Airshow Performer Jerod Flohr Attains Lifelong Dream, Debuts at Watsonville
By Jerod Flohr
Jerod Flohr with his Extra 300L.
(Provided by Jerod Flohr)
The 2012 Watsonville Fly-In and Airshow in California was the first weekend in September. Did you make it to the show? It was a great one. They featured great display aircraft, great food, and of course, some of the most well known Airshow pilots on the West coast. Their performers included greats such as Eddie Andreini, Bill Stein, Vicky Benzing, Beech Boys, West Coast Ravens, Warbirds, and Jerod Flohr.
Wait a minute, who was that last guy? Well, it’s me. The 2012 Watsonville Airshow was my very first performance. A dream come true that has been 22 years in the making. I realize that mine is a little bit of a different perspective than that of most that tend to give highlights about shows they attended, but only in one way. Most tend to report as fans of aviation, which is exactly my Jerod poses with fans after his first performance at the Watsonville Air Show. (Jan Causey Johnson)position. I just happen to be a fan that was lucky enough to be piloting an Extra 300L over the skies of Watsonville the day of the show instead of sitting on those comfy hay bails where I usually am. I have to admit, though the views from the hay bails are pretty hard to beat, nothing can compare to being inverted 1,500 feet above show center, looking up above me at the beauty that is an airshow crowd. I love it: the people, food vendors, chalets, and awesome airplanes of every era scattered on the ramp. What an experience!
As you know, nothing is without its challenges. Let’s take a few steps back and talk about how I wound up at the Watsonville Airshow. I received my 500 foot “Statement of Acrobatic Competency” or waiver from one of my personal heroes, the legendary Wayne Handley in May of this year. I booked Wayne for three-days worth of lessons in the Extra 300L and asked him to evaluate my flying. If by the end of the three days he thought I was safe and competent enough to go for a waiver, I would do it. First of all, what a thrill it was to fly with an aviation legend. I couldn’t believe I had Wayne Handley in my front seat! But wait a minute – he was there to evaluate my aerobatic flying skills, performing maneuvers that he had mastered, some of which he had invented while I was still in diapers – can you say nerve racking?
I knew going in that I wasn’t going to impress Wayne with anything he hasn’t seen before. My goal was simple: show Wayne that I intend to be as safe as possible. I wanted him to see my skill but most of all, good judgment. I don’t consider myself to be a daredevil in the least. I heard a good pilot once say that he doesn’t take his aircraft anywhere that his head hasn’t been long before if he can help it. Everything that Wayne evaluated me on, especially my airshow sequence, had been drawn out and practiced many times over, long before I showed up to fly. I ended up accomplishing what I showed up to do – I received my waiver. This was a huge dream come true for me, I was officially an airshow pilot – or was I? This was one of the thoughts I had when I jumped into the Extra and blasted off from Pine Mountain Lake bound for Reid Hillview airport, in San Jose, Calif. I had two problems with the idea of officially being an airshow pilot.
First, I had left empty handed. It’s not like a typical check ride whereas you leave with your license in hand upon successful completion. I had to wait for ICAS to send it to the FAA for approval. Only then could I make an appointment to go pick it up at the FSDO. Second, I hadn’t actually done an airshow. Don’t you have to have flown in an airshow to be an airshow pilot? I think so. So to say the least, I wasn’t totally fulfilled.
If you have been around aviation long enough, you know that it’s a relatively small community. Take that small community and reduce it down to aerobatic pilots and it shrinks much more. Of the aerobatic pilots that are airshow performers, you are not going to find too many of them that don’t know each other on a first name basis. This is a very small family of professionals! All the while I was practicing for my flights with Wayne, I was asking for advice from other performers like Vicky Benzing, whom I met a few years back at an airshow in which she was performing. I told her a bit of my story and we were able to keep in touch about my goals and accomplishments. Vicky was very instrumental in helping me get my chance to fly at Watsonville; I really don’t think I could’ve done it without her. She had spoken at length to Wayne about my flying and was willing to help me get my foot in the door. I cannot thank her enough for that. She was able to introduce me to a few key people involved with the Watsonville Airshow that could help me move forward in my career. At this point, I needed a first show. Months went by without me hearing much about my flying Watsonville and I had all but given up on the idea. Six days prior to the show I received a call confirming me as one of the performers.
Watsonville Fly-In and Airshow is a three day event with Friday being a day of arrivals for display and practice for the performers. Saturday and Sunday are the main airshow days. I showed up Friday morning under an overcast sky hoping the clouds would burn off so that I could get my feel for the relatively small aerobatic box that Watsonville has to offer. The way the aerobatic box works, in a nutshell, is that there is a certain block of airspace with predetermined parameters decided by the FAA that is designed to keep the crowd and surrounding population as safe as possible while the aircraft are performing. In order to take advantage of this box of waivered airspace, one must attend a safety briefing and sign the waiver itself. This is another one of those perspectives I have never experienced. Like I said, in order to fly in this show, you had to be there for this briefing. This meant I was in a classroom environment with all of the people I had looked up to over the years, and I was there for the same reasons they were, to fly this show!
After the briefing at two p.m, we went out to our planes to get ready for our practice. The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight! I took to the sky behind Vicky and Bill and found out quickly that it was indeed a small box. Luckily we all knew this going in and I had been practicing for that situation. I made good use of my time and fuel and came back in to land. I was happy with my flight and went on to put the aircraft to bed in a borrowed hangar that was just big enough for three airplanes. Inside were Eddie Andrieni’s Super Stearman, his beautiful P-51, and the Extra. What a great hangar!
