jorge P. in the Air Force Search and Rescue UH-1H Huey helicopter.

  

Great aviators and team players all — professional, always accomodating and most of all, safe.

      

  

The Skydiving Event Director was Gigi A. 

A USPA C-license holder with over 350 jumps logged in Asia and the US, Gigi is the only active female (if you squint 😛 ) skydiver in the Philippines.

This was her first stint as our Skydiving Event Director. 

  

  

  

For the first time in the Fiesta, military and civilian skydiving were managed as a single, unified event.

Gigi integrated a grab bag of aircraft from four service branches of the Armed Forces into one lift pool. 

She recruited an old friend and ex-USAF Combat Controller as skydiving safety officer, crafted procedures to mitigate risk, and personally organized every load manifest.

    

Not one of the testosterone-laden hooyah macho skydivers questioned her.  Clearly an indictment about who really wears pants in the Philippines 🙂

  

Gigi was always hustling us for more skydiver lifts, more skydiving time slots, more pilot briefings.

We threw her every free slot we could scavenge from the schedule. 

It was hard to turn her down, really.  The crowd loved the skydivers.   

  

  

  

On Sunday, 75 skydivers and static line jumpers poured out of an Air Force C-130.

The C-130 staged out of Villamor Air Base in Manila, so the skydivers commuted overnight from Clark.

When the C-130 unloaded thirty-plus parachutes out of both side doors at 1,200 feet, it was the Band of Brothers reincarnated.

  

  

Then forty-plus skydivers stepped off the cargo ramp from 10,000 feet, free-falling thousands of feet before popping their canopies.

The first skydivers landing in the video are the civilian Thai team — Capt. Pow, Khun Muoy, Khun Jak.  Their small, fast canopies made for dive-bomber descents and snappy landings.

A cacophony of colorful canopies popping open in the skies above us.  The audience loved it!

  

That made delaying four UPS cargo flights out of Clark almost worth it  🙂

    

  

     

  

  

  

  

Flag jump photos by Princess and Tonet, videos by Julio, other photos by Dong Vytiaco, the Naval Air Group and Robbie Ruiz. 

Pass your mouse cursor over the pictures for individual photography credits and captions.

Next:  Julio Rescued At Sea!

Posted from Bangkok, March 20, 2008.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

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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 any aircraft movement.  Unscheduled aircraft demos, more skydiving events, even unplanned flybys by Air Force S-211s. 

Linked to Clark Tower on a discrete frequency, MO made sure we never interrupted commercial operations at Clark, and found a way to clear every show aircraft for flight.

  

MO was at our operations tent by oh-dark-30 every morning.  He caught up on sleep with 5-min naps on any flat surface.

On Saturday night high winds grounded most non-aircraft events.  We were worried about the mass parachute jump scheduled for Sunday morning. 

The jump C-130 Hercules was staging out of Manila.  We needed updated wind data to decide to go or abort the expensive lift.

  

MO was on duty in Clark Tower Saturday night, so he texted me weather reports every hour until dawn on Sunday.   

Buddy, our Program Director and show announcer, strikes a classic Philippine pose to ensure MO gets some  😀

  

  

  

  

How many radios does it take to run an air show?

The only thing MO ever asked for was a radio, so I lent him both my handhelds to use. 

He used up every battery I had.  After that he used up all of Buddy’s.

  

  

  

On Saturday, when the wind was unraveling the Fiesta, MO and I heard the Tower clear RP-43 for landing.

    

Why was that call sign familiar?

Then I remembered.  The Helio Courier!

  

The Helio Courier, an STOL aircraft, was once synonymous with the CIA and its proprietary “airline”, Air America. 

Used extensively in the 1960s on rough mountain strips in Laos and Vietnam, the Helio will land at max gross weight with a ground roll of less than 200 meters, given the right wind conditions.

And Saturday’s winds, 16 knots gusting to 26, were perfect for a Short Takeoff Or Landing demo.

MO and I ran to the ramp and marshalled the Helio in ourselves.  I met Brian Graham, the pilot, who has flown STOL demos for the Balloon Fiesta before.

   

MO, Brian and I walked out to inspect his landing site, the overrun of runway 02 Left, half a kilometer from the crowd. 

Brian stopped after only 100 meters.  Looking at the grass at his feet, he suggested that he might just takeoff and land on the grass right there.

