Once again the weather gods failed to smile on this event.  Heavy rain in the days prior to the show had made the field soft, so we had been told initially that space for only a limited number of vehicles on pavement would be available, and that the ‘heavies’ couldn’t come.  This was rescinded at the last minute, and on Friday the field was dry enough to allow parking for all vehicles in our normal area.  Rain and stiff winds were still predicted over the weekend, but nothing major.  Due to all of this, however, the WWII re-enactors and many of the scheduled aircraft cancelled.

LSMVPA still made a creditable showing.  Arriving early on Friday, Danny got us checked in and staked out our display area with his M37.  As the afternoon progressed others arrived – Toby with his MB, Jeff L with his M35A2/M105 combo, Rory in the M813A1 with his kids, John K with his MB, Scott S with his M38A1 and the Sgt’s Mess, and Clint D with his daughter and their M38.

Despite all the setbacks, the airshow went on, and while it was not up to the usual standards for Temple, it was still pretty good.

Some Friday night highlights were the F-16 doing his noisy and impressive display of speed and tight turns, and after dark Otto the Helicopter doing things that don’t really seem possible whilst trailing fire and smoke from flares and shooting fireworks.  The aerial display was followed by a great fireworks display, then the Blastards (who always do something awesome) set off a 1400’ wall of fire.

On Saturday and Sunday the clouds remained, the sun was a rare sight, and there were showers of rain.  During the heavier bouts, the kids retired into the backs of the big trucks while the adults made good use of Toby’s mobile NCO club.  As Sunday progressed, one by one the members packed up their vehicles and departed.  When the airshow ended, and with big rain on the horizon, Jeff and Rory quickly took down the club sandwich board and donation bomb, and departed southward.

Once again Scott showed his mastery of the grill and kept the troops well fed and happy through the weekend.  Quite a few other folks got to sample his culinary artistry as there were fewer members in attendance than had RSVP’d for chow, so quite a bit of extra food was on hand.  Thank you Scott!!

 A special thank you goes to Don Ling who provided us with some of his outstanding Venison sausage links

 And another special thank you to Jason and Jim S of the Blastards, who showed up saturday evening with a potato mortar and provided a great deal of fun for the kids, resulting in some 20 pounds of spuds being launched downrange.