Action and honor part of flight team's show

Taps is playing over a sound system, and a silence has come over the crowd. Up above are six T-34 training jets trailing smoke streams and curving around to fly alongside the crowd in a V shape at 185 mph. As they pass by the crowd one jet pulls up and away, cutting his smoke-stream. This is the way the missing man formation is usually flown, said Mark Miller, a pilot with the Lima Lima Flight Team, which will be performing at the air show Friday in Cape Girardeau.

"Seems like in the past few years, it seems to be touching a lot more people," Miller said, referring to the formation and to fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We expect it to be a solemn presentation," said Bill Cherwin, lead pilot of the Lima Lima Flight Team.

However, the rest of the demonstration team's show, which lasts about 20 minutes, is much different. Many of their tricks involve six jets flying at top speeds of 290 mph and flipping upside down past each other, making it seem like they're about to crash. During the year the team performs a twilight show, and during one formation, to create an eerie atmosphere, the teams plays music from 1950s science fiction movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" over the sound system.

In case the crowd is a little depressed by the end of the missing man formation, the team plays Neil Diamond's "Coming to America," Cherwin said. They use the song as an intro into their last formation, the whifferdill, which looks like a figure-eight from an aerial view.

"It's just a good-sounding song," Cherwin said. "We need something upbeat, leave them on a positive note."

This year's air show was originally scheduled to take place in downtown Cape Girardeau with Libertfest. Because of the high Mississippi River, both events have been moved to the airport. Admission is free, and free shuttles will run continuously from Hutson's Fine Furniture to Save-a-Lot to Steak-N-Shake to the airport.

This is one of the maneuvers the Lima Lima Flight Team is expected to perform Friday at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Submitted photo

Libertyfest starts at 3:30 p.m. The air show first segment begins at 5:30 p.m. In addition to the Lima Lima Flight Team, the U.S. Army Golden Knights, Sukhoi Aerobatics and Paul Stender's Dodge Ram Jet Truck will also perform. The second part of the air show starts at 8 p.m., with the Dodge Ram Jet Truck, Angel 7 Jet Aerobatics, Julie Clark's American Aerobatics, the Lima Lima Flight Team and the Golden Knights.

The day concludes with fireworks at 9:15 p.m.

The Lima Lima Flight Team has been performing the missing man formation about 12 times every year for the past 20 years. Even though the missing man formation is less risky than other maneuvers, some pilots find it just as hard as the more flamboyant formations because of the emotional pressure.

"Your expectations raise a little bit going into that one," Miller said. "We probably make it a little bit harder on ourselves. You want to be in position because of its significance and because everybody's looking at you."

The demonstration team performed a personal missing man formation for the Red Barons, another demonstration team, after they learned of the Barons experiencing a fatal crash.

"Their number three and four fliers crashed and died," Cherwin said. "We did a missing man formation where the number three and four man were missing. I mean, they were our friends."

The formation can be flown with any number of planes, but the Lima Lima Flight Team flies in a six-ship wedge, Miller said. Five planes form a V shape, with a sixth plane inside the V. The missing man, the No. 3 man, is the first plane behind the lead man on his right side.

As the pilots get ready for the formation, spectators get a minute and 45 seconds of briefing on the formation from a conductor on the ground. Then the captain radios to the No. 3 man and tells him to cut his smoke and "head west," meaning someone has died, Cherwin said.

The formation was originally a military funeral demonstration. The practice has also been incorporated into civilian salutes, which is the role of the flight team.

"We could easily dedicate the missing man to an important person in Cape Girardeau," Cherwin said.

The formation is OK as a civilian expression if someone has "served their community, state or nation honorably," said Jerry Smith of Commerce, Mo., a pilot in the Naval Reserves during Vietnam. He also said the demonstration should not be used too much or its effect would wear off.

After Vietnam, Smith became a demonstration pilot for the Naval Reserve in air shows in West Texas, where he flew the formation many times. He no longer flies the formation, and although he can't remember how many times he flew it he remembers what he felt when he did.

"I thought of my friends killed and taken prisoner in Vietnam," he said.

adohogne@semissourian.com

335-6611

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