Hooker Airshows

The public had seen helicopters perform at airshows before, but they were not prepared for what the 92nd Flight Demonstration Team did during their 20-minute performances around the Pacific Northwest and Canada every summer. For over 17 years the team dazzled spectators with precision formation passes, car drops, heavy lift demonstrations including a city bus. Hundreds of thousands of spectators saw the Hookers perform at the Paine Field International Airfare, the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Airshow, the Lilac Airshow in Spokane, the Bremerton Airshow, The Abbotsford Airshow, Kamloops BC. Airshow, Vanderhoof Airshow in BC., the Annual Harvey Field Fly-In, Airshow and Corn Feed in Snohomish, WA., the Seafare Hydroplane Races on Lake Washington and the Aviation Expo at Boeing Field in Seattle. During their first appearance at the prestigious Abbotsford International Airshow, the Hookers were judged the #1 act ahead of the mighty US Navy Blue Angels.

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Opening Formation Pass

What made our demo so fun to watch was all our maneuvers were done in front of the crowd. There was no dead space as we transitioned from one performance to another. And when the weather turned bad, we kept on flying. During our show we did formation flybys trailing smoke, rescue hoist demonstration, heavy lift sling loads with matching max performance vertical take-offs between two of our Chinooks. While the sling loads were going on, two other Chinooks did opposing passes with cyclic climbs and backwards take-offs. Our most popular part of the show was when we had the airshow announcer make several 'public announcements' prior to our act. It went - "would the owner of the tan 1972 Dodge license DX2-115 please move your car. You are parked in a Fire Lane." Then during our show, Bill Brubaker would make the comment to our announcer, Rick Dominy, that since the owner of the tan Dodge had not moved his car, the Hookers would be happy to help out by moving the car. Woody, our crazy pilot would then appear from crowd left with the tan Dodge slung below. Announcer would say: "Thanks to the Hookers for moving that car from the NO PARKING ZONE. I hope that pilot knows what he's doing..." Our narrator: "No sweat, he's a combat veteran with thousands of hours." About then and at 500 feet Woody would punch off the car. The crowd loved it. One year a little old lady came up to us afterwards and asked "I hope you boys have insurance."

1975 Airshow PICs

Opening formation Pass

Here's a sight you will never see again. A Vee of 5 Chinooks at 1 rotor disk separation! We attached smoke grenades to the aft wheel landing gear. On command the flight engineer would pull on a safety wire attached to the smoke grenade pin. It was a loud and impressive start to our 20-minute show.

Water Bucket and Rescue Hoist

We had just received the new 2000 gallon SIMMS water bucket and the first time we used it, the crew took it down to Puget Sound for a fill up. The first drop was made on a taxiway. A white swath of evaporated salt water was left on the taxiway. The other Chinook has two of our Hooker ladies on a jungle penetrator for the rescue hoist demo. They wre very trusting.

Wenatchee Airshow 5-80

Mike Jones and FE Bill Finney put our bus back on the 10-ton trailer for the trip back to Paine Field from Wenatchee WA. It was a very tight fit with zero wheel overhang. Major Chad Stoddard did the driving honor for the long trip back over the Cascade mountains to home base. This year also saw a little additional drama when Woody did the car drop. After release the car floated off toward the VOR station on the field. We missed hitting it by about 50 feet. I wonder what a VOR station costs?

Bill Brubaker, the Voice of the Airfare at Paine Field

Bill was also a Navy Reservist and flew with us from time to time, a very funny guy.

The Paine Airfare program Hooker page

People loved our show because it was non-stop action right in front of the crowd. One of our maneuvers was a max performance vertical spiral takeoff. It was done from the ground to 1200 feet. Max torque was quickly pulled and full left-pedal applied. You knew if you were doing it right when the aft transmission LOW OIL light came on because all the oil was slung up against the side of the transmission case. A model Chinooks did this the best of all the models we flew. The initial acceleration would drive you to your knees if you were standing in the cabin. There was way less mass to get moving in the A Model.

Collection of Airshow Performer badges and pins

The name tag was bestowed on the senior Warrant Officer/pilot in the unit.

US and Canada Flag Pass

Crew on dropped car. 8-82

Mike & Doug- Airshow Bus 7-75

The Hooker bus was donated to the team by a junkyard in Bremerton WA. With the engine removed, it still weighed almost 5 tons.

Bus Demo, Paine Airshow 1975

Doug Houser gave the old bus quite a ride in front of the crowd.

Airshow Flag 1977

The flag was 20 x 40 feet and attached to a telephone pole. We built a release mechanism that allowed us to unfurile the flag at the beginning of our pass. An electric motor/winch at the top of the flag pole reeling a long rope and pulling pins on bungee cords holding the rolled-up flag against the pole. At the same time the rope also pulled the pins on smoke grenades at the base of the pole. The flag was donated to the team by a local uphoistery shop. At first it was flown as part of our demo, but later we were requested to Troop the Colors for the opening ceremony of airshows. One year at Paine Field Mike Jones was flying the flag and a Canadian Forces F 101 Vodoo jet was making an opposing low level pass at Mike. He was in a very tight turn and came very close to the Chinook. Later at the Saturday night Pilot's party the Vodoo pilot said that his vision was tunneling out and all he could see was the Chinook racing towards him. It was close!

071 at Abbotsford Airshow 1977

Notice the old symetrical airfoil on the A model's rotor blades

Abbotsford Car Drop 8/77

Woody hovers nearby inspecting his handiwork. The car was dropped from 500 feet.

Abbotsford Airshow Flag Pass