![\"40thAnniversaryAirplaneFireworksMtWerner\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/40thAnniversaryAirplaneFireworksMtWerner.jpg\")
<\/a>me because he was using fireworks as well.\u00a0 We helped each other.\u00a0 I ended up concentrating on Class C fireworks which I could buy at roadside stands around the fourth of July. But I still depended on Class B \u201cfountains\u201d which, as the name implies, spewed a fountain of sparks, leaving a trail which served as the rhythm for the music of my night show.\u00a0 It was always an adventure.\u00a0 Mounting fireworks on a fabric covered airplane was fraught with hazard, but I designed the mounts to keep the devices a reasonable distance away from and downwind of the fabric.\u00a0 Perhaps the biggest problem was misfiring.\u00a0 Sometimes a device just wouldn\u2019t go off\u2026.. when I wanted it to!\u00a0 But perhaps the biggest hazard was at the end of the act.\u00a0 In fact, it was right after the landing.\u00a0 Those fireworks would keep on burning, their fire fanned by the airspeed of the plane.\u00a0 And when I landed, the burning cardboard casings made it look like my wings were on fire.\u00a0 I guess they kinda were!<\/h3>\n![\"34108](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/34108-A.mpg.Still008-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>A frame grab from old video shows my Cub over Amelia Island, Florida. When those wing mounted fireworks quit, there’ll be a mad dash to land back at the airport and roll up to the water hose in order to put out the fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMy friend, Jerry Groendyke, has an interesting mind and it shows itself in different ways.\u00a0 But the way in which I think Jerry sometimes demonstrates his brilliance is with his economy of language.\u00a0 No one will ever refer to Jerry as \u201cloquacious\u201d.\u00a0 However, in the absence of practice, his ability to communicate and to relate a story is really unmatched.\u00a0 I happened to hear Jerry telling someone about my night show.\u00a0 The part of it which fascinated Jerry went something like this:<\/h3>\n\u201cSo he\u2019s rigged all these brackets.\u00a0 He\u2019s got fireworks attached to the wingtips of this fabric-covered J-3 Cub.\u00a0 He\u2019s got a bracket on the tail and he even has this large, streamlined box attached to the belly.\u00a0 In that aluminum box are all these fireworks which are pointed down.\u00a0 When he fires them from a control box on the instrument panel they will shoot their fireworks straight down.\u00a0 If he does that in a loop, the effect is really phenomenal, causing this large arc of explosives and fire, outlining the path of the airplane as it loops.\u00a0 But all these fireworks are contained in cardboard.\u00a0 And the airplane\u2019s going through the air at an average speed of about 80 knots.\u00a0 So all those spent firework tubes are going to be on fire.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a fire fanned by that airspeed.\u00a0 So, KNOWING THAT, he has a hose at the corner of a hangar on the airport.\u00a0 He\u2019s taxied the airplane over to that hangar and he\u2019s designed his landing roll to end at that hose.\u00a0 Then he turns on the hose and launches off to do his night show over the beach about five miles away.\u00a0 HE KNOWS THAT THE AIRPLANE WILL BE ON FIRE WHEN HE RETURNS!\u00a0 But somehow it works.\u00a0 He swoops in with fire on the wings and belly, shuts the engine down, coasts to a stop and leaps out, grabs the hose and puts the fire out.\u201d<\/h3>\nThe President of the Amelia Island Plantation in Florida was Jack Healan.\u00a0 Jack was a long time aviator.\u00a0 He\u2019d been a Marine during the Viet Nam era.\u00a0 And he had the distinction of being the only person I\u2019d ever allowed to ride with me during a night show.\u00a0 With Jack in the back seat of the 100HP Cub, I made all the preparations that Jerry had described and launched off to perform my night show over the beach in front of the Amelia Island Plantation.\u00a0 The act went pretty well, all the fireworks performed as they should and the extinguishing of the ensuing \u201cwings afire\u201d was successful.\u00a0 Someone approached Jack as he dismounted from the dripping, steaming Cub.<\/h3>\n\u201cHow was it, Jack?\u201d they asked.<\/h3>\nJack just exhaled and shook his head.<\/h3>\n\u201cIt was like f—–g Da Nang!\u201d he exclaimed.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written 8-2015 I think I first became aware of the possibilities of fireworks before I even got into the airshow business.\u00a0 Art Scholl used to mount fireworks on his Chipmunk and do a night act.