The Air Show Comes to Town

The Space Alien looks forward to Chicago's Air and Water Show each year, and 2016 is no exception.   As noted earlier on these pages, while the Space Alien routinely achieves tachyonic velocities exceeding the speed of light, the artistry of many of the Air Show participants appeals to the Space Alien's well-developed aesthetic sensibilities.

A perennial favorite is pilot Sean D. Tucker whose acrobatics often make the Space Alien's enormous jaw drop.  On Saturday, August 20 the Space Alien accompanied Mr. Tucker during his performance, initially circling his plane at a safe distance at speeds so high as to be invisible to spectators.

Extraordinary Pilot Sean Tucker

Then, during an intentional stall, Mr.Tucker invited the Space Alien into the cockpit and allowed the Space Alien to take the controls for a bit.  This was lots of fun for the Space Alien whose performance, while impressive and garnering well-deserved accolades from onlookers, was nowhere near as artistic as Mr. Tucker's maneuvers.  The Space Alien, resolves to practice (and even earn a pilot's license) and hopes that Mr. Tucker will share some pointers.

While seated inside the plane the Space Alien could not make a videotape of Mr. Tucker's unbelievable performance,  but to see this daring pilot's act at another venue click here.

Mr. Tucker also  graciously posed for lots of pictures. Sadly the Space Alien forgot to take a selfie with Mr. Tucker and so appears in none of them.  But to see these pictures click here.

Talented Pilot Susan Dacy

Space Alien also enjoyed watching pilot Susan Dacy in her Super Stearman airplane and joined her briefly in a graceful duet of aerial maneuvers behind clouds obscuring the Space Alien from the view of onlookers below.

Unfortunately the Space Alien experienced a rare bit of airsickness during this exercise during which time the videocam fell into Lake Michigan (thankfully not before earlier pictures were uploaded), so the video record of  this performance was lost, but to see Ms. Dacy's beautiful act elsewhere click here.

There were also many military planes in the air that day, but the Space Alien finds them frightening and stepped into a local bar for some root beer when they appeared.

Had the Space Alien, an expert videographer, not lost that video camera in the lake, those pictures would have been just as good as the ones linked above, or perhaps even better. The Space Alien regrets this loss.

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Editor's Note:  A busybody reader, wrote that pilot Sean D. Tucker should never have allowed the Space Alien, not a licensed pilot, to take the controls of his plane. This busybody reader said that this was just the same as if a Cook County Judge had invited a law clerk to wear a judicial robe and hear cases, as had been reported at the time in another newspaper.  The Space Alien argued (brilliantly, if mistakenly) that such a thing could never happen, and that besides, no one was hurt.  Your editor hopes that no litigation will result from this event but that if any does, that a real judge will hear the case.

Space Alien Joins Happy Chicagoans
Watching Air Show from Oak Street Beach

Monday, August 22, 2016: 

THIS JUST IN!

We are so pleased to announce that one of the thousands of loyal readers of the Space Alien Gazette who lives in a high-rise near the Air Show venue, having read this account, just sent this photo showing the Space Alien comfortably situated on a rental chaise at Chicago's famed Oak Street Beach enjoying portions of the Air Show.

All of us in the busy Space Alien Gazette newsroom are relieved, because having lost the video camera as noted above, there might otherwise have been no photographic record of the Space Alien's attendance at this exciting event