a family legacy pat buckles airshows

a familylegacy

Presented by:cadet master sergeant buckles

and his dad

My dad worked in my grandfather’s printing business after school while he was in high school.

One day my dad announced to my brothers and I that we were going into business together. We all got in the car and drove over to look at our new investment. He had purchased a Laundromat in a really bad neighborhood.

When we arrived, he informed us that my brothers and I were going to do all the work and he was going to keep the change. And that is how it played out. At its peak, we owned a total of 8 Laundromats.

My grandfather bought a VW van and paid for the gas so my dad and my uncles could clean the Laundromats for him every night.

My brothers and I went everywhere in that van and we used it for a lot more than just to clean Laundromats if you know what I mean. That van was pretty famous during those days.

My dad was a member of the Albany Aero Club. He often took my brothers and I flying. Our favorite destination; Dog Island.

My dad would come into our rooms on Saturday mornings and say, Hey boys, wake up. We’re flying down to Dog Island!

The island was just over an hour flight from Albany.

We often talked about how crazy we were to go swimming at the beach after seeing all of the sharks swimming off the coast on our approach.

I remember my dad as being an extremely safe and boring pilot. He always climbed to altitude, maintain that altitude until it was time to descend and land.

One time we were about 300’ after the tower cleared us for takeoff…

and we found ourselves looking into the eyes of two DC-9 pilots who had been given clearance to land on the same runway that we were departing from.

We got close enough to read the lips of those two pilots just a split second before my father rolled the plane out of their flight path.

Hey dad, did the pilots look like this?

There had been two fatal crashes just weeks before this happened. Hey… if we had collided we wouldn’t be giving this presentation.

In 1976 The Albany Aero Club had two club planes,

Cessna 150

Cessna 172

There was a board meeting in my grandfather’s office.

At that time, the club had 18 members. Six members never flew the planes. One of the board members made a motion that the club down size by eliminating the six inactive members and sell one plane.

My grandfather objected. He suggested that they keep both planes and build the membership.

According to my dad the meeting lasted another hour and a half while they vacillated between the two opinions. Finally my dad was tasked the membership drive with the goal of increasing membership to 30 members which would be enough to sustain two planes.

One of the members volunteered to organize a fly-in with a bomb drop and a spot landing contest.

A bomb drop and a spot landing contest.

That sounds so lame.

My dad and another member got motivated and began to travel around researching air shows.

They attended a few air shows and the two menquickly decided that having a small fly in with a bomb drop contests and spot landing contests were not going to do much to increase membership.

They went back to the board and made their pitch.

get rrrrrrrrr done!

My dad decided that he was going all out. I’m talking Blue Angels and the other military air show teams. He had six months to put it all together.

Six Month

CountdownSo you’re saying that he had 180 days.

Yep. But he had two major problems.

He didn’t have an airfield or anybody to fly in his airshow.

And one more thing.

red tape

Traditionally it took two to three years to line up the government controlled and funded military air show performers. My dad had less thant six months.

Within the Albany city limits there was a closed Navy Base. Turner Air Field was perfect. The runway was 12,000 feet long, 300 feet wide and the concrete was 18 inches thick. At that time open and closed military air fields were operated and maintained through GSA.

Turner Airfield was under the charge of Retired General Ran Fairburn. My dad enthusiastically called General Fairburn and asked him if he could use the airfield.

No!

My father invited the Blue Angels marketing team to Albany.

Once in Albany the question was posed to the scout team that IF there were going to be an air show in Albany, which air field would be the best option for them?

The team looked at the closed military base runway and the City of Albany airport. They concluded the obvious location was the closed air base. And what did General Fairburn say?

No!

My dad decided that he wasn’t going to let the retired General stand in his way so he contacted the GSA and spoke to the Lieutenant in charge of the base.

you have your base

One man in the Pentagon made the decisions to give a green light or not. Colonel Eugene Fudge was that person. My dad got his contact information and gave him a call.

you want the blue angels?

Colonel Fudge

absolutely not

My dad was determined to bring the Blue Angels to Albany. He relentlessly continued contacting Colonel Fudge.

When my dad found out that the Colonel would be attending an air show or an aviation related event my dad would fly there and make an effort to confront the Colonel for an answer.

Last stand

My dad flew up to the International Counsel of Air shows in Wisconsin.

The last morning there was a brunch and then the convention was over. My dad went up to get his food. The only person in the food line was Colonel Fudge. My dad was still so mad at him for the way he had been treating him that he cold shouldered the Colonel at the food line.

bitter sweet victory

the most tenacious person I have ever met. You can have your Blue Angels and anything else you want.

Colonel Fudge spoke to my dad and said Pat you are

The air show was a huge success, made a lot of money for charity, and the flying club's membership grew to 52 as a result, which enabled the club to add another airplane, a new Cessna 172. The end.

Hey dad, Wasn’t the presentation supposed to be about the airshows?

There weren’t any computers available back in 1976 for graphics artist to produce artwork with so art had to be created by hand. This is a picture of the original oil painting used to create the airshow poster.

artist unknown

My father’s printing presses were too small to print the posters so they were outsourced. This poster was signed by many of the airshow pilots. There would have been more if we had thought of it earlier. It was framed and wrapped with clear plastic in a Ginza shop outside the Navy Base in Yokosuka Japan in 1977.

This is a copy of the cover of one of the original souvenir programs. The idea was to print the price of $25.00 on them to make them seem more valuable. The programs were sold for a dollar each.

Remember the original purpose of hosting the airshow was to increase membership so they could sustain the 2nd airplane. The membership goal was met and they were able to add a third plane.

This page shows the field layout and the position of the airshow planes. My dad positioned his business advertisement on the runway. He knew that everyone would look at the field diagram.

I was walking around the field on the first day of the show and a man I had never seen before walked up to me and asked me if I was Pat Buckles son. I said I was. He asked, do you want to go flying today or tomorrow. I asked him who he was and he told me his name was Pat Epps and he was one of the airshow pilots. I smiled and said tomorrow. We agreed on a time and place to meet.

Sunday morning at 11:00 I arrived at the spot and he Mr. Epps was there waiting on me. We got in his plane and he ran through his entire aerobatic routine with me at 7,000’. I felt nauseated but didn’t loose my breakfast if you know what I mean. We landed and taxied to his position on the field in front of thousands od people and I felt so cool when we got out of his plane and walked off the field.

Pat Epps

Pat was the first person I reached out to when Dillon and I decided to put this presentation together. Pat sent an autographed picture addressed to Dillon.