Naval Air Facility El Centro air show will be ‘sigh of relief’ for civilian act coordinator
DATE:
BY: ELIZABETH VARIN, Staff Writer
DETAILS: NAVAL AIR FACILITY EL CENTRO — It's been a lot of coordination, but for Petty Officer 2nd Class James Cunningham the air show will be an end to a crazy experience.
"It's been a long time, but well worth it," he said. "It's nice to see everything fall into place on show day. It's a sigh of relief."
Cunningham is the civilian coordinator for the show, handling both the non-military pilots, but also the off-road demonstrations that will take place during the show's intermission, he said. Cunningham is also an aviation mechanic on base, working with the F/A-18 Hornets and Superhornets.
He became involved as the coordinator after working as the assistant military coordinator last year, he said. So this job was not too much different.
Each act takes a lot of preparation, not just for the pilots, but the ground crew, supplies, public affairs and more, he said. He was responsible for getting all of the parties together on the same page and getting them what they need.
And it needed to be done for each of the more than 30 civilian demonstration teams and static displays, he said.
One of the shows to look forward to is the acrobatic racing challenge between pilots Bill Cornick and Spencer Suderman, where both will participate in a course and see who has the best time, Cunningham said.
New at this year's air show will be a strong showing by the off-road group Metal Mulisha, he said. Cunningham volunteered to work with the group because he's really interested in off-roading.
All of the civilian shows are looking to be good for the audience, and Cunningham himself, who said that he's looking forward to seeing non-military plane acrobatics.
"Personally, I work around military jets," he said. "I get real joy out of civilian aircrafts."
>> Staff Writer Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@ivpressonline.com or at 337-3441.
"It's been a long time, but well worth it," he said. "It's nice to see everything fall into place on show day. It's a sigh of relief."
Cunningham is the civilian coordinator for the show, handling both the non-military pilots, but also the off-road demonstrations that will take place during the show's intermission, he said. Cunningham is also an aviation mechanic on base, working with the F/A-18 Hornets and Superhornets.
He became involved as the coordinator after working as the assistant military coordinator last year, he said. So this job was not too much different.
Each act takes a lot of preparation, not just for the pilots, but the ground crew, supplies, public affairs and more, he said. He was responsible for getting all of the parties together on the same page and getting them what they need.
And it needed to be done for each of the more than 30 civilian demonstration teams and static displays, he said.
One of the shows to look forward to is the acrobatic racing challenge between pilots Bill Cornick and Spencer Suderman, where both will participate in a course and see who has the best time, Cunningham said.
New at this year's air show will be a strong showing by the off-road group Metal Mulisha, he said. Cunningham volunteered to work with the group because he's really interested in off-roading.
All of the civilian shows are looking to be good for the audience, and Cunningham himself, who said that he's looking forward to seeing non-military plane acrobatics.
"Personally, I work around military jets," he said. "I get real joy out of civilian aircrafts."
>> Staff Writer Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@ivpressonline.com or at 337-3441.
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