|
New Orleans Airshow, Naval Air
Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, Belle Chase, LA
Purdue University Aviation Day,
West Lafayette, IN
C-47 Parachute
Drop at the Air Force Museum 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
2022 Airshows
Bowman Fest
Photo Review
Warbirds at Bowman Field,
Louisville, KY Bowman Fest 2022 - October 1-2, 2022 - Photos taken
Saturday, October 1, and Sunday, October 2, 2022.
It is not very often that I
attend an aviation event or airshow for more than one day. The
last time I remember doing this was at the Military Aviation Museum
World War Two airshow at Virginia Beach, VA in 2015. However, I
attended both days of
Bowman Fest 2022 at Bowman Field in Louisville.
As the event's title indicates, this was not even officially an airshow.
What caused me to make the 303 mile round trip from home for
a second day? There are several reasons. Firstly, Bowman
Fest is a of lot fun and a laid-back event. Secondly, the weather
was excellent with mostly clear blue skies and afternoon temperatures
that reached the mid-seventies on both days. Thirdly, there were
plenty of automobiles, fire engines, and aircraft on display.
Fourthly, there were warbirds on display of which seven flew in the
warbird portion of the airshow. And fifthly, and most importantly,
my oldest grandson was able return with me on Sunday. He had just
been given a camera and was most excited about taking photos.
Therefore, on Sunday we retraced the steps of my Saturday photo shoot as
I did my best to impart my limited knowledge of how to take a good
photo.
For an event that goes by the name of Bowman
Fest, there was not a bad line of warbirds on display. The Shorts
Tucano is owned by a Louisville business owner, the P-51 is "Cincinnati
Miss" from the Tri-State Warbird Museum in Batavia, OH, and the last T-6
in the line is the "Spanish Lady" from Terre Haute, IN. The red
aircraft in the landing pattern is a Waco that was giving rides all
weekend.
This 1941 AT-11 came from Fayetteville, GA
to be part of the event.
This is the car show early on Sunday
morning.
This 1979 American LaFrance pumper was one
of several fire apparatus on display.
While the event's webpage and Facebook page
called the event Bowman Fest, this sign called it the 22 Air Show, which
it actually was with two and a half hours of flying in the afternoon.
It is my understanding that in past years the event has had some flying,
but it was for the most part aircraft giving rides. This year, the
event organizers acquired waivered airspace and did a flying show.
For many years, Louisville has had a
river-front show along the Ohio River as part of the Kentucky Derby
events, but I have never attended the event. There are several
reasons.
At a river-front show, one cannot go through
static aircraft. This C-130, from the Kentucky Air National Guard
located at the main Louisville airport 4.5 miles away, was a big hit
with the crowd. The line to go through the aircraft was always at
least as long as the C-130. My estimate is that people waited
anywhere from one-half hour to an hour to go through it. The line
extended behind the white tent in the center of the photo.
While the Jenny doesn't take much runway, it
still cannot be put on display at a river front show. This Jenny
from Bowling Green, KY is a regular attendee at Bowman Fest.
I found this most interesting. From
the reverse side of the Jenny with the early morning sun shining on it,
one can see how thin the fabric is on the aircraft.
The Missouri Wing of the CAF from St. Louis,
MO brought their TBM to the event.
Jordan and Nicki Brown's C-47 from Terre Haute, IN was also present.
On Saturday, the C-47 gave tours. There
is obviously spectator interest to tour the aircraft at this event.
This is something the riverfront show in Louisville cannot do.
Every time I go out to a show, I normally
see something new. Bowman Fest did not let me down. This is
the first time I have seen this 1944 Vickers of Canada PBV-1A Catalina.
This license-built version of the Consolidated PBY was one of 230
produced by Vickers in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. It served with
the Royal Canadian Air Force until 1961.
On Saturday, spectators lined up to
tour the inside of this rare aircraft. On Sunday, there was no
touring the PBV, as it was located on the hot ramp. It gave rides
twice in the morning.
The event was staged in the area of the
original terminal building which was built in 1925
 .
The food court offered many choices for the
spectators. This is one of the best setups I have seen for a food
court at an aviation event. Many events don't have enough vendors
for the number of spectators. This was not the case at Bowman Fest
2022. Even at 2:15 on Sunday afternoon, the food court was busy.
I was in Kentucky where the state is known for
its distilleries. The Green River Distilling Company was an event
sponsor.
This is the best adaptation of an Airstream
trailer I have ever seen.
For the youngsters, there was a very nice
play area which was included in the price of admission. At many
aviation events, this is a restricted area with an extra charge.
This was not the case at Bowman Fest.
The airshow: Bowman Fest had two
separate air shows. The first started at noon and consisted of
aerobatics and formation teams that ran until 1:45. For whatever
reason, this was not well attended by the crowd on the field. At
any particular time, there were no more than 50 spectators along
the 500 foot crowd line. I am really not sure why this was the
case, as this was a very nice group of aircraft that performed. I
don't know if it was because it was lunch time and many persons preferred to be
in the food court for lunch, or for some other reason.
This was in marked contrast to when the
warbirds flew at 3:00pm and the crowd line was filled from one end to
the other with spectators two to three deep. One future solution
to obtain better attendance for the aerobatics and formation teams would
be to start the show at 1:00pm and then mix both the warbirds and
aerobatic acts together in one continuous show.
While a flag jump is very common for opening
an airshow, the group of jumpers for this event was new to me. The
jump team was from the Kentucky Air National Guard at the Louisville
International Airport 4.5 miles away.
The Kentucky Air National Guard C-130 jump
aircraft did a fly-by each day.
Unfortunately, the T-6 "Spanish Lady" was
one of the aircraft that did not have many spectators viewing it from
the crowd line.
Reline Airshows was also one of the several
acts in the first flying show of the day.
The 3:00pm Warbird Show: This
45 minute flying portion on Saturday consisted of the PBV, TBM, C-47,
two T-6s, and the P-51. On Sunday, only one T-6 flew instead of
two. The C-45 also flew on Sunday and then departed the pattern
for home.
The PBV was the first warbird on the takeoff roll.
One of the things that a riverfront show
cannot replicate is the sound of an SNJ or any other warbird on the
take-off roll.
It is always nice at the end of the flying
for the aircraft to taxi by the crowd.
While the flying show was over at Bowman
Fest, there were still many other things for the crowd to do before the
event closed at 5pm.
One thing to do was a ride on a UH-1.
This Huey from Columbus, IN had a long line of customers waiting to take
a ride on this famous warbird.
There was also a large display of mostly
World War Two vehicles and artifacts.
This Bell 47 helicopter from Louisville was
busy all day with rides.
According to an information placard at the
Bowman Fest information tent, this is one of two remaining functioning
tetrahedrons left in the United States. The Bowman Field
Foundation is raising funds to restore the tetrahedron.
Sitting just north of the tetrahedron was
this Lockheed Lodestar which does not appear to have an N-number.
Research indicates that this aircraft is owned by the Kentucky Aviation
Historical Society. The aircraft was deregistered in 2013.
Bowman Fest is a annual event that happens
the first weekend of October. It is already on my list of 2023
events to attend.
|