Acrobatics and Arnie: Perfect day at Westmoreland County Airshow
September. So inside show sponsor Xcoal’s hangar at the Unity airport were Mr. Palmer’s private Cessna Citation X airplane and other memorabilia on rare display. (Xcoal Inc. bought Mr. Palmer’s jet from his estate after his death.)
For a small donation, you also could take a selfie with Arnie’s golf cart and golf bag.
Some of the longest queues were for a tour of an MC-130J cargo plane that flew in from Albuquerque, N.M., for the event. Crowds also lined up to sit in a fourbladed Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and peek inside a Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon, one of the largest and most powerful helicopters in the Pentagon’s inventory.
“We want people to know who we are and what we do, and what your tax dollar goes to,” said Navy pilot John Black, a Slippery Rock native and Steelers fan (that was his Terrible Towel in the Sea Dragon’s window) who now serves at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. And if it also makes you want to join the Navy? That’s good, too.
Spectators also were treated to a U.S. Coast Guard search-and- rescue demonstration, a comedy routine by air show veteran Greg Koontz, and a performance by the U.S. Army Parachute Team “Golden Knights,” which has been in existence for more than 50 years. There also was a fiery, smoky drag race between an orange bi-plane and a Peterbilt semi-cab tricked out with three Westinghouse jet engines.(The semi won.)
“You just have to respect it,” driver Chris Parnell said of the Shockwave Jet Truck, which can hit 350 miles per hourin 12 seconds.
But it was the screaming, rolling blue-and-gold Blue Angels that sent kids sprinting to the fence for a better look, and had parents pulling out their cell phones to shoot video.
Donned in matching Penguins T-shirts, Eric Zerby and his son Zach of Bethel Park say they came to see the most skilled pilots in the world.
Now 20, Zach remembers seeing them a few years ago in Cleveland.“But when you’re younger, you don’t appreciate it as much,” he said. “You don’t realize these aircraftare amazing.”
Not everyone paid for the experience. Thousands watched from nearby parking lots or cars parked on the side of Route 981. There also were Angel-watching tailgates on the grass in front of SpringHill Suites and Kennametal’s corporate headquarters.
Linda Frye of Irwin was out for a Sunday drive when the Angels started twisting and turning through the azure sky. The mother of a pilot, she immediately pulled her Buick onto the berm along Pleasant Unity Road and craned her neck upwards to watch the plane as they blazed a smoky trail.
“It’s totally flabbergasting,” she said. “When they’re doing what they’re doing, it’s awesome.”