You never know what will show up on the runway, Poplar Bluff Municipal Airport manager Gary Pride has said.
This was true Thursday when a Cold War-era MiG-17 and a Red Bull aerobatic helicopter landed to refuel, both en route to the America’s Freedom Fest airshow in Indiana.
Pilot Randy Ball arrived near noon in his 1960 Polish-built fighter jet. With a cruising speed near 480 mph, his flight from Texas only took 55 minutes. Between the speed and the view from the cockpit, Ball compared the trip to riding a motorcycle in the air.
“Anywhere you look is sky,” he said.
Ball, call sign Bandit, is a top pilot on the FighterJets Inc. Demo Team. He has flown 1,400 performances and logged 20,000 hours — over two solid years — of flight time. He began flying with his dad as a child and made his first takeoff and landing at age 12.
Since then, he has piloted around 46 airplanes manufactured in nine different countries, and logged nearly 2,000 hours in Soviet aircraft, more than any other western pilot.
His MiG-17 was brought to the U.S. to train American dogfighters and later transitioned to air shows.
“This plane is a ‘bad guy.’ It was built in 1960 in Poland. It flew in the Polish air force and the Russian air force,” he explained, likening it to the black F-16N in the movie “Top Gun.”
The qualities making the MiG formidable in combat are also ideal for air shows. Specifically, “it can turn, go fast, has a big afterburner.”
The most stressful thing about the MiG is fuel consumption: MiGs can burn through 212 gallons in 35 minutes. Even with drop tanks full of extra fuel on each wing, flights are limited to 1-2 hours.
“The biggest problem with those type of aircraft is endurance. They were designed as an interceptor, so going cross-country with one is sporting,” Ball said.
However, gas-guzzling does not stop Bandit’s MiG from being a personal favorite.
“Other than that it’s a wonderful plane, one of the best planes I’ve ever flown regardless of country,” he said.
While Ball’s plane is built for speed, Stan Gray and Aaron Fitzgerald’s BO-105 helicopter is all aerobatics.
Gray, a Red Bull North America helicopter operations manager, brought it in for a landing shortly after Ball arrived. His job is to fly to and from various Red Bull special projects, no midair flips required.
“I do all this, ferrying the helicopter whether it’s a VIP or an air show,” he explained.
He and aerobatics pilot Aaron Fitzgerald began their trip in Shreveport, Louisiana, where Red Bull North America stores some of its equipment.
When they get to Goshen, Indiana, Fitzgerald will take over for the fancy flying. His flight experience includes utility missions over extreme terrain and piloting for film. He trained with Red Bull’s in-house aerobatics program and today is a member of the Flying Bulls team.
“They chose me and I was honored to take the job. It’s a lot of fun and it’s exciting to share it with everybody,” he said.
The BO-105 is his favorite model, and he particularly enjoys pulling off an elaborate maneuver named for it: a flip with two 180-degree spins.
“It’s three moves combined into one and it’s collectively known as a bo-turn,” he said. “It’s my favorite to do.”
More information about the Flying Bulls and Red Bull’s air teams can be found at flyingbulls.at and redbull.com. Fitzgeralds aerial stunts can be viewed on his Instagram, @aaronfitzgerald105, or airborneimages.com.
Ball’s flying, aircraft and more can be found at fighterjets.com and the Randy W. Ball Facebook page.