Old and Bold Alight for Camarillo Wingding

The 50-year-old B-25 bomber parked at the Camarillo Airport this weekend weighs 35,000 pounds. The handmade “Cozy Mark IV” that taxied under the bomber’s wing Friday was built in a Simi Valley garage two years ago and weighs just 1,220 pounds.

In between, a dozen World War II and Korean War-era fighter planes prepared to share air and hangar space with handmade experimental aircraft that often resemble something Batman would fly.

Welcome to the 16th annual Camarillo Air Show and Experimental Aircraft Fly-In, open to the public this weekend. Last year, 30,000 spectators stopped by the airport for the two-day event, and organizers expect about the same turnout this year.

The airplanes on display are owned and operated by two distinct sets of pilots.

Flying the vintage craft are pilots like Cliff Hersey and Gary Barber, guys in their late 50s and mid-60s with firm handshakes who don the green flight suits of the Confederate Air Force and crash helmets wired for radio for their trips aloft.

On the ground, Hersey of Camarillo says little and wears a ratty straw hat and cowboy boots as he babies his 1943 North American AT-6, a two-seat combat training plane used during World War II.

“I was in the trucking business and this guy owed me some money. He offered me a plane and I accepted,” said Hersey, who already had a private pilot’s license.

Hersey took his pride and joy out for a spin Friday with Barber, who flew a similar plane. The two aircraft rushed down the runway side by side and lifted off almost simultaneously.

For 20 minutes, the airplanes flew in tandem 2,000 feet over Ventura County, reaching speeds of 180 mph as they buzzed the Camarillo Airport.

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Barber, who flew fighter planes in the Air Force after the Korean War, recently retired as a commercial airline pilot after 31 years.

“There is no comparison,” the Ventura resident said. “I’d much rather be doing this.”

Mere yards down the tarmac, but a world away, gathered the pilots with their experimental craft. Most are younger men born after V-J Day. And most built their tiny planes at home in their garages.

Simi Valley resident Chuck Wolcott, a Los Angeles firefighter, took 2 1/2 years to build his two-seat fiberglass airplane--taking it on its maiden voyage last November.

“My wife was sure glad when I finished,” he said.

Wolcott said he had spent just about every spare moment in his workshop, shaping the plane out of foam rubber before covering it with fiberglass. His Cozy Mark IV, with a single propeller in the rear and a shape that resembles the Air Force’s Stealth plane, can reach speeds of 200 mph.

Most experimental aircraft, however, are not built as quickly as the Cozy Mark.

“It took me 6 1/2 years,” said Denis Conley, showing off his more conventional Lancair 235 plane, which was built from a kit. The small plane is outfitted with the latest in digital instruments and satellite navigational equipment.

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Conley, who rode as a navigation officer in the rear of F-14 fighters for nine years, said he needed to buy a fast plane when he got out of the Navy in 1985.

“I wanted something faster than a Cessna, so I put down a down payment on this kit,” he said. “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.”

After taking on a partner, Conley said he now has a plane that can surpass 200 mph.

These planes and scores of others will be on display through Sunday evening with flying demonstrations each day from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

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FYI

The air show runs 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and Sunday at the Camarillo Airport. Cost is $3 per adult, free for children 12 and younger. Information: 482-0064