[MilCom] 2005 Vidalia Onion Festival Air Show report

[Mike Riffle]

Location: Vidalia Regional Airport (KVDI) Vidalia GA
Date: 24 April 2005

[FREQUENCIES]
122.800  Unicom (used for arriving aircraft prior to show)
123.025  Army Aviation Heritage Foundation
123.150  Team Aeroshell
          T-6 Texan Heritage Flight
123.450  aircraft parking/follow me
139.800  Blue Angels maintenance - AM mode (new freq found by Barry W)
136.575  A-10 East Coast Demo discrete
          A-10/P-51 Heritage Flight
283.700  T-6 Texan II East Coast Demo discrete
237.800  Blue Angels Solo
265.000  Blue Angels Diamond
284.250  Blue Angels Diamond/Delta (used by the Diamond during the aileron
          roll for the public address "live from the cockpit")
305.500  Blue Angels "Fat Albert"
346.500  Blue Angels maintenance

[STATIC]
A-10A          (#80-0194)   23rd FG
                             backup aircraft for the East Coast Demo team
BK-117         (N117LS)     Memorial Health LifeStarOne
Cessna 172N    (N3173E)     Civil Air Patrol
Cessna 208B    (N943FE)     FedEx Feeder
Beech D17S     (N161K)
F/A-18A        (#162831)    VFA-204 "River Rattlers"
                (#162862)    VFA-204 "River Rattlers"
HH-65B         (#6595)      CGAS Savannah "Low Country Life Savers"
Mustang II     (N355JM)     homebuilt
Piper 22       (N2848Z)     Grand Champion in the contemporary class at the
                             2003 Sun 'N Fun, was for sale at $45k
Piper 28       (N9561J)
Piper 28R      (N285HG)     Georgia Aviation Technical College
                (N820HG)     Georgia Aviation Technical College
PT-17          (N63947)     N63947
RV-6           (N247AR)
RV-7A          (N5SP)       hobo mural on tail
Starduster Too (N53GJ)
T-2C           (#159710)    CTW-6
T-45C          (#165081)    VT-7
                (#165497)    VT-7
                (#165610)    VT-7
T-6A           (#01-3616)   3rd FTS

[AERIAL]
A-10A          (#79-0223)   23rd FG, East Coast demo, Heritage Flight
AT-6           (N7462C)     Aeroshell #3
AT-6C          (N991GM)     Aeroshell, no number on tail
B-25J          (#44-30734)  N9079Z "Panchito", also on static display
C-130T         (#164763)    Blue Angels "Fat Albert"
Edge 540       (N669RB)     Kirby Chambliss' Red Bull aerobatics
F.260D         (N330DG)     Deborah Gary aerobatics
F/A-18A        (#161967)    Blue Angel #1
                (#161975)    Blue Angel #2
                (#161948)    Blue Angel #3
                (#161963)    Blue Angel #4 & #6, see note for #6
                (#161942)    Blue Angel #5
                (#161960)    Blue Angel #6, had a mechanical problem during
                             the morning engine run. #4 and #6 were towed to
                             the hangar. #4 was replaced with the B model
                             and #6 was replaced with the old #4
F/A-18B        (#161746)    Blue Angel #4
L-39C          (N139PJ)     painted as Blue Angel #7
P-51D          (NL851D)     "Crazy Horse, Heritage Flight
PT-17          (N212PC)     Gary Rower aerobatics
SNJ-4          (N934JT)     Heritage Flight
SNJ-5          (N3267G)     Aeroshell #1
T-6A           (#03-3677)   East Coast demo, Heritage Flight
T-6G           (N8044H)     Aeroshell #2
UH-1H          (#66-16624)  N624HF "Lucky Star"
                (#68-16104)  N104HF "Winged Assault"
                (#69-15354)  N354HF "Comanchero"
                             all 3 of the above were from the Army Aviation
                             Heritage Foundation

[MISC]
MH-60L         (#95-26634)  USASOC Black Daggers departed after the show,
                             they did not jump due to high winds

[COMMENTS]
One word for the weather - WINDY! Sustained winds of 15-20 mph with gusts
to 30+ mph. Temps were in the lower 60's and the skies were clear.

One of the VFA-204 Hornets had two charts laying on his dash. One was a
IFR high altitude enroute chart open to the central Texas area and the
other was an approach plate for the localizer runway 24 at Vidalia. This
was my fourth show this season and this was the first aircraft that had
any kind of documentation laying around. I have not seen one frequency
card this season which is unusual. Looks like the crews are getting
better at sanitizing their cockpits.

The Army Aviation Heritage Foundation was giving rides on their UH-1's at
$45/person. They were flying non-stop all day long.

 From the looks of his performance I believe Kirby Chambliss is a user of
his sponsors drinks! It was high paced action from takeoff to landing.

I did not hear comms on any of the published Blue Angels ground
frequencies. Searching the 160 MHz band found nothing.

The Jeff Davis County mobile communications vehicle was set up at the far
end of the static display area. There were four masts at each corner with
what looked like Ringo Ranger II antennas at the top. In addition there
were several 800 MHz antennas, a VHF antenna, and a directional yagi.
There also appeared to be security cameras at two opposite corners of
the vehicle.

Sorry Walt, the guy in front of me got the last of the onions ;-)

Photos are available at http://www.pbase.com/mriffle/vidalia

Mike Riffle
Cataula, GA
http://www.geocities.com/kc8mzm