Madera Was An Eyeful and Then Some

Story and Photos
By Jim Mumaw

After a lengthy hiatus, the Madera Gathering of Warbirds came back recently with a flurry of excitement and action.

If you liked WW II bombers, there were four B-25s. Merlin Man? Beautiful P-51s. Prefer jets? How about a gorgeous T-33?

The Mitchells were “Executive Sweet,” “Heavenly Body,” “Old Glory” and “Maid in the Shade,”which made a series of runs down the crowd line both days of the show.

The Mustangs were joined by the big Sea Fury “Argonaut” owned and operated by the Sanders family flown but by Kory Wells. Still not enough? Well why not throw in Tony Banta’s beautiful P-40E Warhawk?

Greg Colver’s T-33 two-seat version of the F-80 Shooting Star is making its presence known on the warbird tour and his demonstration has grown by leaps and bounds; one of the best on the circuit.

Clay Lacy Learjet put his Learjet through an aerobatic routine -. just something unexpected and wonderful to see such an airframe doing loops and rolls.

Current military jets were amply represented by two front line aircraft, a Warthog and a Rhino. It was a head to head slugfest as both teams really turned and burned above the floor of the Central Valley.

We don’t think the Army knew what they were losing when they let Joe Shetterly jump to the Air Force. Now a Captain in the USAF, A-10 pilot “Rifle” Shetterly just about turned the big attack aircraft inside out as he amazed the crowds!

Following the Hog was the USN Super Hornet of VFA-122 “Flying Eagles” of NAS Lemoore. The Rhino’s crew turned in a great demo on Sunday and gave the Air Force a run for their money.

What do you never do at an airshow? You never, ever “zap” another service’s jet when there is still a chance for revenge. Seems that some of the folks from NAS Fallon's “Longhorns” Search and Rescue just might have zapped the Air Force with a Navy sticker on one of the Hogs.

Now maybe, just maybe, it might have been the Air Force (though the deed was carried out under cover of darkness), who retaliated Saturday night. The sunrise, Sunday morning, shown on the Longhorns’ SH-60F Seahawk which was sporting a fine collection of A-10 West stickers.

More than 20 of the discs covered areas of the copter including the bottom of each main rotor blade!

There were plenty of trainers on hand also to compliment Ace Maker. You had your choice of T-28 Trojans, AT-6 Texans, a Yak-11 and a colorful assortment of PTs.

If all the warbirds weren't enough, there was a heck of a great airshow too! What a lineup of aviators!

You might say that a large percentage of aerobatics was really the “Pitts” - Tim Decker careening through the sky along with Bill Cornick and Spencer Suderman who not only had their aerobatic race but also performed in the opening ceremonies as well as solo demonstrations.

Joining this group of Pitts aerobatic pilots were Doug Jardine in his Sukhoi-26MX and Carl Liepold in his YAK-55M. What a collection of top-notch aerobatic performers!

Got a hankering for a little bigger aircraft? Can't do much better than aerobatics from John Collver and his trademark T-6 or Dan Vance in his P-51 “Speedball Alice.”

Going back to the 1930's and the “Golden Years” of aviation, Margi Stivers and husband Hartley Folstad turned back the clock each day with both classic and innovative interpretations of the art of the wingwalker. All eyes gazed skyward as Hartley carefully maneuvered their PT-17 to allow Margi to work her magic.

Also harkening back to those wonderful small town USA airshows was the spot-on performance by Frank "Dr. D"  Donnellywho masterfully took his little 1946 Taylorcraft though a classic set of aerobatic maneuvers.

On the ground was not only a great selection of treats for the palate and souvenirs, but even more aircraft! There was Dan Card’s sweet little Mermaid amphibious aircraft and Skip Holm brought in the lean and mean (360 HP) New Bear 360.

Also to be enjoyed were Alan Buchner's WACO D4, the beautiful Lockheed 12A of Ruth Richter-Holden and the Jelly Belly Stearman among the many statics on display.

It's amazing that announcer, Jon “Huggy” Huggins had any voice left after two days of jam-packed action. Bill Newman's 625 HP “Super Tug” was also kept busy throughout the event, especially moving those B-25s around.

We can't wait to see what Joe Conway is planning for next year!