Linda and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend at the Dayton Airshow. Matt, Ciara and Aiden travelled North from their new home in Charlotte, NC to see Ian fly "his" C-130J over the skies of Dayton, OH. Colin was also able to come along so it was truly a family day. We missed Ian's wife Rieko who was holding down the fort in Little Rock.The day was blazing hot and dry. We got to visit the static displays of the C-5, C-17 and various other aircraft. Aiden's head was on a swivel as he watched in utter amazement all the different airplanes and the noises they made. We got to see Ian and his crew open the show by dropping the all-women sky-diving crew The Misty Blues from the back cargo bay. I was proud to hear his name announced as the 1st Officer over the public address system. It was the first time Linda and I had seen him fly. There were also demonstrations of the F/A-18 Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon, C-17 (it looked like a graceful whale pretending to be a fighter jet) and finally the F-22 Raptor. We were able to get a close-up and personal view of the C-130J after Ian was finished for the day and therefore had "front-row" seats for the F-22 demonstration. What an amazing airplane! Poor Buzzy (Aiden) was terrified and electrified at the same time!
We finished out a long hot day with dinner at Smokey Bones. It was great to get everybody together which doesn't happen very often and incredibly was the second time in a month after Ciara's wedding. Aiden was an angel and really enjoyed himself. He was always up for a new adventure despite the sun, heat, noise, lousy food and no nap!
