Air show organizers begin countdown to Thunder in the Valley

WATERLOO, Iowa --- The clock is ticking, faster now since August began.

In 20 days, 50,000 people or more will converge on the Waterloo Regional Airport. For two days. Expecting a good time.

Roger Pease is chairman of the committee organizing the Thunder in the Valley Air Show. He and Kiwanis International talked Chris Harshbarger into making it happen.

"This is going to be the largest air show in Iowa in many, many years, if ever," Pease said.

Charles Wheeland, a Kiwanis official, describes the potential more vividly.

"This is going to be a hell of a party," he said.

A highlight in the lineup Aug. 27-28 will be the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, one of the nation's elite, high-flying units. Six F-16 Fighting Falcons will tear up the sky at just below the speed of sound.

Spectators also will see members of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command parachute team, the Black Daggers, tumble out of aircraft. And a jet-powered school bus and outhouse, yes, outhouse, will roar across a runway.

Dozens of airplanes --- such as the E2 Hawkeye, C-130 Hercules, FA-18 Hornet and CH-Super Stallion --- and displays will be on hand, including an exhibit focusing on the Tuskegee Airmen.

"With all the acts we've put together, people are going to be amazed," Pease says. "I doubt if they've seen any shows bigger."

Getting there

The organizing committee includes about 35 people, primarily officials addressing their areas of expertise, ranging from public safety to federal regulations to military issues. The Waterloo and Cedar Falls police and fire departments, airport, Civil Air Patrol, Experimental Aircraft Association and Waterloo Convention and Visitors Bureau are represented. So are private business, like Livingston Aviation, that are helping with logistics.

This month the group began meeting weekly, a nod to deadline pressures.

"It is our custom to open and close within an hour," Chris Harshbarger tells those assembled Tuesday at the airport.

Agenda items cover the front and back of a sheet of paper, and the to-do list is staggering and wide-ranging. Someone on the committee has to come up with a garden hose and sprinkler for overheated kids to play in, if that becomes one of the attractions. Someone else must figure out where to park a 757.

Jerry Durham, chancellor of Allen College, is helping line up a mobile medical clinic. Even if all goes exceedingly well, with thousands of people milling about, officials may face sprains, strains and cases of sunburn. More serious problems could easily develop, however.

"We aren't anticipating great amounts of difficulties, but we want to be prepared," Durham says.

The safety, security and emergency response plan, tailored specifically for the Thunder in the Valley Air Show covers 39 pages. The Thunderbirds' support manual has 94.

Harshbarger reviews a three-page list, acknowledging he barely recognizes some of the information as derivatives of the English language, let alone useful equipment necessary. Apparently a successful air show needs things like a fuel bowser, an SGNCS self-generating nitrogen cart and an MJ-2 hydraulic test stand. If that last one isn't available, an MJ-3 will work.