By: Stephanie Reynolds
Y’all! If you didn’t come to the Pryor Airfield Airfest this weekend, boy did you miss out! I truly feel sorry for those who missed it!
I don’t even know where to begin, to be honest.
Do I start with the biplane that does a “just off the runway” knife edge (sideways!) flight? That maneuver always makes me hold my breath because he is so close to the runway that the motorcyclist, who is also on the runway, can touch his wing.
Oh, yes! The MOTORCYCLIST! This is not just an airshow. It is an air-and-ground-and-day-and-night show! Planes racing Very Fast Cars ™. A jet-powered semi with flames shooting everywhere that needed a drag chute to slow down. Helicopters (my kids, who were not allowed to cuss, used to call them “heckicopters” just to be safe) you can ride in and more.
We had F-35s on the first day, which is always cool. Now, I grew up in the Air Force, and my dad and brother flew bombers and tankers not fighters, so my loyalties lie with the heavies and not the “zipper-suited sun gods and their lawn darts (KIDDING, guys, I’m just kidding…kinda), but the F-35s are unmistakably impressive. Their roar is a sound you feel in your sternum, not just hear in your ears. The raw power is an awesome spectacle.
And I loved the acrobatics planes and teams. I don’t know the names of the specific stunts, but the two that makes me sit on the edge of my seat are when they go straight up then seem to stall, and another when they tumble but not in any discernable pattern. There is a half-second where I think, “This is part of the program right? Like, we aren’t watching him lose control, right? Like, he is going to pull out of this any second, right?…RIGHT?”
I loved the experimental plane and the mini-jet, but the part I always wait for is the MiG-17. Being a Cold War kid with a dad in the military, raised on Red Dawn; Alas, Babylon; and Sun Tzu, the MiG just triggers core memories of life on base—a young girl who felt both pride in her family and fear of loss of them, who spent several Sundays in a playground surrounded by a high fence and concertina wire near a windswept runway when that families could visit the pilots who were pulling alert, having a red phone in the kitchen that we were never allowed to answer and were never allowed to use unless there was an emergency. I think Cold War military kids learned early that life was both brief and eternal, that there was no comfort bubble, but that was okay because we learned to walk just fine without one. There is something poignant about knowing the streets were safe but the world wasn’t, that life was both precarious and precious. It is scary to look life and death in the face every day, and most people refuse to, but when one does in faith, neither life nor death are scary anymore. I am thankful that my childhood was formed with gravitas.
But there was something even more fabulous than my walk down memory lane, and that was the night air show. This was their first year and it was amazing! Fireworks and airplanes were the collab I didn’t know I needed in my life, yet here we are a couple of days later, and I am still overwhelmed with the experience. Truly, fireworks in Tokyo or NYC will never top watching planes weaving through ground-launched pyrotechnics while trailing beautiful sparks of their own.
You know how you take videos of fireworks shows but never get around to watching them again? I absolutely watched my videos of this show; it was just that good. And I will watch them again and again because glowing planes diving and soaring through the fire-painted sky was beyond fabulous, it was glorious.
I have planned more than my fair share of events through the years, and I cannot even imagine how heavy a lift this was for the Pryor Field crew. A special thanks goes out to Adam, the visionary, and Denice, the executor, and all the staff, crew, volunteers, first responders, aviators, sponsors, and everyone else that made this event happen. I cannot WAIT ‘til next time, and y’all who are reading this need to follow us and Pryor Field on Facebook so you can come watch the next one with me.
In other news…Don’t forget that Storytelling, Fiddlers, and Cemetery Stroll are coming up, check our Facebook or come to the office for more details. Also be watching because soon we will open the applications for the Tinsel Trail trees! If you are a family looking for a new tradition; a business wanting to get some inexpensive, over a month-long advertising; a non-profit who wants people to see your heart; or a group that wants to remember a lost loved one, sponsoring a Tinsel Trail tree is a great way to do it.
Have a blessed day!
By: Stephanie Reynolds, Athens-Limestone Tourism Association