  

Huh?

We asked him if he was sure.  He paced the grass, looking for ruts or holes.  He said it was much better than some of the “airstrips” he has used.

  

MO made it happen.  Clark Tower was advised that an airplane — a 3,000lb airplane — was to be cleared for takeoff on the grass in front of the crowd.  The twin 10,000-foot concrete runways of Clark were a million miles away.

It was a hoot.  The video shows it all.  Two hundred meters, heck!!  The airplane landed and rolled to a stop in less than twice its length.

  

     

Brian also flew slow pylon turns with the airplane nearly in a motionless hover.  He bobbed the airplane up and down to demonstrate how the lift-enhancing leading edge slats moved in and out, triggered entirely by air flow, an ingenious design feature of this amazing airplane.

  

  

RP-43 works hard for JAARS, which provides aviation services to worldwide missions, and the Summer Institute of Linguistics Philippines, a mission organization that does research and documentation of indigenous languages and translates scripture into the vernacular.

SIL Philippines used to have a beautiful grass airfield at Nasuli, Bukidnon, which I have flown into with a good friend, Kevin.  But that’s another story for another time.

    

  

  

  

Next:  Coast Guard Search and Rescue, and Skydivers! 

Photos by Carlo and Jaime Unson

Posted from Manila, Mar 16, 2008.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

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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 targets that bobbed and weaved with every breath of wind.

  

Eleven airplanes joined the 4-day balloon-bursting competition. 

They chased over a hundred party balloons, one by one, and killed 34 of them. 

Who was the best of the best, Top Gun?

  

  

  

  

The defending champions were the Philippine Navy, led by Lieutenant Commander Lued “Patriot” L. of the Philippine Fleet’s Naval Air Group. 

The Navy pilots — focused and keenly competitive — had won the trophy for 2 straight years.

  

  

They fielded two aircraft — Navy 330 flown by LCDR Lued and LTJG Rodiaro “Hot Rod” B., and Navy 324 flown by LT Edie “Archer” D. and LTJG Dennis “Marauder” R.

Cool crew, always respectful and friendly.  People who you wish would be your friends forever.

  

     

Captains Peter B. and Anton R. of Omni Aviation were rookies, competing for the first time. 

Peter, a student pilot at Omni and a founding member of the Philippine Flight Simulator Group, flew with me on Thursday for tips. 

So I did my best to hit only one balloon that day  😛

  

On Friday, Peter and Anton (an instructor at Omni ) joined the fray in Omni’s RP-C8832. 

They stunned us by taking out 4 out of 4 balloons, 100% kill rate! 

The Navy had major competition now!

   

  

  

    

The Navy flyboys fought back Saturday.

LT Edie killed 4 of 6 targets.  He even bulls-eyed one balloon dead center on the point of his propeller spinner! 

It doesn’t get better than that.

  

  

  

Also competing were the Philippine Coast Guard with LT Reimond S. (1 Kill) in command of an Islander. 

LT Reimond flew civilian Islanders before joining the Coast Guard.  

He hit his balloon on his first pass.  Not easy with a heavy twin, propellers off to the side. 

     

    

Captain Pancho C. (2 Kills) flew RP-C1914, his Bellanca Citabria.

Pancho is a hardworking Let 410 pilot for the airline SEAir.  He took time off from a brutal flying schedule to compete at the Fiesta.

What is it about pilots?  They take time off from flying . . . to fly.   

  

Another airplane joined the contest on Saturday, a sexy Beech Sierra with winglets, RP-C1038. 

The soft-spoken pilot, Captain Robert L., simply walked up to our fence line and asked to join the contest.  

He got 3 kills!

   

  

Other contenders were the Philippine National Police with Captains Mar T. and Noel D.,  both from the PNP Special Action Force, in RP-C8680. 

Capt Noel wanted so much to join the proficiency test, and I’m glad their CO authorized it.

  

    

Then there was Captain C.K. Beh, a heart surgeon.  He flew a twin-engined Piper Seneca all the way from Malaysia! 

He joined the contest on Sunday,  good naturedly radioing the ground crew to please launch the balloons closer to his airplane’s flight path!

  

  

Each pilot buzzed the show line one by one, and radioed on the ground crew to “Release the balloon now-Now-NOW!”.   

