Trip Report Reading, PA WW2 Fly-in weekend

This is just a quick report of the Reading, PA Ww2 Fly-In Weekend.
They hold it each year on the same weekend as the AOPA convention in
Frederick. It's my third year going there and for any of you on the
East Coast/mid Atlantic it is most definitely worth a visit.

The Reading aero-club picks you up on the FBO side of the field and
ferries people over to the show, they are a very friendly outfit--and
flying in beats the queue in/out of the place.

For those of us used to the flights in Oshkosh, to be honest there
is more volume and variety at Oshkosh. This year the Reading event
had a pair of F4-U's, a Thunderbolt, a P-40, B-25, a very nice six-
ship formation of T-6's, a P-51, a whole slew of L-6's and L-19's,
some other trainers and one-offs that I don't recall, and a single
B-17. But the flying is only half the show. Oshkosh more or less
feels like a trade show from entry gate to flight line. The Reading
show feels like a huge movie set--there are literally thousands of WW2
re-enactors camped out on the fields--Germans, Americans, Russians,
Brits, Aussies, a surrendered French village taken over by the
Germans--they are each in their own encampment and have tons of stuff
to show off--and shoot off, as through the day different groups are
lighting off on tanks, flamethrowers, and small arms. Then there are
the big name re-enactors--FDR is drving around in a presidential
convertible, Macarthur is being driven around in a jeep, and a very
realistic looking JFK is also driving around in a jeep. Then there
are the entertainers-the Andrews singers are singing in an officer's
mess, and Abbot and Costelo are doing a routine on lvie radio. So the
whole effect is quite different--the warbirds are flying over your
head for a good five hours, small arms fire is hammering away in the
background, while you immersed in the sights and sounds of WW2. As I
said, a very different feel from Oshkosh

And finally, there are (still) a few WW2 vets around, all of whom are
fascinating to talk to and we all know that they won;t be around in a
few years.

All in all it was worth a flight in!

Hank Rausch