Pensacola Homecoming Show Helps Fat Albert Retire JATO
Under pristine blue November skies, plus a brilliant orange sunset thrown in during the finale, the 2009 Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show at NAS Pensacola Florida celebrated an end of an era. For 34 years the brightly colored C-130 Hercules that functions as the Blue Angels’ transport, affectionately known as Fat Albert, has launched from countless runways with a fiery roar as 8 JATO bottles (actually solid fuel rockets, officially known as Jet Assisted Take Off) were ignited. This tradition ended on the last day of the 2009 air show season, when a final roar shook the Pensacola area on Saturday afternoon. The JATO send-off was just part of an exciting weekend filled with formation flights, aerobatics, and vivid sights and sounds as the 2009 air show season ended.
NAS Pensacola is a major aviation training facility. No longer limited to the US Navy and Marines, the US Air Force and foreign countries such as Germany train a portion of their flight officers here to be navigators and weapons systems officers in patrol and attack aircraft. In fact a German Air Force Tornado jet, based at Holloman NM for training purposes, was part of the huge static display that offered over 40 civil and military aircraft, including many examples from the nearby National Naval Aviation Museum. Other interesting aircraft on the ground included a WC-130J Hurricane Hunter from nearby Mississippi, and a TC-135W crew trainer for the Air Force’s fleet of RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance jets, based near Omaha NE.
The non-stop 5 _ hour flying display was presented both Friday and Saturday. Beginning each show, a parade of trainers passed in front of the crowd, each representing a period of progress in the history of flight. Beginning with a 1930s vintage N2S Yellow Peril, the line progressed through the 1940s with a North American SNJ, then a 1950s T-28 Trojan, and six current trainers: a 1960s T-39 Sabreliner, a 1990s T-1 Jayhawk, and two pairs of still-in-production T-6 Texan IIs and T-45 Goshawks.
Skip Stewart in his Pitts Special, Patty Wagstaff in her Extra 300, David Martin in his CAP232, and Jan Collmer in his Extra 300 provided power solo aerobatic routines; Skip and Patty teamed up later with Kent Shockley in the Shockwave jet truck and Rich’s Incredible Pyro to perform their loud and bright TenStik routine and the famous Wall of Fire. The Emerald Coast Skydivers, from nearby Elberta, Alabama helped open the shows with an American Flag jump. Kent Pietsch was a busy man, performing three different shows each day in his Jelly Belly 1942 Interstate Cadet… his flying farmer act is famous for his loss of an aileron (really!), his log books and a tire too (the last two extra parts), the landing on the top of an RV camper truck (the world’s shortest runway), and his 4000 pound glider routine – doing a series of aerobatics without engine power. Otto the helicopter, flown by Roger Buis, alighted twice daily; once performing a very educational piece about what helicopters can do that airplanes can’t, and the other piece a comic routine. The GEICO Skytypers Squadron provided lots of smoke and noise that only six SNJs can provide, and the AeroStars, a trio of YAK-52s, flew a very tight and entertaining routine. Military jets included a Super Hornet show on Saturday only; the team couldn’t make it to the show Thursday or Friday because of Storm Ida hovering over their Virginia Beach VA (NAS Oceana) home. The West Coast F-16 Viper team flew both days, and teamed with the Galveston, TX based P-47 “Tarheel Hal” to present the attention grabbing Air Force Heritage Flight.
The final pair of JATO launches by Fat Albert were no different than the hundreds of others performed throughout the years, but most spectators knew they were the last they’d ever see. The curtailment of JATO was a result of a dwindling supply of the now seldom-used “extra thrust” equipment; the newest bottle was manufactured over 2 decades ago. Word on the street is that only the Schenectady-based New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing, with their Antarctic-equipped LC-130s, is still using JATO to get airborne from the ice runways near the South Pole. People watched in awe as the blue flames streaked from the rear of the airplane for almost 15 seconds, climbing at a steep 45 degree angle into the clear blue sky. Then the rockets slowly burned out and the last launches were over. The Blues aren’t saying what will replace the JATO attraction; it will be hard to replace its spectacular noise and vivid flames (this writer hints that a full infrared flare demonstration from the Herc ought to do it!). Of course, the 2009 Blue Angels jet team closed each daily show with what has been described as their best shows of the year. In front of the home crowd, with nice weather and a full year of practice behind them, they were very crisp and precise.
Something new to the Homecoming show this year was the Saturday Evening Show. In the past, the night show was performed on Friday night, in the middle of the Friday-Saturday schedule. According to the base Public Affairs Office, high school football competes for Friday nights in Florida, and a plea to move the night show to Saturday evening was accommodated. It worked out very well for the sponsors, as there were thousands of spectators who waited the 2 hours in between the afternoon and evening shows, and many more arrived for just the evening event too. As a brilliant orange sunset painted the sky, performers Skip Stewart, Patti Wagstaff, the Emerald Coast Sky Divers, and the Aerostars performed at dusk. Roger Buis in Otto, and Kent Shockley in Shockwave performed against a sea of blue taxiway lights after dark. The finale featured a great fireworks display and yet another Wall of Fire too.
Wow! No more Fat Albert JATO… an end of an era has passed in Pensacola. I can’t wait to see what new tradition will be started next year.
Article and photos by Ken Kula
