geezers from wisconsin

I was once from Wisconsin, so it is nice to see other geezers from there...


Pilots thrill audience

Passion for flying, safety ensures pilots’ long careers
BY CHARLIE MATHEWS
Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — Another day of perfect weather Sunday helped veteran performers Fowler Cary Jr. and John Mohr entertain tens of thousands at the 2004 Manitowoc County Airshow.

Cary and Mohr are both in their 50s, do about a dozen air shows each year, and believe in a safety-first attitude.

But while Mohr’s single-engine 1943 Stearman PT-17 propeller plane will burn about five gallons of fuel during a 12-minute routine, Cary’s 1958 T-33 Thunderbird jet will go through 250 gallons at $2.90 a gallon in the same amount of time.

They do share a joy for coming to Manitowoc’s extravaganza —Cary from South Carolina and Mohr from Minnesota —and that is why they have performed at 11 of the 12 local air shows staged since 1993.

“I knew I’d love this show the first time I came,” Fowler said in his Southern drawl. “The folks out here had their own beer brats on the grill,” said the performer, whose girth may have contributed to his nickname, “Big Dog.”

His Thunderbird screamed through the skies around the Manitowoc County Airport, not quite as fast and loud as the U.S. Air Force F-15’s but Fowler still cut a sleek figure.

The Manitowoc show is the farthest north the investment adviser by day flies to, as far west as Wichita, south to the Caribbean and east to Boston.

Mohr, a commercial pilot for Northwestern Airlines, has taken his blue and yellow Stock Stearman overseas to Thailand and Europe as well as to all corners of the United States.

With 25 years as an air show professional, he began flying at age 5, taught by his father while on his lap, soloed at 14, built and flew his first helicopter at 17.

Mohr has won his avocation’s highest awards for showmanship as he takes his biplane through such maneuvers as barrel rolls, hammerheads or stall turns, reverse Cuban eights, square loops and inverted passes, waving to the crowd while upside down.

“Yes, I’m a better pilot now. Practice and experience do make better. I do many of the same maneuvers but lower than I used to and the show is tighter with less time between them,” said the admirer of the barnstormers of the 1930s.

“I’m always looking to do things spectators will get a thrill out of and new things nobody else in the air show business is doing,” Mohr said.

Part of Mohr’s performances include a transfer act involving a partner going from a helicopter to an airplane after the chopper “lands” momentarily on the wing of the plane.

“I’ve gotten to enjoy the Manitowoc show and the people involved. I love the water nearby and we bring our seaplane over here,” Mohr said of an interest he shares with Airshow co-founder and producer Curt Drumm.

Both pilots stressed their priority on safety. “One of the first things you learn is to always have a plan B, C and D and work on the rest. You want redundancy,” Cary said. “With an old geezer like me, 500-plus air shows, you’re safer in my jet than if you were to drive the L.A. freeways the next month.”

“‘Plan your flight. Fly your plan,’” Mohr said. “When flying in front of crowd, you get hyped up, get ‘show fever.’ You need to make sure you go with what you’ve practiced.”

The two pilots plan to get through the 2004 air show season safely and be back in Manitowoc next June.