
DATE: Friday, September 19, 1997            TAG: 9709190859

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   66 lines

BARNSTORMER BRINGS TRICKS TO NEPTUNE SHOW

As sunlight glistened off the swampland below, Frank Ryder pulled back on the stick of his 46-year-old monoplane Wednesday until it stood on its tail a thousand feet over Pungo and stopped cold.

Then, at the very moment the DeHavilland Chipmunk seemed sure to slide tail-first to unhappiness, the 51-year-old Louisianan casually spun the plane in place until water and farmfield reeled into view before him, and he and his machine raced toward Earth.

``Man,'' Ryder drawled, ``this is just too much fun.''

As he had uncountable times in a 21-year barnstorming career, Ryder had just practiced a hammerhead stall, one in a slew of maneuvers he'll repeat this weekend at the Neptune Festival Air Show at Oceana Naval Air Station.

His next audience will be a wee bit larger: Hundreds of thousands are expected at the sprawling Virginia Beach base, beginning tonight, to see Ryder and the show's lineup of helicopter stunts, parachutists, aerobats and military jet teams, including the Navy's vaunted Blue Angels.

The performances begin with a 5 p.m. ``twilight show'' today and continue with daylong shows at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Traffic is likely to be heavy on roads approaching the base's main gate, off Oceana Boulevard, and back gate, off London Bridge Boulevard, as well as at the air station itself.

``The key is to show up early,'' Oceana spokesman Troy Snead advised Thursday.

Snead said traffic will follow the normal patterns for tonight's show, which is to include the Canadian Sky Hawks parachute team, Navy F-14 Tomcat fighters, stunt helicopters, a flame-spouting Soviet MiG-17 and a jet-powered truck.

But beginning at 3:30 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday - about the time the Blue Angels will be streaking overhead - both main and back gates will be closed to incoming traffic for two hours.

Those attending most air show events those days will find traffic following normal patterns for several hours after the base's gates open at 9 a.m.

The Blue Angels, scheduled to start their show at about 3:15 p.m., will cap a long lineup of performers, among them F-14s and F-15 Eagles, Stearman biplanes, stealth aircraft, replicas of Japanese fighters and torpedo planes, French aerobats and, of course, Ryder.

Oceana will make its road system one-way - outbound - from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Snead explained, to speed motorists homeward.

Cars entering the base during those two hours Saturday for the 4:30 p.m. Pam Tillis concert will be directed to the Wherry housing area off Harpers Road, where they'll be able to catch a free shuttle to the stage area. MEMO: PILOT ONLINE: The Operation Bravo section, with Blue Angels

video and Web site, complete Neptune Festival Air Show schedule and

Pilot stories is on the Military page at www.pilotonline.com ILLUSTRATION: Photos

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

Frank Ryder, in the back seat, takes the plane upside down over

Virginia Beach as reporter Earl Swift, in front, triggers the

camera.

Earl Swift, who's going along for the ride, gets strapped in as

pilot Frank Ryder takes his place in the back of the DeHavilland

Chipmunk before taking off to practice his maneuvers for this

weekend's Neptune Festival Air Show in the skies over Oceana Naval

Air Station.

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