EAA Chapter 1098 at Tinker Air Force Base Air Show – Hangar Flying

By Stuart Yeo, EAA 1403206, EAA Chapter 1098 Vice President, Newsletter Editor.

The Tinker Air Force Base Air Show was held on Saturday, July 1, and Sunday, July 2. The air show hit their 100,000 people capacity crowd both days. This was the first air show Tinker has held in four years due to COVID. Tinker Air Force Base is a huge part of the Oklahoma City community, being the largest single employer with more than 26,000 military and civilian employees. The air base covers more than 4,000 acres and is home to the Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC), 72^nd Air Base Wing, 448^th Supply Chain Management Wing, 552^nd Air Control Wing, 507^th Air Refueling Wing, and the Navy’s Strategic Communications Wing.

The depot-level maintenance and supply chain facility routinely provide overhaul facilities for KC-135, B-1B, B-52, and E-3B aircraft. The facility includes Building 3001 which covers 62 acres and stretches seven tenths of a mile in length. The base also has gas turbine engine overhaul facilities for most of the USAF power plants.

Oklahoma City has three EAA chapters in the metro area. To the east is Chapter 1098 at Shawnee, to the south is Chapter 1612 at Goldsby, and to the northwest is Chapter 24 at Sundance. Many of our EAA members work or have worked on the Air Force base, giving our chapter members a huge depth of knowledge in aviation, both flying as well as avionics, airframe and power plant construction, and modification.

We had a great time at the air show. We battled the heat but made it. The weekend started off on Friday with some thunderstorms to spice up the experience! We were invited to bring six airplanes to the show; we had three members bring their airplanes. Several exhibitors did not show because of the changeable weather. Our EAA pilots were given arrival slots around 5:30 p.m. on Friday night. Kyle Rausch flew in his RV-6 and got to land after the F-22 Raptor, which made his weekend. The F-22 did a complete lap of the pattern and landed…

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