Wings Over Wheeling 2024
The little joys in life
Chaz Teets
8/27/20244 min read
Since the start of the 2024 airshow season, I had been looking forward to the Wings Over Wheeling, WV airshow as it was the one and only show in my home state that I would be attending for the year. The friendly folks that work in the Ohio County, WV government office and the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport provided me with a media pass for the event, and it was a great experience. One of the perks of having a media pass was an invitation to the Friday rehearsals before the airshow on Saturday. Needless to say, I could get used to this!
So far this season, I have been extremely lucky with the weather conditions when I go out to airshows. On the previous weekend at the Latrobe, PA airshow, the temperature wasn't that bad but the humidity was insane. The weather at Wheeling for both days was mostly clear with temps in the 80's and higher humidity Saturday than Friday, but all in all it still wasn't bad to be outside.
Before the rehearsals began on Friday, several aircraft made their arrivals and provided excellent photo opportunities. The WV Air National Guard sent both a C-17 Globemaster and a C-130 Hercules for static display and tours. As the afternoon progressed, all of the demonstration pilots that were there began to go over their routines. Watching this process was a treat, as I had never witnessed that part of the planning of an airshow demonstration in person before.
One other thing I must mention is the airport itself. It is without question the neatest little airport I've ever personally stepped foot into. The terminal could be a stand-alone museum on its own. There are numerous glass display cases scattered around the terminal, each one holding a little piece of West Virginia aviation history. From photos of when JFK was there on Air Force One back in the day to a display of the uniform of a Fokker aircraft manufacturing worker, it's worth a trip to the airport just to see the things they have on display.
Vintage Wings Inc. brought down their C-53 "Beach City Baby" for tours, and this beautiful aircraft provided me with some of the best photos I've ever taken of a static aircraft while I was out walking the tarmac in the early morning hours on Saturday.
Airshow day was a complete success. Admission was free, and over 6,000 people showed up to take it all in. In addition to the aviation vendors, numerous other food and homemade goods vendors came as well. Most food vendors had sold out of offerings shortly after noon. Some aircraft arrivals took place before the show, among them the C-123K "Thunderpig" from the Air Heritage Aviation Museum. I made sure to get a lot of photos of that aircraft as it was my first time seeing it live (and I scored a patch for my vest!).
Kevin Russo and the Jersey Jerks Demo Team took to the skies after a short demo from the local radio-controlled flying club. At this particular show there were five AT-6 and SNJ's there, which made for some great formation flying. Kevin did his solo routine immediately following, and after that was another short demo from the R/C club while Top Gun graduate Robert "Rooster" Schmidle prepped his Pitts biplane. Rooster tore up the skies with a fantastic demo featuring several tail-slide and hammerhead stalls.
Next up was Mario Hamel and his sailplane aerobatic routine. If you've never seen this demo, I recommend seeing it at least once in your life, as it is quite strange in a good way to watch an airplane perform aerobatics without hearing a peep from an engine. Once he gets down to lower altitude, you can actually hear the sailplane wings cut through the air with a quiet 'whoosh!'
After Mario was Rick Volker in his Italian-made SF-260 in yet another first for me. A fast and agile four-seat monoplane, I enjoyed watching the demo and got some good photos as well.
The main event was the Georgia-based Full Throttle Formation Team. Nine aircraft took to the skies to perform formation flying while each pass presented a different formation. Some were based off shapes of aircraft like the B-2 Spirit and the XB-70 Valkyrie, while others were based off things such as a stingray. After the formation flying concluded, six of the aircraft landed and came to a stop on the runway before performing a synchronized turn towards the crowd and turning on the smoke one last time. Now that was an awesome sight to see!
Special thanks goes out to the Ohio County Development Authority and the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport, as well as David Schultz Airshows for putting on this event. I sincerely hope that this happens again next year, and if it does, I will be in attendance for sure!