Planes, pilots, others jet to Wings over Columbus
It’s sleek. It’s loud, and it blows quite a lot of smoke. It’s GhostWriter, a modified 1956 deHavilland Chipmunk flown as a skywriter and aerobatic plane by pilot Nathan K. Hammond. The Ghostwriter will perform, along with several other aircrafts at the Wings Over Columbus Airshow Saturday and Sunday at Columbus Air Force Base. Based in Danville, Kentucky, Hammond has flown the GhostWriter for two years.
Following a short flight from Columbus Air Force Base to Golden Triangle Regional Airport, Hammond discussed the journey, which included some aerobatic maneuvers.
“We launched, we went south and got into some good, clear airspace, clear of airplanes, clear of people on the ground and off the airways,” Hammond said. “The first thing we did was a roll. We dipped the nose down, we got to about 180 miles per hour, pitched up, pushed the stick over and around we went. Like I said. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn’t even know it.”
Hammond also flew a loop, which took slightly more power and pushed a few more G’s, requiring the pilot and passengers to tense their lower body muscles to push the blood back into their upper body. During the roll, GhostWriter hit 200 miles per hour.
“You keep all those muscles nice and tense, and that keeps the blood up in your head,” Hammond said. “That’s what the Air Force and Navy pilots have to do. They have to squeeze really hard, because they’re pulling nine G’s when they’re flying. We pulled three, three-and-a half. That’s thee-and a half times your body weight.”
Hammond described his journey to becoming an airshow pilot, watching his father fly airshows and later, crewing for GhostWriter when it was known as the Pepsi SkyDancer and flown by Steve and Suzanne Oliver.
“My father was an airshow pilot at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck, New York, and I grew up on that airport, so I was immersed in aviation and airshow flying from birth,” Hammond said. “Then we moved to Central Kentucky, I went to college and became a business owner. I still dabbled in airshows, and when the time came, I took over this plane and started flying it as GhostWriter Airshows.”
Hammond also discussed the skywriting portion of his act, saying he had learned about it while crewing for the Pepsi SkyDancer. His first skywriting message was at a NASCAR race with 100,000 people watching.
“The airplane becomes our pen in the sky, and as we fly the airplane, we’re blowing smoke,” Hammond said. “How I turn the airplane and when we turn the smoke on and off is what creates the letters. The letters are about a mile tall, so a message can spread 10 miles across the sky. We can write just about anything. We’re usually up at about 12,000 or 14,000 feet when we’re doing that. We’re looking for good cold, stable air.”
Hammond also described an unusual trick to ensure his letters are the same height.
“You sing to yourself,” Hammond said. “When I’m skywriting up there, I kid you not, you’ve got to have good rhythm. The problem is, when we’re turning and pulling those G’s up there, your heart rate gets elevated, so your internal rhythm, your internal clock starts to beat a little bit faster, but I sing the ‘Scooby Doo’ song. I can sing that song the same way every time.”
Hammond flies GhostWriter in approximately 10 airshows a year. He also operates Hammond Aero Services, an aircraft repair shop and flies as a corporate pilot.
“Going out there on a day like today where it’s unlimited visibility, where you can see 50 miles in any direction on a bluebird day like this, it’s just the freedom of going out there and being one with the airplane, it’s what I was born to do,” Hammond said.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Despite the presence of Hammond and innumerable other pilots, not everyone involved in the airshow plans to stay in the air for long.
On Saturday, the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team will perform. The team will demonstrate four different kinds of jumps, including a cutaway from a malfunctioning parachute and a baton pass, where team mem-
bers will pass a mahogany baton between themselves after jumping out of an aircraft. The team will also perform a mass exit, all jumping out of the plane at the same time.
Staff Sgt. Jake Kerkow, who is
in his first year flying as a Golden Knight, described the rigorous selection process for the team, located at the team’s base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
“If the team decides they would like to try you out, you go to our annual selection program,” Kerkow said. “It’s September through October
every year. We usually have between 10 and 20 candidates come out. You get assessed on everything from teamwork to physical fitness to military bearing, and they decide who actually has what it takes to become a Golden Knight.”
He said usually less than 50 percent made it through the training
program.
Kerkow, who joined the Army in 2008, and has deployed to Afghanistan as a combat medic said he particularly enjoyed interacting with children as a Golden Knight. He also said a Golden Knights demonstration could also serve as a recruiting tool for those interested in serving in
the Army.
“We kind of get to give them little bit of a different outlook on things, so they’re not just hearing from Army recruiters.
The airshow will run 5rom 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Only clear bags will be allowed in, and ice chests are prohibited.