Up, in smoke

A Cleveland National Air Show, newcomer, Tiger Air show does circus-inspired flying through rings

Mark Sorenson loves flying. As a commercial airline pilot, the veteran often can be found flying jet airliners around the country. However, over the last decade, modern technology has essentially taken the flying out of the pilot’s hands in the name of safety. ¶ Problem is, Sorenson’s a pilot’s pilot — he needed an outlet for his aeronautical passion. The answer he found is the Tiger Airshow, which will be making its Northeast Ohio debut Labor Day Weekend at the Cleveland National Air Show.

“You know, in today’s modern airlines, there’s a lot of uniqueness to it, the skill of mastering technology, but there’s not a lot of flying involved,” said Sorenson, calling from Atlanta. “I’ll be honest, you can get on an airliner these days, and the pilot may actually hand fly six to eight minutes of a three-hour flight.

“So for guys like me who like to fly, we get home, we drag out these airplanes on our days off and fly to the middle of nowhere.”

Tiger Airshow pilots Sorenson and Mark Nowosielski will be entertaining audiences in the air with their identical Yak-55 planes, displaying aerial demonstration of precision and skill.

The duo performs razorsharp maneuvers that will highlight the demanding skills required to fly closeformation aerobatics, all while combining the challenges of flying through smoke rings in the sky.

Yes, that’s right, smoke rings in the sky, which Sorenson said is completely original and helps create a circus-style theme for these airplanes, which are painted like tigers.

“What do you do with tigers at a circus?” Sorenson said. “They usually jump through rings of fire. That’s the traditional stereotype. So to incorporate that into an air-show environment, we developed a custom smoke-ring generator designed specifically to make these giant 300- to 400-foot-diameter smoke rings.

“It’s a crowd favorite and has a lot of predictability to it, a lot of visual stimulation. Plus our airplanes are capable of doing all of the unlimited maneuvers that you see some of the solo model planes do, so it really rounds out the whole package.”

In addition to the Russian-built Yak-55s, Cleveland National Air Show attendees can expect to see headliners the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, as well as the U.S. Air Force F-16 Viper Jet demonstration, U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team, the Shockwave Jet Truck, Wall of Fire and wing walking.

Regarding Tiger Airshow’s aerobatic maneuvers, Sorenson said audiences should be ready for a breathtaking experience.

“It’s a lot of adrenaline,” Sorenson said. “That’s what allows you to sustain the entire routine, but in order to get to that level it’s all calculated risk with air show flying. We have to create the illusion that the easy looks hard. In our show, we have no less than 13 near collisions in our routine that makes the audience gasp.”

Considering Sorenson or his partner could one day be flying your family around the country, we’re just confirming he never confuses which plane he’s flying?

“No, it’s pretty easy to keep it separate,” Sorenson laughed.

CHIP GRIFFIN PHOTOGRAPHY The planes used in the Tiger Air show, which are painted like tigers, fly to smoke rings during the performances.

SUBMITTED While much of the cool stuff happens in the sky, the Cleveland National Air Show also offers some fun on the ground, such as the chance to check out a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy.