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Herald takes part in media flight for Jones Beach air show

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Before the typical crowd of a couple of hundred thousand people filled Jones Beach for the annual Bethpage Air Show, a fellow Herald editor and I found out what it was like to be high above Long Island in planes rarely entered by civilians.

Wantagh plays host to one of the country’s largest air shows every Memorial Day weekend, and crowds were delighted by two days of stunt flying last Saturday and Sunday. This year marked the return of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, which had been absent from the show for several years due to federal budget cuts, as the headliner.

On May 20, three days before a large crowd from Wantagh and all over the region filled the beach, I joined our photo editor, Christina Daly, to experience the show from a different point of view. I rode in the media plane along with another photographer and two pilots, while Daly took the front seat of the blue Air National Guard team, flown by John Klatt.

We departed from Republic Airport in Farmingdale shortly after noon, and within a few minutes, I was picking out landmarks like the Sunrise Mall. We turned over the ocean and headed west. Soon we were passing Jones Beach. There was the East Bathhouse, Nikon Theater, the water tower, the Nature Center. We continued along Long Beach and the Rockaways. We turned north, flew over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and up the Hudson River, passing One World Trade Center. Once we passed the Empire State Building, we turned around and headed south.

All along the way, the Air National Guard, Oracle and Jack Links planes flew to our right, doing various formations. We passed the Statue of Liberty, then circled around and did it again for another round of photos.

On the way home, we moved about a mile off Jones Beach, and Klatt demonstrated a roll, turning his plane with our photo editor inside upside-down and riding that way for at least a minute. The three planes then split off and did a few more tricks, while my plane, a four-seater with the door taken off to enable unobstructed photography, went back to the airport.

After nearly an hour, it was good to be back on the ground. It was a windy day, which made for a bumpy ride, and you feel it a lot more than in a commercial airliner.

As Daly got back to the airport, we exchanged stories and photos. She was excited to see the photos of the formations her plane was part of.

The pilots, who do many air shows a year, told me how they always look forward to the Jones Beach show. Mike Ganor, who has been in the air show business for eight years, was in my plane and directed the other three in their formations. The landmarks of Long Island and New York City makes this one of his favorite events of the year, of the 14 air shows he does annually.

He also loves the reception it gets. “It’s a great crowd,” he said. “They’re there no matter what the weather is.”

My pilot was Tim Jarvis, who flies only the media planes for the show. He said the people who run the show at Jones Beach, and the people who come to watch, are the ones who make it truly special.

“I look forward to it every year,” he said. “That’s the only place in the world where you can fly around the Statue of Liberty.”

Klatt, a member of the 106th Rescue Wing, said he was proud to be there on behalf of the Air National Guard. “It’s great to represent all the men and women that make up the Air Guard,” he said. “It’s been an honor for me. I’ve been in the guard for a long, long time.”

He has been doing air shows for 15 years and like his colleagues, he says that Jones Beach is one of his favorites, as it symbolizes the beginning of summer.

Other performers this year included the Golden Knights, Sean Tucker, Screamin Sasquatch, Breitling Jet Team, Matt Chapman, David Windmille, Miss GEICO speedboat, and the American Airpower Museum Warbirds.