Press Release for Wings Over Gillespie Skyraider incident

Open letter regarding the Skyraiders' alleged violations at Wings Over Gillespie, June 17, 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As the chairman for 6 years of the Wings Over Gillespie air show, I have dedicated many thousands of hours to keeping America's warbirds flying. They are a proud heritage of our nation's victories through the air, and the men and women who flew them and fly them still deserve more credit than we can possibly render. I have been extremely pleased to have headed up a superb team of dedicated volunteers and to have hosted hundreds of very fine pilots and aerobatic performers during these years.

Wings Over Gillespie has, thankfully, a perfect safety record, with no crashes or injuries on the ground during its 13 year history. This is accomplished by holding thorough pilot briefings, having careful pilots perform very professionally and maintaining safe ground supervision around moving engines and aircraft. We've also been careful to only invite pilots in whom we have a very high degree of confidence regarding their proficiency and aircraft maintenance.

For the past 2 years our air show has employed a professional "air boss", the air traffic controller responsible for keeping the aircraft properly supervised during the flying portion of the show. He is also the air boss for the Marine Corps (and formerly Navy) Air Station Miramar Air Show, a very professionally run, large military air show. In the roles of responsibility for flight safety, he is the one who prepares the briefs, gives the briefs and is the hands-on controller for several hours from the control tower. My personal responsibility is also very far-ranging, from understanding and implementing the FAA-approved guidelines for months prior to the show, to seeing that all ground and air safety requirements are met during the entire show. Without accepting this level of responsibility, the FAA would not issue a Certificate of Waiver allowing aerobatic performances for the public. Only a fly-in or static air show would be possible.

At the 2007 air show we experienced a very unusual and unfortunate situation involving 2 AD Skyraiders. Although these pilots and their aircraft had previously performed in compliance with the appropriate safety guidelines mandated by the FAA, they deviated significantly from what they and all the other pilots had been briefed on Sunday, June 17, 2007. Never before in the history of Wings Over Gillespie had something like this happened. Unfortunately this incident was not able to be resolved at the local level, although that was first attempted, and so was referred to the FAA for action.

Still, during the weeks following the air show this incident could have been resolved quietly and professionally between the pilots and the FAA. However, the Skyraider pilots chose to defend and justify their actions, hire a lawyer and go public with a host of accusations, rhetoric and innuendo. Their words have been aimed at discrediting the safety authorities (air boss, air show chairman and FAA) and witnesses who in the interest of continued air show safety were willing to make and sign statements as to what they had personally seen. Besides using the venue of the Pacific Flyer, the Skyraider pilots and their attorneys have discussed quite a range of suppositions and theories.

In the interest of clarifying the issues, I am having several relevant pieces put on our website for all to see. I was hesitant to get into this realm, but the FAA attorneys have informed me that none of this information is confidential. Once the witness testimony has been entered into the record in the case, all that is confidential is the personal information of the witnesses. I am not going to name those witnesses, but I will give you some statistics and a brief sketch of some of the evidence. I am doing this in the interest of demonstrating that this incident only centered on the flying safety of the pilots in question, and has only been reported because it was a clear danger to people and property, as stated in the FAA guidelines. At no time was there a history of personal disputes or problems between the pilots and myself or our organization, the Air Group One wing of the Commemorative Air Force. So please pay special attention to my brief rebuttal and explanation of the insurance, performer fees, and other issues which have been raised in articles in the Pacific Flyer since September, 2007. I have a lot of respect for the intelligence and discernment of you, the informed reader, once you hear these facts. I know you'll also consider the track record of our air show and our personal dedication to the mission statement of the CAF to "Keep 'em flying!"

Finally, the update as of January 16, 2007:

1) There are 8 extremely reliable witnesses who have come forward to verify the various aspects of the air boss's official report. Four of these are licensed pilots, two are long-time air show performers, one of whom has over 32,000 hours of military, commercial and private pilot time. The other 4 are astute air show workers who have specialized in a variety of areas in numerous air shows over several years. One of them took a very clear picture of the Skyraiders as they approached the center of the air show ramp on the first pass described in the report. In other words, this is not at all some "agenda" that 2 or 3 individuals have against the Skyraider pilots. Not even close. Those of us who devote so much time to putting on these air shows, and love it, never have and never will engage in such unprofessional behavior. So in the interest of the continued safety of the spectators, as well as that of the pilots in question, we are also not afraid or apologetic in submitting our statements of what we know we saw on the day in question.

2) Despite the statement in the January 2008 article in the Pacific Flyer, suggesting that the incident may be dismissed, the FAA attorney in the case did contact me last week to confirm that this case will indeed go forward in the next few months. The FAA personnel simply have to deal with a backlog of work.

