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New Orleans Airshow, Naval Air
Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, Belle Chase, LA
Purdue University Aviation Day,
West Lafayette, IN
Good
Neighbor Airshow, Chamblee, GA
Spirit of St. Louis Airshow, Chesterfield, MO
Dayton Airshow, Vandalia, OH
Coles County Airport Airshow, Mattoon, IL
Marion, IN Fly-In/Cruise-In
Tri-State Warbird Museum Flying Showcase, Batavia,
OH Bowman Fest, Louisville,
KY
2022 Airshows
National Museum of the United
States Air Force Parachute Drop Photo Review
National Museum of the United
States Air Force, Riverside, OH - April 27, 2022
I almost didn't have the opportunity to see
this parachute drop at 1:29pm on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. It was
only by accident that I learned about this event around 10am the same
day. Twenty minutes later I was out the door and on my way,
arriving with time to spare at the Museum at 12:20pm. This was too
good of an opportunity to pass up in the middle of the week before the
arrival of the summer airshows in the area.
C-47 "Tico Belle" was the lead aircraft of two C-47s for the afternoon
drop.
C-47 "Placid Lassie" was the second of the
two aircraft. Both C-47s participated in the Normandy landings of
June 6, 1944. The event at the Museum was part of a year-long
celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the United States Air Force.
Normally, World War Two-era parachute
jumps like this are performed at airshows. I have seen several of
them. However, in this jump there was no narrator talking about it
nor other things going on to distract me. This took what seemed to
be a very long time for the paratroopers to make their landings.
In combat, it probably seems like an eternity. The timestamp on my
from the first photo when jumpers came out was 13:29:05. The
timestamp I showed for the first paratrooper's landing is 13:30:44.
The aircraft had arrived eight minutes
earlier at 1:22pm and gave the spectators several passes as the
jumpmasters checked out the landing zone. "Tico Belle" is the lead
aircraft.
My last association with flying aircraft was
at the New Orleans Airshow five weeks earlier, which featured current
military aircraft such as the F-16, F-18, F-35A, and F-35C that were
flying the airshow at the "speed of heat." On this Wednesday
afternoon in April, I realized how slow the C-47 is. It made me
realize how slow and low flying the C-47s were over Normandy and the
relatively easy targets they were for the German anti-aircraft gunners
accustomed to shooing at high altitude bombers or fast, low flying
reconnaissance aircraft.
"Tico Belle."
"Placid Lassie."
"Tico Belle."
"Placid Lassie."
I was surprised that the C-47s landed to the
east. It was a very windy and gusty afternoon to land in either
direction. I had been dropping turfs of grass, which indicated the
wind was out of the west. However, the wind sock was showing the
wind out of the east.
"Placid Lassie" was buffeted about by the gusty winds on landing.
After 2:30pm the aircraft went on display
and I went out to see them. The Museum provided shuttle buses to
transport the spectators out to the aircraft from the viewing area.
This is the second consecutive year the Museum
had C-47s visit the facility for the public to see. In April 2021,
C-47
"That's All, Brother" was open to
visitors at the Museum.
This was an excellent mid-week aviation event.
While I was there for less than two hours for a four hour round trip
drive, it was definitely worth the effort. I look forward to other
events like this at the Museum.
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