SPOTLIGHT : FLIGHTS OF FANCY : Wing Walkers, Aerobatics and Screaming Jets Will Be Over the Top at This Weekend’s Air Show at El Toro

When people think of the El Toro Air Show, they probably think of wingovers, loops, 50-degree nose-ups and 360-degree rolls in breathtakingly precise aerobatic formations at ear-shattering decibel levels and heart-stopping speeds up to 750 m.p.h.

The 45th annual show, Saturday and Sunday at the Marine Corps Air Station, won’t disappoint them. The six F/A-18 Hornet jet fighters known as the U.S. Navy Blue Angel Flight Demonstration Team will again provide the finale.

But the Blue Angels aren’t the only reason more than a million people are again expected to attend the event.

“Every year there’s something new and different not only for enthusiasts--the people who understand aircraft and who are interested in aviation--but for those unfamiliar with it as well,” said Maj. Margaret Kuhn, the air station’s public affairs director.

“The Blue Angels are the most spectacular--in the blink of an eye they’re gone and they’re back. But there’s something for everybody. Aerobatics, wing walkers, parachute teams, military and civilian vintage aircraft, aircraft currently in the military system.”

The El Toro Air Show, in fact, is billed as the largest air show of its kind in the country.

On the ground will be hundreds of aircraft including the F-117 Stealth fighter, as well as tanks and artillery pieces, all available for close-up inspection.

Up in the air, Otto the Clown Helicopter is new. The noise, or lack of noise, from the various acts can be strikingly different: Bret Willat’s “Sailplane Magic,” for instance, and paraplegic hang glider Dan Buchanan’s “Flying Colors.” Military attractions include the Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier and Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon.

And that’s only from our side.

MIG Magic

“I’m bringing in a bright shiny red Russian MIG fighter,” said Bill Reesman of Tualatin, Ore. “I spent 20 years in the Air Force learning to fight this particular aircraft. I have 320 combat missions over Vietnam, mostly air to ground. I never encountered an enemy aircraft. If I had, this would have been it.

“Now I own and fly one, and in retrospect I’m awfully glad I never had to fight one. Very tenacious, very maneuverable. You’re looking at an aircraft 40 years old, yet it turns almost as tight as the newest, hottest fighters today.”

Reesman’s first MIG, for which he had paid $150,000, exploded last year, a month before the El Toro show; a fuel line broke and Reesman landed amid flames. He paid $30,000 for another MIG from Poland (“Since the collapse of communism, everything’s up for sale,” he noted), then overhauled it for an additional $40,000 to bring it up to air-show standards. A former marketer, Reesman now makes his living flying in air shows and in the used-fighter market.

For a preview of the MIG and other acts, look upward around 7:45 tonight. The openers during a show for military members and their families will be Sean D. Tucker’s “Stardance” and Buchanan’s “Flying Colors.” Then Reesman will trail 1,000 feet of fire from each wing in a “jet fighter night aerobatic pyrotechnic” spectacle he calls “MIG Meteor;” he expects it to be visible for 30 miles.

“I’m the only one in the world doing an act like this; that’s how stupid it is.”

Clowning Copter

Otto the Clown Helicopter may be naughty, but he’s not stupid. In fact, Otto’s so smart that he can catch a bubble-gum snatcher in the audience mid-flight.

“Up in the air, Otto talks to the children, if you ask him a question he nods yes and no,” said Annette Hosking of Bountiful, Utah. “This year, Otto got a new toy, a 75-pound yo-yo he works up and down. Sometimes it yos, sometimes it yo-yos. And sometimes it yo-yo-yos!”

Understand that Otto the Clown Helicopter isn’t a clown in a helicopter: He is the helicopter. (Hosking’s husband, Bob, is the pilot.)

“Otto’s a huge 269B, and we put a face on him,” Annette Hosking said. “When he gets a face on him, he becomes a person. Kids go up and hug and kiss him--when he’s sitting on the ground, of course.”

