Stunt Pilot Signs Up for Point Mugu Air Show

Gene Soucy and his German-built Extra 300S, described as the Indy car of high-performance airplanes, will be among the featured acts at this weekend’s Point Mugu Air Show in Camarillo.

Soucy, 51, will perform acrobatic stunts twice each day.

Although this year’s air show failed to attract a major jet team such as the Blue Angels, who performed last year, officials hope daring acts like Soucy’s will be enough to drop jaws in the crowd.

“It’s the equivalent of not having Elvis in the building, but having a great concert,” said Don Lewis, who has coordinated the air show since 1990.

Officials hope more than 200,000 visitors will flock to the show, which begins at 3 p.m. at Point Mugu’s Naval Air Station. Gates open at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday and close at 4 p.m.

Forecasts call for morning fog and low clouds through Sunday, which should give way to blue skies and ideal flying conditions by afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures should be in the 60s.

This year’s show will include more military hardware than any show the base has ever hosted. Displays and performances will include jets, tanks, military cargo planes and a heavily guarded Stealth F-117 fighter.

The planes began swooping out of the sky Wednesday. Soucy was one of the first to arrive.

Earlier this week, flying just west of El Paso, he came across a squadron of biplanes called the Red Baron Stearman Squadron, which will also perform at Point Mugu this weekend. Soucy turned on two streams of smoke that flow off his wings and, just for fun, ripped past the four biplanes at breakneck speed.

“I’ve never seen a guy so eager to fly,” said John Bowman, 55, the Red Baron squadron’s lead pilot. “Gene is an incredible performer.”

Soucy has made a career of competing in high-profile airplane competitions. He won the U.S and Canadian national championships three years in a row. In 1970 he flew with the winning U.S. National Team in England and competed with the same team in France in 1972.