Fighter jets, acrobatics wow crowds

An F-18 Super Hornet flirted with the speed of sound during a flying demonstration in Colorado Springs on Saturday, leaving a crowd in the hundreds marveling in voices utterly drowned out by its deafening roar.

The Navy fighter jet joined two equally thunderous F-22 Raptors, stunt planes, a unique jet-powered sailplane, antique military craft and range of Earth-bound attractions at the In Their Honor Air Show.

The two-day event - which started as a Memorial Day air show in the mid-1990s and evolved into a privately run air show - continues today at the Old Colorado Springs Airport Terminal, with a flying show beginning at 1 p.m.

The Canadian Snowbirds Jet Team will be among those performing. Attendance is $10 for adults and $5 for children.

For Scott Campell of Colorado Springs, Saturday's demonstration reminded him of air shows he used to attend with his father. He wanted to pass on the same thrill to his son, Dylan Campbell, 8, and his girlfriend's boys, Gavin and Levi Valentine.

"To this day I haven't forgotten what it was like seeing jets so close, and it's something I had to make sure these boys experience," he said.

By all signs, the magic was rubbing off.

Dylan Campbell high-fived his father after the Air Force Raptors screamed overhead and all three boys carried autographs from Capt. William "Billy" Mitchell, a fighter pilot from the Canadian Forces who flew a CF-18 Hornet.

"The best part was getting that autograph," Gavin said.

Stunt pilots performed inverted dive bombs, loop-the-loops and other aerial acrobatics.

The Raptors joined a B-2 Stealth Bomber for a flyover at the Air Force Academy football game before returning for other maneuvers.

Ken Pietsch, a Minot, N.D., native who learned to fly in his teens while hanging around at his father's crop dusting business, capped one routine by landing his Jelly Belly sponsored Interstate Cadet on a small platform mounted to a moving pickup.

In a later performance, he took the small plane to 6,000 feet, cut the engine and dropped to a landing.

Afterward, Pietsch passed out jelly beans to children.

A jet-powered sailplane with long, slender wings swooped gracefully through the air before the pilot Bob Carlton fired up the thrusters and soared overhead.

A lucky few saw the show from on high.

The Commemorative Air Force, a nonprofit that maintains a fleet of 180 vintage aircraft in Midland, Tex., offered paying customers a ride in a C-45 modeled after one that transported an Army Air Corps general in World War II.

The 731st Airlift Squadron of Peterson Air Force Base gave guided tours of a C-130 firefighting plane capable of dropping 3,000 gallons of water and slurry.

Waiting for a tour of the massive plane, Talon Woodin, 8, played with a toy model of an F-18 and grew animated recounting the visceral roar of the real thing: "I could feel it in my chest," he said, while showing how he jumped backwards when the sophisticated fighter jet made a high-speed pass over the runway.

Contact the writer: 636-0366 or lance.benzel@gazette.com