BYRON'S AIRSHOWS AMERICA The Story Behind East County's Own Jet Plane Aerobatic Team
	SEPTEMBER 2004

by Randy Howell
Photos by Brad Shifflett

From early childhood I've been intrigued by anything to do with aviation. I began building model planes when I was only six years old and started taking flying lessons when I was twelve. I made $20 a week from my paper route, which was exactly the cost of one flying lesson. I didn't have any spending money left over, but in the cockpit of my tiny Cessna trainer, I was sitting on top of the world!

My folks were amused and delighted by what I was doing. I was a very focused young person and they both had sufficient wisdom to know that I was chasing hard after my life's dream.

Up! Up! And Away!
My dreams came true and I served for 24 years as a pilot with United Airlines, and retired as Captain of a 747.

I'm one of the fortunate people in this world, having spent my professional life earning good money doing something that I would have been glad to pay for the privilege of doing, if I could afford it.

I'm passionate about flying under any circumstances, but the real mountaintop experiences come when I'm sitting in the cockpit of a high-performance military jet.

In afterburner I really can defy gravity in one of those things!

About a dozen years ago, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, I bought my first Soviet L-29 Delfin as surplus from the Indonesian Air Force. The L-29 was the first airplane to be manufactured in The Czech Republic. It is a combination trainer and light attack military jet.

Six years ago the Soviets were conducting a fire sale and selling off military inventory as a way of raising revenue. I brought in a half dozen Russian MIG-17 jet fighters from the Polish Air Force. The MIG-17 is a single-seat, hi-performance supersonic jet fighter, first used in the Viet Nam War.

Those MIGs are very lightweight, agile fighters and are great machines for the air show circuits because of their high power-to-weight ratio and their superb turning radius, which enables pilots to keep their performance right in front of the crowd.

I sold one of the MIGs to a friend, and we began performing at air shows together, advertising Smirnoff Vodka. We did this for four years, ending in 2001.

The Smirnoff marketing people said our performances were the most effective advertising campaign they'd ever put together, but following 9/11 their upper management made a uniformed decision to cancel our contract. The MIGs seemed to fall into disrepute, so I began working with a different brand of airplane and started flying the air show circuit under the team name "The Patriots."

Flying with the Albatrosses
The L-39, called the Albatross, is an updated version of the older L-29 with increased power and maneuverability. I bought two L-39s out of the Ukraine in 2000 and ultimately brought four of these airplanes to Byron, put them together, and got them certified and painted in our team colors.

The journey one of those planes takes from Eastern Europe to East County is an amazing odyssey. Each L-39 had to be shipped to us in a number of transport stages, including truck, rail, ship, and then back on a truck for the final leg from the port of Oakland to Byron.

Each plane arrives here disassembled and resting in a cradle packed inside a shipping container. We reassemble the plane, reattaching the wings to the fuselage, stripping it of the original camouflage coloring, adding modern avionics, and painted it in our team colors.

Ed Daly and Volodymyr Chetverous are both seasoned mechanics and do all parts of the maintenance and assembly, except for painting. Ed was a fighter pilot, flying F-105s in Viet Nam, before becoming the Chief Pilot for United Airlines. Since I was a captain with United, Ed likes to say, "Randy used to work for me and now I work for him." David Coss is also electrical engineer working for us who does all of our electronic and avionics work.

The L-39 isn't a well-known plane among people in the general population. However, it is fast and maneuverable. It is a great plane for performing the kinds of stunts we do. Air Shows America Team pilots, some of whom have flown some of the most modern fighters, love to fly the Albatross and think it is an awesome airplane, very well suited for this job.

Our Patriots Jet Demonstration Team began performing with these L-39s on the 2003 air show circuit. We began as a two-ship team and have expanded to a three-ship team for the 2004 circuit. We recently completed our fourth airplane and will debut as a four-ship demonstration team on the 2005 circuit.

Guys with the Right Stuff
Each of the professionals currently performing as part of the Airshows America Team, is an extraordinary individual, whose talents and experience rank him as a world-class pilot.

Volodymyr Chetverous, my right wingman, has been flying with me for over five years. He came from the Ukraine and flew the MIG-17 for the Soviet Union. In fact, he was the right wingman for the Soviet Union 9-ship Jet Demonstration Team.

Dean "Wilbur" Wright is my lead pilot. He spent two years as the lead solo pilot for the US Air Force Thunderbirds aerobatic team. Wilbur is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force currently flying the F-117 Stealth (Nighthawk) Fighter. He holds several Top Gun awards for his flying prowess.

Wilbur has been my friend for years. He shares my passion for all things aeronautical. He knew when he was seven years old that he wanted to fly with the Thunderbirds.

Our left wingman, John Posson, is a United Captain with a tremendous breadth of flight experience — from mountain hopping in the Alaskan wilderness, to a decade as an unlimited aerobatic competitor. John is one of the most extraordinary formation pilots that I have ever flown with. He's known for his meticulous attention to detail, on the ground and in the air

It is a challenge to get even this group of world-class professionals flying together with the split-second precision that our performances demand. When getting ready for a season we spend two practice sessions a day in the air, six days a week. With briefings, flight time, debriefing, and preparing airplanes for the next flight, this means that each day becomes about 12-hours long.

We practice like this for a month straight in preparation for the season. During the season itself we conduct several practices each week in preparation for individual air shows. We require this much practice in order to maintain our edge.

The Horse Sitting on our Chest
At the beginning of a new season we also have to build g-tolerance. Our performances require us to pull g-forces, ranging from negative 2 gs to plus 8 gs. If the language is new to you, understand that one ‘g' is equal to one gravity, which means that a 200-pound pilot pulling eight gs is experiencing a sensation similar to having a pound horse sitting on his chest.

Even an experienced pilot who is out of practice is unable to withstand such forces. We must keep exposing ourselves to constantly higher forces, working our way from 6 to 7, and then to 8 gs. We wear special ‘g' suits that exert pressure on the lower extremities, which prevents the blood from rushing from the upper body — especially from the head, which can lead to dizziness or even to loss of consciousness.

My heart and passions belong to aviation. Financing the Airshows America Patriot Team on my own has been very difficult. We currently have some minor sponsorships through Fry's electronics, Tracy Chevrolet, and California Closets. We're looking for a major sponsor to take up the rest of the burden.

In just one of our shows we can produce a high number of "impressions" upon the crowds of onlookers that gather. The bang-for-buck advertising value is demonstrably higher than possible by mere TV space.

Everybody on the Patriot Team is having a lot of fun. We hope to be able to pursue our high-soaring dreams as we continue providing thrills at air shows during the years ahead.

For more information on sponsoring the Patriots at any level or to get their schedule of performances, see the website at http://www.airshowsamerica.com. Or contact me directly at randy@airshowsamerica.com