Here, on Saturday, Carlo releases one with his customary elan.

It was hysterical. 

Some pilots never saw the prey.  They zigzagged half a mile away to find a target while the balloon escaped unseen behind them, bobbing merrily in the prop wash.  

      

The wind was fickle, teasing and unpredictable, adding to the fun. 

The crowd loved it.  Some of them actually cheered for the balloons  😀

  

  

     

   

  

When Carlo and I flew Sunday, one balloon (barely visible in photo) miraculously made it past RP-C1513’s propeller and bounced off the wing.

That was one tough rubber!

  

  

   

  

On Saturday we had a TV crew film the entire contest.  

Ten-year old Sam Turingan joined us on the field, and later interviewed me for the GMA News Q TV program “Kids on Q”.

   

  

  

  

By Sunday, Navy 330 had 7 kills, and Navy 324 was tied with Omni’s 8832 at 5 kills each. 

On the final round, LCDR “Patriot” Lued hit his 8th balloon on his first pass.

Then, on his second pass a helicoil blew out and his engine lost a cylinder. 

In one continuous maneuver, he hit his 9th and last balloon, then landed his airplane on the runway below.

  

  

I razzed him later about being shot down by the vengeful balloon, but LCDR Lued proved his superior proficiency yet again, ‘three-peating’ First Place, his third championship in a row. 

Navy 324 and Omni 8832 matched each other kill for kill and tied for second place.

  

  

Carlo and I gatecrashed the final round and killed 4 of 5 balloons. 

We were in it just for fun, though, since this was an event I was running   🙂

  

  

  

  

Carlo and I awarded ourselves balloon kill markings, drawn on Carlo’s glass window with a red grease pencil.

  

It’s not Top Gun, but it does showcase pilot proficiency and precise airplane control.  Plus good-natured competition, fodder for hangar flying stories and “pogi” points for months to come. 

  

  

A week later, the Navy sent me a picture of their dunking pool back at Sangley air base.

The new trophy holders were no longer part of the great unwashed.

  

    

   

    

Every pilot got an “Air Warfare Pilot” cap with special embroidery on the back. 

The caps were prized souvenirs and quickly ran out. 

  

  

  

  

  

  

      

And the big secret to hitting the balloons?  Why, it’s just like landing airplanes — close your eyes and let the force be with you.

  

    

Those red marks on the windshield?  Nah, just random grease pencil marks.

  

  

  

  

Next:  The Hovering Helio and skydiving at the Fiesta  

    

Photo credits:

All aerobatic images by Princess

Balloon bursting and other pictures by Carlo, Dionex, Jaime Unson, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine Navy (pass cursor over photos to see individual credits).

  

Posted from Bangkok, Mar 6, 2008.

  

     

  

  

  

  

  

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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 our aerobatic pilots, Bill Wright and Meynard Halili, walked up to the operations tent and asked what time they could start their engines.

Resurrection!

  

  

  

I‘ve written written about Meynard Halili here before.  Former cigarette vendor.  Now a successful business owner.

Learned to fly at 40.  Earned his FAA PPL, CPL, ATPL in one fell swoop.  Rotary and fixed wing CFI, MEI, glider, powered and unpowered aerobatics, CFII, … .  

Owner of Airworks flying school.  The only aerobatic instructor in the Philippines.

  

     

Bill Wright used to be a helicopter mechanic.  He became a pilot, flew all around Southeast Asia, then settled in the Philippines after retirement.

He now owns an airplane factory here that manufactures the Vans RV-4 aerobatic airplanes.

  

Bill’s own RV-4 has an erupting volcano painted on its tail. 

The airplane was buried in ash by Pinatubo’s eruption.  Bill dug it out, restored it and named it “The Phoenix”, after the bird that rose from the ashes.

It looks almost like a P-51 Mustang.

  

  

Bill and Meynard tore up the Fiesta sky with a rigourous 30-minute aerobatic display in the Bill’s RV-4 and Meynard’s Super Decathlon, twice a day, every Fiesta day.

They whipped through Cuban and lazy eights, hammerheads, spins, rolls, loops, immelmans, and ripped past each other in an opposing pass break they had never displayed before.

They flew thirteen sorties at the Fiesta —  that’s seven hours of gut-wrenching aerobatic flight in four days!

They have been a part of the Fiesta for a long time and are one of the crowd favorites every year.

