High Time : Despite Drizzle, Fun at Van Nuys Aviation Expo Soars

James Maroney made a decision Sunday about what he wants to do with his life.

“I want to go sky diving!” the 10-year-old proclaimed just minutes after watching the U.S. Army’s parachute team drop from nearly 10,000 feet onto the Tarmac of Van Nuys Airport during the 27th annual Aviation Expo.

“At 10? No,” said his mother, Rhonda. “At 18, he can do whatever he wants.”

Sunday marked the final day of the two-day combination air show and fair. And for the first time in the expo’s history, it rained, so the Maroneys huddled under the wing of a parked bomber for shelter.

“It’s never been wet and wild before,” said a smiling James, savoring the strange rain in July.

Although irregular sprinkles sent a few scurrying for the exits, most spectators took the drizzle in stride, saying it was preferable to the usual July weather of scorching heat.

“We love it,” said Kathy Davis, 42, of Canoga Park.

Davis and her husband arrived at 9 a.m., as the expo opened, aiming to “beat the heat,” Andy Davis said. “But fortunately, we don’t have to.”

The expo was a birthday present for Andy Davis, 46, who got to look at the F-4 Phantom planes he worked on in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. As he stood before a banner thanking veterans, which was signed by expo visitors, Andy Davis said he appreciated this year’s expo theme--”A Salute to America’s Veterans.”

About 125,000 people attended the event on Sunday. About the same number showed up Saturday. The top-billed attraction was the Harrier, a Marine Corps attack jet that can fly backward and hover as well as take off and land vertically.

The air show also featured the Golden Knights parachute team, Los Angeles Fire Department helicopters demonstrating their search and rescue techniques and a squadron of World War II vintage AT-6 Texans flying in a missing man formation, in memory of U.S. veterans.

Tears welled up in Dick Schorr’s eyes as he watched Army parachutists float downward, weaving intricate patterns in the sky. The 68-year-old Burbank resident was a paratrooper during World War II, and still flies single-engine planes--although he’s given up sky diving.

“It gives me goose bumps, I tell you. I think it’s wonderful,” Schorr said of the day’s theme. “We’re so lucky to be living in a country like this.”