The Coastal Bend Fly-in, Rockport Texas 2022

We were alarmed when the first plane thundered over our house! Going outside we watched as a World War Two vintage bomber shook us and then a series of trainers and biplanes made passes overhead.

I quickly got my camera ready, but it was to no avail as the planes would quickly appear and then disappear in the open gaps of the live oak trees.

We learned that a fly in was happening, and it included many planes from the Commemorative Air Force, (once called the Confederate Air Force)! The weather was supposed to be good for the second day of the air show and so we planned on spending the next day trying to get some decent photos. After all, there is little difference between the birds we normally photograph and the metal birds in the show, right.

The next day the planes stared to buzz our rv park by nine am and so we headed to the local airfield. Normally the airfield is pretty quiet except for the touch and go landings of military pilots in training and the arrival of privately owned aircraft. The show was free, and the parking was close enough that it was a short walk, but a van stopped and offered us a courtesy ride, (they probably saw our silver hair).

Entering the main gate, the planes were arranged on the tar mac and some even had tables where you could pay for a ride on a vintage aircraft. It cost from one hundred to four hundred dollars for a flight, depending on the plane, (We passed it up as neither of us relished flying on a plane that was , in some cases eighty seven years old).

Renita took lots of pictures of the planes on the ground and I tried to concentrate on the planes during the flight part of the show.

It was a little hazy with some clouds and so the ground pictures turned out the best.

Among the planes were several biplanes including a PT Stearman, a submarine naval search plane, several cargo and passenger transport planes and a B-25 that was adorned with the name and image of The Texas Rose! one of the books I had just read told of the air raid on Germany’s ball bearing plants. There over three hundred planes had thundered in at low level, before dropping their bomb loads.

There was even an experimental aircraft with a futuristic design that included a rear propeller and was also available for rides, (we also passed up on that one). A last treat was the appearamnce of a Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter! The helicopter had landed to refuel and ended up giving a demostration of how a person is uoloaded from the sea. Well done Coasties!

It was a fun morning! Clear skies