\u00a0 I once saw an old air show poster, showing a wingwalker above a city.\u00a0 She held highway flares in each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,62,116,171,174,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>My friend, Jerry Groendyke, has an interesting mind and it shows itself in different ways.\u00a0 But the way in which I think Jerry sometimes demonstrates his brilliance is with his economy of language.\u00a0 No one will ever refer to Jerry as \u201cloquacious\u201d.\u00a0 However, in the absence of practice, his ability to communicate and to relate a story is really unmatched.\u00a0 I happened to hear Jerry telling someone about my night show.\u00a0 The part of it which fascinated Jerry went something like this:<\/h3>\n\u201cSo he\u2019s rigged all these brackets.\u00a0 He\u2019s got fireworks attached to the wingtips of this fabric-covered J-3 Cub.\u00a0 He\u2019s got a bracket on the tail and he even has this large, streamlined box attached to the belly.\u00a0 In that aluminum box are all these fireworks which are pointed down.\u00a0 When he fires them from a control box on the instrument panel they will shoot their fireworks straight down.\u00a0 If he does that in a loop, the effect is really phenomenal, causing this large arc of explosives and fire, outlining the path of the airplane as it loops.\u00a0 But all these fireworks are contained in cardboard.\u00a0 And the airplane\u2019s going through the air at an average speed of about 80 knots.\u00a0 So all those spent firework tubes are going to be on fire.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a fire fanned by that airspeed.\u00a0 So, KNOWING THAT, he has a hose at the corner of a hangar on the airport.\u00a0 He\u2019s taxied the airplane over to that hangar and he\u2019s designed his landing roll to end at that hose.\u00a0 Then he turns on the hose and launches off to do his night show over the beach about five miles away.\u00a0 HE KNOWS THAT THE AIRPLANE WILL BE ON FIRE WHEN HE RETURNS!\u00a0 But somehow it works.\u00a0 He swoops in with fire on the wings and belly, shuts the engine down, coasts to a stop and leaps out, grabs the hose and puts the fire out.\u201d<\/h3>\nThe President of the Amelia Island Plantation in Florida was Jack Healan.\u00a0 Jack was a long time aviator.\u00a0 He\u2019d been a Marine during the Viet Nam era.\u00a0 And he had the distinction of being the only person I\u2019d ever allowed to ride with me during a night show.\u00a0 With Jack in the back seat of the 100HP Cub, I made all the preparations that Jerry had described and launched off to perform my night show over the beach in front of the Amelia Island Plantation.\u00a0 The act went pretty well, all the fireworks performed as they should and the extinguishing of the ensuing \u201cwings afire\u201d was successful.\u00a0 Someone approached Jack as he dismounted from the dripping, steaming Cub.<\/h3>\n\u201cHow was it, Jack?\u201d they asked.<\/h3>\nJack just exhaled and shook his head.<\/h3>\n\u201cIt was like f—–g Da Nang!\u201d he exclaimed.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The President of the Amelia Island Plantation in Florida was Jack Healan.\u00a0 Jack was a long time aviator.\u00a0 He\u2019d been a Marine during the Viet Nam era.\u00a0 And he had the distinction of being the only person I\u2019d ever allowed to ride with me during a night show.\u00a0 With Jack in the back seat of the 100HP Cub, I made all the preparations that Jerry had described and launched off to perform my night show over the beach in front of the Amelia Island Plantation.\u00a0 The act went pretty well, all the fireworks performed as they should and the extinguishing of the ensuing \u201cwings afire\u201d was successful.\u00a0 Someone approached Jack as he dismounted from the dripping, steaming Cub.<\/h3>\n\u201cHow was it, Jack?\u201d they asked.<\/h3>\nJack just exhaled and shook his head.<\/h3>\n\u201cIt was like f—–g Da Nang!\u201d he exclaimed.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jack just exhaled and shook his head.<\/h3>\n\u201cIt was like f—–g Da Nang!\u201d he exclaimed.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written 8-2015 I think I first became aware of the possibilities of fireworks before I even got into the airshow business.\u00a0 Art Scholl used to mount fireworks on his Chipmunk and do a night act.\u00a0 I once saw an old air show poster, showing a wingwalker above a city.\u00a0 She held highway flares in each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,62,116,171,174,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}