Thank you for your consideration of these issues.

Steve Real,

Chairman, Wings Over Gillespie 2002- 2007

Click here to read the incident report for this incident (Microsoft Word Doc)

Click here to see the map for this incident (Microsoft Powerpoint document)

Photo taken of Skyraiders on June 17, 2007 at Wings Over Gillespie airshow

The following is an article that Steve Real wrote and submitted to the Pacific Flyer on Nov. 19, 2007. The editor said he was not able to open the document and that by the next day his publishing deadline had expired.

Re: the Skyraider incident of June 17, 2007

As the chairman of the 2007 Wings Over Gillespie Air Show, and named by the FAA as "the sole responsible party for safeguarding persons and property on the surface" in the Certificate of Waiver, I am compelled to address several issues re: the incident report following the flight of two Skyraiders at our air show on Sunday, June 17. Since the time at which the Skyraider pilots, Rick Morrison and Bob Grondzik, hired attorney Robert Griscom to defend them, they have launched a very aggressive campaign to not only deny that any violations of the Air Show waiver ever took place, but to discredit any and all air show authorities and witnesses through both the Pacific Flyer and the "grapevine" of the air show pilot community. Since Grondzik and Griscom have made some grossly inaccurate statements I feel compelled to set the record straight on a few points.

The flying violations noted in the report to the FAA are quite clear. In flagrant violation of what was clearly briefed at the mandatory pilot briefings both Saturday and Sunday, on Sunday the Skyraider pilots:

1) Made a south to north pass over the spectator area at a very low altitude, approximately 200' AGL. All pilots were briefed that passes over the crowd be no lower than 1000' AGL (standard for all civilian air show performers), and that all low passes be conducted only along the East-West centerline of the aerobatic box. This box at Gillespie Field is 1000' wide and 3000' long, having all four corners and the centerline clearly marked by orange snow fence on the ground.

2) The Skyraiders then made not one, but two passes in which they entered the box from the northeast side, several hundred feet from where they were briefed to make their passes. Unbeknownst to them, perhaps, was the fact that the air show announcer had patched the air frequency conversation over the public address system, so as they made their passes the air boss could be heard calling out the violations for all the spectators to hear. Their next few passes were fine during the pyrotechnic portion of the air show.

3) Finishing their fifteen minute flying performance, they made a final pass, from southwest to northeast, more than 1200' from the designated end of the aerobatic box, passing "within 200' laterally of the control tower at cab ceiling height".

These flying violations are quite serious. Having a personal conversation with the two pilots after they landed did not produce the desired result, either, which was to identify the violations and avoid them ever recurring in the future. At the conclusion of the air show it was the air boss’ decision to write up the multiple violations and file them with the FAA. He is a consummate professional (and is also the air boss for the Miramar air show) who acted professionally on the information he had. I did not tell him to do anything. There are numerous eyewitnesses who will testify in court, if need be, regarding the veracity of the violations in this case. There is also clear photographic evidence to corroborate their testimony.

Finally, let me quickly address several other false statements as they appeared in the Oct and Nov issues of Pacific Flyer. Regarding the insurance issue, I personally went to unusual lengths to try to get the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) to insure just Gondzik's aircraft for our show. I vouched for his safety record, and the fact that all of our committee members really wanted him and Morrison to perform. Yes, I did discuss him splitting the cost with us if a quote came back that we felt we couldn't handle. He said he would not consider splitting it. Three days later I was surprised and pleased when a CAF headquarters official called me to say that the CAF would underwrite Bob's Skyraider and that it would not cost our group (or Grondzik) anything! I told Bob the good news, and we never discussed insurance again.

Regarding fuel and fees, Air Group One not only purchased the fuel both Skyraiders requested - 300 gals each - plus oil, but also paid each pilot a $2000 appearance fee. In 2006, Grondzik received fuel and oil plus a check for $3000 and in 2005 fuel, oil, and $1500. We have the cancelled checks.

Regarding the promotional photographs of Grondzik's plane, on posters, flyers, etc: The two photographers whose pictures were combined to create the image are both credited at the lower left of the photo. Their names are Tom Conway and Victor Archer, and our graphic artist got their permission to use the pictures in April, two months before the show. Victor Archer spoke with Grondzik at the Chino air show, two weeks before ours, and says in his email that Grondzik was pleased. He was still quite pleased when I spoke with him the week before the show.

It is my desire to put this unfortunate incident behind us all quickly and professionally. I think we would all prefer to be either organizing or attending or performing in air shows – safe air shows - for many years to come.

Blue Skies,

Steven W. Real

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