This sweet cockpit video of Corkey Fornoff flying the LoPresti Fury at the Great Tennessee Air Show last Saturday (May 12th) takes a little while to get to the really good stuff, and it includes his entire airshow routine so it's a long video as well. If you're the impatient type, scoot up to about 3:10 for engine start, or to about 6:10 for back-taxi and takeoff roll. If you're really impatient, just go watch this awesome 28 second video of a tundra Cub in Alaska (it's well worth the watch and you can quickly go on about your day : )
If on the other hand you're interested in seeing one of the greatest pilot's ever flying a beautiful airshow routine while you're looking over his shoulder, do what I did: hit play and watch all of the 20+ minutes of the video. I have memories of Corkey and his dad Bill Fornof flying paint-matched F8 Bearcats back about 1970. Those two bronze tone Bearcats where an amazing sight to see. (a tragic crash took the life of Bill in the Bearcat in 1971)
Corkey carried on with airshow work, including being flight team leader (at age 27) in Jim Bede's BD Jet Demonstration Team with three BD-5 Jets flying formation aerobatics. And then doing more fun BD-5 Jet stuff later like flying thru the hangar in the 1983 James Bond Octopussy movie. Corkey has done a massive amount of movie flying and aerial directing in the last 30 years... and he's a wide range of aerobatic experiences over the last 40+ years that have given him the chance to put his great talents on display.
This video does more of just that - putting Corkey's great flying talents on display. Take note of some things in the video as you watch it... like how straight down the runway the nose tracks on takeoff roll and then how little the stick moves thru the entire airshow routine. When you work in concert with the airplane, you don't need a lot of stick movement, you just put it where it needs to be. You'll probably also notice the overall sense of calm as he works his way thru the maneuvers. And I think the throttle is full forward for the entire routine, right up until the approach to landing is set up.
It's a great video in a fabulous airplane and an amazing pilot. Thanks for the ride Corkey!
Image may be NSFW.
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The amazing Corkey Fornof with the sweet n fast LoPresti Fury (photo: LoPresti)
