Acro Camp 2: Days 1 and 2

It's Day 3 here at at Ray Community Airport, where we're filming Acro Camp 2. Day 3 is a built-in break day so the crew can catch up with ingesting video, look at the video we're shot to date, and rest. The campers are also resting and either hanging out at Ray or otherwise amusing themselves. Kevin Copeland is here with the Northwestern Michigan College Super Decathlon and he's flying with crew members today.

We've captured a lot of material. We're flying a Pitts S-2B (pictured above inverted with Don Weaver and Mary Macdonald), a Citabria, and a Super Decathlon.

David Klein and Barry Sutton flew a long sortie yesterday toward dusk to give David a better idea of how tailwheel operations work. They headed over to Romeo, where the winds were more favorable, and wrung out the aircraft. Afterward, they returned to Ray and mixed it up a little with Don Weaver in the Pitts. Don was out flying smoke for B-roll and David and Barry weaved back and forth through the smoke trail.

David Allen had a great flight in the Super Decathlon. He began with the Citabria in Day 1, and then flew two Pitts sorties early on Day 2. Dave wasn't very happy with the way he flew and how his tummy was treating him in the Pitts, but he had a lot more success when he went out later in the day to fly some Super D.

Denise Isaacs is a trouper. She wrung herself out both days and we pretty much poured her out of the aircraft and into a bucket when the props stopper turning for the day. But she's always standing there by the airplane with a parachute on when it's her turn to fly. And she's picking up maneuvers pretty quickly now.

Don Weaver filled up the smoke oil tank on the Pitts and took it out solo at twilight. He flew some spectacular acro for the cameras and we'll be able to use some of that in the film. He also mixed it up with Dave and Barry in the Citabria and both aircraft landed to thunderous applause of cast, crew, and locals.

We're resting up today and we'll be ready to rock tomorrow morning for Day 3. If you're in the neighborhood, stop in to Ray Community Airport 57D and see us!

Airspeed Announces Acro Camp 2 Cast

After a long and difficult process (made even harder by the outstanding number and quality of applications), Airspeed has announced the cast for the second installment in the Acro Camp series of documentary feature films.

Mary Macdonald is a web developer from Santa Cruz, California. She is a private pilot with 250 hours. She is also known to some as “Ruby Riptide” of the Harbor Hellcats, a roller derby team in the Santa Cruz Derby Girls league. She is the only camper who has a tailwheel endorsement, but she has never soloed a tailwheel aircraft or flown in a tandem aircraft with a stick. Her influences include airshow performer and aviation entrepreneur Amelia Reid (who taught such luminaries as Sean D. Tucker and Rod Machado).

David Klein is an instrument-rated 400-hour private pilot from Palos Verdes Estates, California who flies his C-182S for business over California, Arizona, and Nevada. He began a career in technology services in 1983 and later started his own enterprises in 1993, which he continues to operate. Aviation runs in Dave’s family. His father was an airline pilot for Western Airlines. Dave himself is passing along the love to his 17-year-old son.

Denise Isaacs received her private certificate in 2009 and has accumulated 120 hours of total time. She lives in Connersville, Indiana, where she is an accounting and personnel manager for a family business. She has had one aerobatic flight in the Grayout Aerosports Pitts S-2C. Her father, who is a pilot, is one of her greatest supporters and mentors.

Cornelius Funk is an 8,000-hour commercial pilot and antique auto dealer from Snohomish County, Washington. Corny has time in such diverse aircraft as the Douglas DC-3, the Convair CV-240, the Lear 25, and the Cessna 310. He has flown cargo and just-in-time logistics for private firms in Central and South America and in Asia at various times, as well as flown charter and air taxi in the northern United States and remote parts of Canada. When not flying, he records and performs using experimental musical instruments that he fashions himself.

These cast members ("campers" if you will) will journey to Ray Community Airport (57D) in late August to fly their very first aerobatics on camera as producer/director Steve Tupper, director of photography Will Hawkins, and others attempt to capture the experience.

Watch for more updates as pre-production continues!

Acro Camp Production Outtakes - Surfing the Pitts Breeze

Here's footage from the Hero cam on the Pitts moments after startup. First Barry, then Steve, then Rod decide to surf the prop blast of the Pitts. This is from Saturday 15 May, Day 2 of flying.