Saturday morning I woke up and couldn’t wait to get out the door. After having breakfast with some dear friends who had driven over to watch my big day, I headed to the morning brief. The emphasis on safety was priority number one. There were four men from the FAA who sat in on the meeting and afterwards I had a chance to chat with them all. They were very encouraging and I really felt that they were there for good reasons, to ensure that the show went on as safely as possible. The FAA looked over our credentials and then inspected the aircraft. After that we were good to go. Now to the good part!
The closer I got to the performance, the more I feared that anxiety would somehow get the best of me and cause me to make a mistake of some kind that I normally wouldn’t make. Something like forgetting to switch fuel tanks, leaving the front seatbelts loose, or just plain out having trouble starting the plane. Luckily, I fly this airplane all of the time and I noticed that just being close to the airplane and going through the same mental checklists that I always do seemed to calm me down; the crowd and other potential distractions seemed to fade away. I did have a problem focusing because of one thing – I wanted to watch the airshow! That obviously took a back burner when I heard that it was time for me to fire up just after the national anthem.
Chris, my crew for this airshow, and I got the Extra pushed out away from the crowd and did one last quick walk around before strapping in. This was the point at which everything seemed to fade away for a bit, I needed to concentrate. I was sitting in the Extra getting strapped in with Chris standing right next to me outside the airplane keeping an extra eye on things, and to be there if I needed any help at all. I was finished ratcheting myself in so tight that I became “one” with this beautiful machine about the time the National Anthem started to play. It was a very surreal moment for me to be sitting in the Extra with the canopy open while Chris and I looked straight up at the U.S. flag being floated down behind Garth’s open parachute. Many times I have been at an airshow that started this way but never from that vantage point. Garth floats down right over the top of us and does a beautiful landing in front of the crowd just as the Anthem ends.
That’s my cue! I turned to Chris, who by the way is more than crew, he is a friend that has been watching this dream unfold for the last four years, a fellow aerobatic pilot, and yes, my girlfriend’s dad! He shakes my hand and tells me congratulations and good luck. With that, I close the canopy and fire her up. While taxiing out the nervousness and anxiety that I was worried about started creeping back. I felt my hands starting to sweat as I sat at the beginning of the runway waiting for my clearance to take off from Mark, the Airboss.
As soon as I heard Mark come over the radio and say, “Jerod, you’re cleared for takeoff,” the anxiety fell away. I was focused. I took off, climbed up to altitude and got in to position to be cleared into the airshow box. I radioed Mark that I was ready and I heard those awesome words, “Jerod, you are cleared into the box, the box is yours!” Here we go! I pushed the prop up and got all 300 horses running, pulling me downhill at a 30 degree angle towards center box. By the time I entered the box at 800 feet, I was doing almost 250 miles per hour. I turned the smoke on and pulled 8 G to the vertical. It was a strange feeling. From that initial dive in to my last knife edge pass, it was just another flight. I had practiced this routine so many times in this same airplane that it felt natural. The only thing that was different was my points of reference, the scenery!
I landed afterwards and taxied past the crowd who were all waving at me. I did my best to wave back as I taxied in and couldn’t wait to shut down, open the canopy, and stand up in the seat and wave at everyone. It was a genuine dream come true. I am now, officially, an airshow pilot!
Being inspired as a little kid at the airshow was not just the product of seeing these great airplanes fly and do magnificent maneuvers in the sky; it was more so the heroes that piloted these machines coming down the crowd line when they were finished talking, signing autographs, and taking pictures with us. That is what truly inspired me and that is exactly what I wanted to do.
Chris helped me get the airplane situated after the flight and we headed down the line with little cards and a sharpie in hand to talk to the kids. I loved it. I saw myself on the other side of the rope so many times that day. Chris was helping me get their names and I was doing my best to look into their eyes and have a short conversation with each one of them. I talked to at least a hundred kids and parents and signed just as many autographs. When I got to the last child I felt a sense of accomplishment. I realized that I really have an opportunity to inspire these kids as I was inspired myself. It felt good to be kneeling next to these kids hearing that they wanted to do what I do someday. I was there to prove to them that they could.
The day wound down and I got to visit with all of my friends and enjoy the rest of the airshow as the fan that I am. Sunday ended up being almost a carbon copy of Saturday and all over again I got to do this thing that I always dreamed of doing. It’s amazing to me how I could’ve been so sure, at three years of age, that this was exactly what I wanted to do. People always asked me, “What happens when you dedicate so many years of your life to something that you think you want to do and when you finally accomplish it, you are wrong?” Luckily, I don’t have to put any effort into that question ever again. I was right. I am an airshow pilot!
I left the airshow early Sunday and headed back to San Jose. It took me less than 10 minutes to get there from Watsonville. What a strange feeling pulling up to the hangar that felt like home after such an unusual “trip.” I opened the hangar, pushed the Extra in tail first and grabbed a drink out of the refrigerator. I just sat there beside the Extra as I’ve done so many times before looking out over the quiet ramp. What a ride!
I have another airshow coming up at my hometown show in Midland, Texas. That’s where it all started! I plan on continuing to do airshows and am looking for sponsorship. I plan on flying several airshows in and around California and Texas next year. I’m looking forward to writing about the Midland Airshow next month and thanks to everyone for your support. Come see me at Advantage Aviation in Palo Alto, Calif. if you are interested in taking lessons in the good ol’ tail draggers or even taking a ride in the Extra!
Special thanks to Ed DeBoer for his continuing support, friendship, and sponsorship.
Thanks to Mark Kadrich – good friend, Watsonville FlyIn and AirShow AirBoss!
