If repetition counts for anything, the two-day Hollister Airshow has become an official tradition for Hollister. But early on, the man in charge—city official Mike Chambless—had doubts about pulling it off. Chambless is not a pilot and didn’t have a clue how to organize an airshow when the city council told him it wanted one.
“Early on during my time out here, a gentleman talked to a couple council people and then I got a call that they wanted to do an airshow,” Chambless said. “I researched the rules and regulations on airshows. This guy sat in my office and told me how he was going to bring in the Canadian Snowbirds (Canada’s version of the Blue Angels) to Hollister. When I looked at the rules, I found that it was impossible.”
Chambless said he went back to the council and told them if they really wanted an airshow, he would do it, but first he asked them to send him to an airshow school.
“It’s the International Council of Airshows, and they offer an academy where they teach you the business. I came back and told the council that we had three options,” he said.
The first was called an “airshow in a box.”
“That’s where we pay someone $150,000 and they bring their airshow to town,” he said. “They set up everything. Whether you make money or not, you still owe them $150,000. The second option was to pay a promoter, similar to what the city does with the motorcycle rally, and we’re at risk for money and, hopefully, it all works out.”
The third option was for him to run it.
“I told them if you give me $20,000 I’ll do a small airshow as a feasibility study and we’ll go from there. They allocated the money and we did our first airshow and we actually generated $40,000, so we netted $20,000.”
The council asked him to do it again and then doubled the budget. Chambless said the city came close to breaking even that year. After four shows, the city has not made a profit.
“Every year, we change things here and there,” he said. “This year we reduced the budget. We advertised a little differently. We scaled back the airshow to bring down costs. Hopefully, we can come in with only a slight loss.”
Chambless said that he and the city council consider a slight loss to be the break-event point because they view the show as positive advertising for the airport and the city.
“There’s no other way of advertising that would generate as much goodwill and positive impact of the airport being a good neighbor in the community for the amount of money spent,” he said before the event. “We have around 14 businesses here, with room to grow. This year, for the first time, we will advertise with the Business Aviation Association Conference to let them know we exist. We’re trying new things to drum up interest. What we would like is for businesses to move here and bring jobs here.”
During the airshow, Chambless was a man on a mission.
“I have to be everywhere,” he said. “I’m the guy out there at six o’clock in the morning to eight o’clock at night.”
His attention to detail paid off again at this year’s show.
First up was Kevin Walker, of Fox 3 Warbirds, who piloted F-4 Phantoms as a Marine. He flew a fast-paced routine in an L-39C Albatros, a high-performance jet developed in Czechoslovakia, as he and announcer Bill Vasilovich chatted over the speaker system to entertain the enthusiastic crowd.
After Walker landed, the roar of Harley-Davidsons announced the arrival of American Legion Riders Post 69 to show the nation’s colors as local singer, Sara Denice-Ruvalcaba, performed a stirring rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.
The last note had barely drifted across the airfield when Vicky Benzing, a repeat performer at the airshow, taxied her brilliant purple with white stars Extra 300S along the airstrip as she waved to the crowd. The Extra 300S is a modified, German-built plane designed to fall out of the sky, or so it would seem, the way Benzing pushes every inch of horsepower out of its engine that was designed with aerobatics in mind.
“This is my favorite airport,” she said as she was preparing for her second performance of the day in her 1940 Boeing Stearman Unlimited. “It’s my home airport. All the fun people fly here. There are a lot of great airplanes here, and the person who works on my planes is here.”
Originally from Watsonville, Benzing is a woman who seems to thrive on danger. Not only is she a fearless aerobatic pilot, but she also skydives and competes in air races with jets. She won the 2014 National Championship Air Races in Reno and hopes to repeat her win in 2015.
Next up was Spencer Suderman, the 2014 Inverted Flat Spin world record holder, according to his website that describes him as “high energy, fun loving individual who enjoys entertaining the audience.”
He didn’t disappoint, as he tumbled his aircraft for 12 inverted flat spins. Later in the show, he raced the biplane from a standing start against stunt motorcycle performer, Jason Pullen, who was riding his Harley-Davidson. When they crossed the finish line, Suderman beat Pullen by 10 feet, said Chambless.
Jason Pullen, who headlines Jason Pullen Stunts from San Francisco, performed on Harley-Davidsons, which is unusual because they weigh much more than the bikes most stunt performers use. This was his third year at the show.
“Every year the show gets bigger and better,” he said. “This event has the coolest, down-to-earth people. It’s a family affair out here.”
Hollister-based Corbin Motorcycle Seats & Accessories sponsored his team, made up of family and friends.
“I do about 15 shows a year,” said Pullen, adding that his stunt work is a hobby when not working at his 9-to-5 job as a repairman for a real estate company. “I’ve ridden motorcycles all my life; and not being wealthy, I raced whatever I had. People wondered how I could win on the junk I was riding and I’d say it was just pure motivation.”
In 2009, he was racing motocross when his engine blew out and he had to drop out of the competition. Afterward, he was riding his Harley when he spotted a stunt competition nearby.
“No one knew what I could do with a Harley, and neither did I,” he said. “I just did a bunch of wheelies and burnouts. It was a whole new fix of adrenaline. I went home, sold all my racing stuff and began stunt riding with Harley-Davidsons. It’s a lot of fun and I love entertaining the crowd.”
Along for the ride were friends, his wife, Angela, and a remarkable young rider, A.J. Heinicke, who at age 7, performs many of the same stunts as the grown-ups. AJ, as everyone calls him, began riding motorcycles at 3 and showed up at one of Pullen’s performances. It wasn’t long after that initial meeting when AJ, as everyone calls him, had his own trailer with his likeness and AJ Stuntz plastered on it. He was soon performing regularly with Pullen’s stunt show.
In addition to four World War II-era P-51 Mustangs and other warbirds, biplanes of many uses, and classic cars dating back to the 1920s, the big dog at the south end of the airport was unmistakable. Surrounded by security guards because of its active-duty military status, the Boeing FA-18F Super Hornet was impressive even when sitting still.
Naval Reserve Commander Heath Reed flew the aircraft carrier-capable fighter from Lemoore Naval Air Station, VFA-122 Squadron. An Iraq War veteran, Reed joked that he was almost a local, being from San Jose.
Sunday, as the show came to an end, people lined up inside the airport and others parked outside along San Felipe Road to watch as the fighter revved its massive twin engines and streaked down the runway, hit its afterburners and blasted off, heading due north before banking east in a tight turn headed back for its home base.
Within minutes, social media was buzzing about the takeoff.
“I heard that bad boy from my house on Sally Street,” Dave Werolin, wrote on Facebook. “That was quite the rumble!”
Following the airshow, Chambless said he didn’t have the final attendance numbers yet, but said he was pleased that it was another safe event.
“I want to thank my staff, the volunteers, the Hollister Fire Department, and the Hollister Police Department for all their hard work,” he said.
