HolyCoast: Planes of Fame
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Sunday, March 11, 2012

Planes of Fame

Here's where I'm heading today:
It's located at the Chino Airport and houses a lot of cool stuff. I've never had a chance to visit, so this should be fun. I'll be taking lots of pictures.

Every year they have an air show out there, and way back in 1978 I attended along with my dad and a couple of friends via airplane. I flew us in to the show in a Cessna 172XP.

That was something. Airplanes were coming from everywhere for this event and instead of the usual calm instructions from the tower controller, they told us to identify ourselves by airplane type and color and just follow somebody. I had everybody in the plane looking out the windows to spot other traffic, and I picked another Cessna and followed him into the pattern. Once on the ground you had to brake quickly and get off the runway because there was somebody else coming in right behind you. It was kind of chaotic, but everybody was on their best behavior and there were no incidents.

Departing at the end of the show was also interesting. There were probably more than 100 aircraft all wanting to leave at about the same time, so rather than go through the usual clearances, you just grabbed a spot in line and when you got to the end of the runway, instead of a clearance from the tower they had a guy with a flag. He'd watch the plane that took off ahead of you and once that aircraft was far enough out he waved the flag and off you went.

That was a fun day.  I wish I had carried a camera with me all the time like I do now.

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