North Georgia Air and Car Show
The 2nd annual North Georgia Air and Car show was held Sept. 15th and 16th at the Richard B. Russell Regional Airport in Rome, Georgia. Rome is located north off Atlanta surrounded by rolling hills and rivers, a great setting for an airshow. This year’s show was billed to have an EA-6B Prowler, AV8B Harrier II and the V-22 Osprey but because of other obligations they could not attend the show. There was an outstanding lineup of warbirds that dazzled the crowd (a Corsair, Wildcat, 2-TBM’s, the Pacific Prowler B-25, several Zeros, CAF’s P-51 “Red Nose”, and CAF’s SBD #5 Dauntless) Also performing was Gary Ward’s new MX2, Greg Knootz comedy act and Super Decathlon performance, Manfred Radius glider performance, Bob Essell and Carol Pilon’s wing walk on Bob’s ultra light, and Gary Rower’s “Vintage Airshow” with his Stearmans “Salute to NASA” routine.
The weather was excellent, with dark blue skies and nice warm temperatures. The show was opened with the Tiger Flight flying in formation and ended with warbirds performing a rendition of the Midway reenactment. If the site and sounds of airplanes did not keep you in your seats with your eyes glued to the sky, you were probably rambling around through hundreds of cars, vintage, new, stock to home built taking photos and dreaming of that one car you wish you could take home or the hotrod you had way back when. On Sunday there was a motorcycle show which just added to the excitement.
The food concessions were a little weak but I look for this to improve as the show grows. Parking was much better this year, no busing and the parking was close to the show. The air boss George Kline kept the airshow running smooth and announcer Hugh Oldham did a great job as always. I believe this airshow will become one of the better airshows held in Georgia as it matures. I am looking forward to the 3rd annual airshow already.
By Carl Wilcox