The clear skies over Talbot County were streaked with white trails Saturday as the RedStar Pilots Association thrilled onlookers during the Easton Airport Day celebration.
As people milled between the airstrip and the grilled-food stand at the airport off Route 50, the pilots were briefed on the logistics of their course that would take them on an aerial route from the airport to St. Michaels to Trappe and back for a final display of airborne wizardry. The scheduled skydiving event was canceled because strong winds made jumping conditions too dangerous.
The RedStar Pilots flew some American-built planes, such as the T-20s from the 1970’s, but most of their aircraft were Cold-War military relics from the Soviet Union and China. The YAK-52, for instance, was built in Romania to train Soviet pilots. The Nanchang CJ-6 served as a trainer for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. All of the aircraft are privately owned.
At 12:30 p.m. sharp, the pilots emerged from their briefing and climbed into their planes, most of them accompanied by a second airman. Clad in their goggles and jumpsuits, they commanded the attention of every shutterbug, retiree and soccer mom present. Previously anxious children—perhaps disappointed by the canceled skydiving event—were suddenly transfixed, silently clutching their half-eaten hotdogs as the roar of 19, nine-cylinder engines, filled the air.
According to RedStar Pilot Jim Meadows, who remained on the ground to assist with emceeing the event, the planes would be flying 10 to 15 feet apart, a distance that looks dangerously close from the ground.
“Their command of the planes is visual, intuitive,” he says as the flyers whiz over the field at 1,000 feet, trying to drop rubber chickens into a dump truck parked out on the airfield. “There is no radio contact between them, they have a 360 degree field of vision.”
The planes flew in a variety of geometric configurations— diamonds, arrows, triangles— never touching or falling out of formation. Meadows explains that the reason they can make their exhaust trails was because they can inject an additive into the fuel with the push of a button. Conveniently, it was donated.
“And it’s a good thing,” he says. “That stuff is expensive.”
“We’re also thrilled to be able to use this facility,” he says of the Easton Airport, “It’s really an extraordinary facility we have here, the air-traffic controllers are particularly accommodating.”
Captain Steve Dalton, a former F-16 pilot, served as the head pilot in the RedStar Pilots Association. Meadows says Dalton is the “main motivator” for most of their outings. The pilots, who have either commercial airline or military backgrounds, mostly hail from the Delmarva area, however, some of them flew in from other locations on the East Coast.
Despite their impressive flying resumes, none of the RedStar Pilots were able to land their rubber chickens in the dump truck.
All proceeds of the Easton Airport Day go to benefit Talbot Hospice Foundation. The Civil Air Patrol managed the event.
Spy photos by Simon Kelly[slideshow id=37]
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