    

  

Buddy, our Program Director, ran a commentary that went thus:

“That’s an immelma… no, a Cuban Eight, … into a wingov… no, that’s a lazy eight… ,” as I whispered to him what I thought Meynard was doing 🙂

The pilots’ radio chatter belied the intensity of their maneuvers.

“Do you see me, Bill?”

“Oh ya!  What are you doing in that cloud, Meynard? Zooming up to you now.  Nice closure rate there, huh?”

“YEEhaaa!”

  

  

I did Meynard’s Basic Aerobatics Course last year, 10 hours of aerobatic flight training in that same Decathlon.  In my mind, I could see and feel every control input he was making in that airplane.  

I fell hard for aerobatics.

Pure stick and rudder flying, absolute precision, sucking every ounce of aerodynamic capability from the airplane.  Every control surface in motion, plus P-factor, torque — all in play.

Straight and level is for wimps.  Real pilots do it upside down!

  

From the ground, I watched the Decathlon longingly, close to tears of envy. 

My hands and feet moved unbidden, in sync with Meynard’s every maneuver.   

Left rudder to the floor, stick forward, then to the right, top rudder and stick neutral, then back… . 

Sigh.

I need to get back in the air.  Upside down.

    

  

I look forward to their performances every year.  They, by themselves, are the best aviation act in the country.  I wish they never stop aerobatics, flying or simply being great friends.

  

    

  Meynard Halili and Bill Wright with Gigi, Skydiving Events Director

  

  

  

Next:  Close Your Eyes and Let The Force Be With You

Photo Credits:  All aerobatice sequence photos by Princess, other photos by Carlo, Darrel and Jaime Unson (pass cursor over photos for individual credits)

Posted from Kuala Lumpur, March 4, 2008.

  

  

  

  

  

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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. 111 party balloons:  34  balloons died, four flight crews earned ace status with at least 5 kills each. 

And of course, the hot air balloons.  Twenty this year,  bigger than dinosaurs, from countries all over the world. 

  

  

       

The 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

  

As always, the hot air balloons exuded magic — children scampered around them, couples hugged, drivers stopped on the highway and got out of their cars to watch. 

I’ve seen the hot air balloons many times, but they still lift the spirit and warm the heart.

  

    

Like the Grimm’s benevolent dragons, the balloons loomed three stories high, nodding gently against each other, breathing fire. 

How could  they not bring the child out in anyone?

Then, fat with lift, they tiptoed ponderously past each other into the sky. 

    

 Photo by Darrell

     

  

I’ve written before about the Fiesta’s events and aircraft in previous years, at PFSG’s Forum.  This year I’ll focus on the people.

Many of us who work at the Fiesta reunite but once a year.  We renew old friendships and form new ones.  Bold new faces recharge jaded veterans.

 

Image submitted by Pinky

    

Airshows are supposed to be masterpieces of meticulous organization.  Not this one.

Serendipity, plus self- initiative by unpaid volunteers, are what really keep this Fiesta on track.  Every participant, from air traffic controller to aerobatic pilot, is a volunteer.

  

  

It’s a modest show, by global standards.

But it’s all-volunteer.  We pay for our own avgas and lodging, buy each other meals, and donate talent and time to fill four Fiesta days.

Tens of thousands of tickets are sold, and scores of concessionaires sell goods at the Fiesta.

Photo by Jaime Unson 

It all goes to a cause, somewhere, somehow.

  

  

  

  

Serendipity.  Initiative.

Two Fiestas ago, as the Philippine Marines Drum and Bugle Corps performed for the crowd, Gen. Ed Calvo of the Air Force told me that “MARINE” stood for Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential (A US Marine with a PhD. told him that). 

This year the Marines played Lupang Hinirang on Thursday morning.

They came out of nowhere, marched silently onto the field, and played the anthem just as an Army skydiver unfurled the flag 4,000 feet above their heads. 

Then they serenaded us with pop hits and Filipino classics, before marching off again.

Who got them here?  How did they know where to go, when to start?  Initiative.

  

The Marines never came back, though.  At dawn on Friday, we suddenly needed a recording of the anthem! 

The Philippine Air Force had a CD at their base.  A runner delivered it just as the skydiver exited over the drop zone.  The anthem played as the flag came down.  Perfect timing?  Serendipity.