Sky’s the Limit

Dan Buchanan said there are several reasons his act is different, including: “One, I can’t walk. I’m in a wheelchair. Two, I launch from flat ground off a moving vehicle with a hydraulic winch. Three, once I’m up, I get attacked by an airplane.”

Buchanan’s legs were paralyzed in a 1981 dirt-bike accident. He had already been flying hang gliders and he simply added two wheels for landing. In his act, he launches at 35 m.p.h. and climbs to 2,000 feet.

Soon, the air around him is filled with brilliant flashes, streaming multicolor smoke and ribbons (by executing graceful maneuvers he snatches the ribbons back out of the air) and a pyrotechnic display launched right from his glider. Buchanan’s impression of a “Third World warbird” is enough to chase that pesky airplane away.

When not at air shows, Buchanan enjoys recreational flights of several hours’ duration near his coastal Forestville home as well as riding hot-air currents over the Sierra to altitudes of more than 17,000 feet.

Silent Type

Bret Willat’s “Sailplane Magic” Grob G-103 Acro can climb to almost three times that altitude, yet unlike power planes, the impression is usually one of serenity.

“This is slow motion, very graceful and very much a contrast to the other performances,” Willat said. “Many people like it the best. The sailplane is also much bigger than everything else; it’s got a 60-foot wing span. We can climb faster than a power plane, and certainly higher. Sailplanes have flown just under 50,000 feet and more than 1,000 miles.”

Sailplane races are now an Olympic-sanctioned event, said Willat, “only a lot of people don’t know about it. It’s kind of a quiet sport, you understand.”

At the show, Willat, who’s based over the hills in Warner Springs, performs loops, rolls, inverted flight and other tricks called immelmans (half loop to an invert and a rollover) and hammerheads (a “stall turn,” a pivoting from almost straight up to almost straight down). Colored smoke trails stream from the wingtips to mark the plane’s path. The craft dives toward the ground for a high-speed pass, approaches the runway at 150 m.p.h., then flashes past.

Swan Dive?

The Blue Angels first performed in 1946 as part of a naval directive to buoy public interest in aviation after World War II. The ploy worked. The team makes 22 stops this season, including the El Toro Air Show.

Unfortunately, that may not be the case for long. According to Sgt. Barry Pawelek, community relations chief, the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station must close by 1999, and as units move out it becomes increasingly difficult to stage an air show of this magnitude.

“Our air shows are numbered,” said Pawelek. “This one will probably be the biggest and the best. The general has decided to have one next year, we just don’t know how big it’s going to be. We keep losing squadrons to Miramar (in San Diego County), so I suspect it’s going to be downsized.”

In the meantime, Kuhn, of public affairs, noted that this year’s El Toro event will be special in other ways as well, particularly for 5,000 senior citizens and special needs children who will enjoy a “rehearsal” performance Friday.

“That’s a very special part of the El Toro Air Show, it gives people an opportunity to see the show who otherwise wouldn’t enjoy it if they tried to fight the crowds on the weekends,” Kuhn said.

“From our perspective, the air show is our major community relations event of the year. Throughout the year, people who live nearby see our jets and helicopters, and hear them, sometimes late into the evening. This is our way of saying thanks for their support all year long.”

* What: 45th annual El Toro Air Show.

* When: Saturday and Sunday. Gates open at 7 a.m. both days; shows run from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

* Where: Marine Corps Air Station, Sand Canyon Avenue at Trabuco Road, El Toro.

* Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Sand Canyon Avenue and drive north. The Sand Canyon exits off the Santa Ana (5) Freeway will be closed during the event.

* Wherewithal: Admission and parking are free. Grandstand seating ($8), reserved box seats ($12), and “four-star” seating under a shaded chalet tent and including lunch ($35) can be purchased on site or in advance by calling Ticketmaster.

* Where to call: (714) 726-2932 or (714) 740-2000 (Ticketmaster)