Went out to the fly-in at Floyd Bennett Field Saturday. The weather was beautiful, they had a decent crowd, and a nice variety of aircraft. I didn't count them, but there must have been at least 2 dozen aircraft on display. The AAM brought in most of their heavy hitters - the C-47, B-25, Corsair, P-40 and TBM were all on display. The Brookhaven Boys with their flashy fighters were there as well. They had a line of historic aircraft, many from Bayport Aerodrome or Brookhaven - several Stearmans, a bunch of old Cessnas and Pipers, and even two Tiger Moths. Also in attendance was an LC-130 from the NYANG - that is the ski equipped aircraft used to supply the scientific stations in the Antarctic. The Marines sent a CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter. We also saw helicopters on display from the USCG, NYSP, NYPD and FBI. I bumped into Tom Taylor who was also out enjoying the show.
They had the usual opening ceremonies and had a number of speakers, as there was some sort of dedication ceremony for a replica of the Wright Flyer, but it was tough to hear what was going on while wandering the flight line. Tom told me he heard there would be an F-117 fly-by, and sure enough there was. As one of the speakers was yammering about how he used to look through the fence at FBF as child, he said "And here comes the stealth fighter." Just then, the F-117 roared past and disappeared into the distance, never to be seen again - no time to even point the camera in the right direction, let along get any photos. Absolutely the worst waste of a fly-by I've ever seen. :(
Enough talk, how about some photos:
NYPD departing back to the barn at the end of the day.
After he parked it at the Aviation Bureau, the pilot drove back to the show site, and I got to talking to him. He asked how his departure looked, he thought he had the nose way too low as he flew past.
This one wasn't part of the show, but made several low passes while coming and going to the Aviation Bureau.
USCG Aerospatiale HH-65C Dolphin out of Atlantic City
USMC Sea Knight
NYSP Bell 430 - this is in executive configuration, and is used to fly Governor Spitzer and other state officials.
FBI Eurocopter AS350 from the NY district. I was talking to one of the pilots, and mentioned "I never knew the FBI had any copters in the area." He said "Yeah, we like to keep it low key, I'm surprised they had us come here." It's used for standard law enforcement stuff, surveillance, secure transport for VIPs, etc. No secret stuff, at least nothing he would talk about :D
Stearman from Bayport
deHavilland Tiger Moth
Tiger Moth's airspeed indicator, mounted on one of the port wing struts
They also had a display of vintage NYPD cruisers. I know a couple of the guys with that group as well.
1951 Plymouth Concord
1967 Plymouth Fury
And finally, this is Brooklyn, so of course they had to have Ralph Kramden's old ride.
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