Photo by Dong Vytiaco

Next year, someone will remember to donate a backup CD.  I guess.  A checklist would be good.  Or serendipity and initiative 🙂

    

  

  

  

Stressed Out Over Safety

At dawn on Saturday the wind howled at 16 knots, gusting to 26.  The balloons struggled to inflate in the gale.

Hot air balloon pilots need winds to be 5 knots or less. 

A hopeless cause.   The wind sock mocked us, standing straight out horizontally.  A storm in February??

Saturday had the biggest crowd, too.  People packed the entire fiesta ramp, and the balloons could not fly.

  

The Gulf Air balloon of Don and Debbie Conner inflated briefly, later that day.  Don, a balloon pilot for 34 years, has 3,700 flying hours (that’s a lot, ask any kind of pilot!).  

But even he and his wife could not fight the strong winds on Saturday. 

The crowd, which packed the Fiesta grounds that morning, was clearly disappointed.  But we had to put safety foremost, and reluctantly but firmly cancelled balloon flights.

In the photo, you can see the tip of the windsock, stretched rigidly horizontal by high winds. 

    

As the wind muscled against us, I held the flag jump airplane, an Army Cessna 172, on the ground, and didn’t dispatch it until 0615.  Air traffic control then held them at altitude, at our request, until our skydiving safety officer cleared the jump.

Mort F., our skydiving safety officer, is a former USAF Combat Controller, one of those special forces units that even the special forces know little about. 

He has been in desperate, vicious firefights that rarely get written about, where courage is genuinely above and beyond the call of duty. 

Photo by Dong Vytiaco

Mort is retired, has made his home in the southern Philippines, and has volunteered himself to the Fiesta for two years now.  The advantage of having Mort as our safety officer is that he has seen it all.  “There’s no war here, Tonet.  We don’t need to put anyone on the line.  We’ll wait until the winds calm down.”

  

The wind dropped briefly to 12 knots at 0730, so Mort quickly cleared us for the flag jump, an hour behind our target time.  The delay was the least of our worries.

We now had big holes in our schedule.  The crowd had already missed seeing the balloons fly.  We had to keep the airshow going!

Photo by Jaime Unson

    

The ultralights didn’t even try to brave the wind.   The paragliders launched, then quickly headed for the ground.  At one point I thought they were being blown backwards!   

The flag jump went off well, though. 

That flag has the same footprint as 4 cars parked side by side. It was quite a burden, but the Army skydiving team has had 3 years of experience with this.  Sgt. “Sprite E., our flag jumper, did well.  You can see the brute force of the wind, on that flag.

Photo by Jaime Unson

  

    

It got worse.  We thought the winds would die as the sun rose.

Wrong.  A cold front was pushing across Luzon, bringing tight pressure gradients, chilled air and sustained winds.  

The paragliders came down, totally intimidated. 

  

    

Our flag jumper reported worse winds aloft.  After two more skydiving lifts, we grounded skydiving for the day. 

Philippine National Police skydivers, right, repack parachutes on Saturday morning.  They didn’t use them again that day. 

Mort stands pensively on the left.

    

So there we were, an hour behind schedule.  The balloon pilots had given up, the skydivers were grounded, the paragliders had departed in defeat, and the windsock threatened to rip itself off its pole and blow away altogether.  

We had thousands of people in the crowd.  School buses with kids lined the Manuel Roxas highway to the show grounds.  Two tents blew down.  Buddy Lopa, our untiring “Voice of the Fiesta” show announcer, was reduced to apologizing for the wind.

We were stressed!  The airshow, perfect safety record and all, was dying.

  

  

That’s when our aerobatic pilots, Bill Wright and Meynard Halili, walked up to the operations tent, asking what time they could start engines. 

Resurrection!

  

  

  

    

Next:  Aerobatics at the Fiesta, a hovering Helio, skydivers galore, and the Helium Dispersal Team.

  

  

Darrel, one of the best photographers I’ve ever met, has pure art at his site here.

Check out Dong’s site here for more excellent photos of the Fiesta!

Jaime, a professional photographer, has his masterpieces at his site here

A big thank you to you guys for the use of your photos.

More exciting images on the Fiesta in the next article.

  

Posted from Nashville, Feb 29, 2008.   

  

  

  

  

  

  

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