FARGO — If you’ve ever wanted to see one of North Dakota’s top elected officials jump out of a perfectly good airplane, the 2024 Fargo AirSho will be your chance. Lt. Gov.
Tammy Miller will help open the 2024 Fargo AirSho with a tandem parachute jump with Terry Peoples of Skydive Fargo. The jump will take place before the AirSho’s official kickoff at 11 a.m.
Saturday at Hector International Airport, Peoples said Friday, July 26. “Show up early if you’d like to see that,” he said. “She’s going skydiving with me tomorrow morning.
” A major plus for World War II-vintage aircraft fans, five of the roughly 150 still airworthy P-51 Mustangs will be at the show. The AirSho gates open at 9 a.m.
and the show officially starts at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The headliners of the daylong event are the always popular Navy Blue Angels flying their powerful F/A-18 Super Hornets, though the Air Force will nab some prime time with the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team — their first time in North Dakota. But there will be a lot of other aerial acts at the show and on the ground (the Ladies For Liberty singing trio, a Tom Cruise lookalike, static aircraft displays, and a STEM expo and robotics competition). Several performers met with members of the press Friday at the Fargo Air Museum.
Tim “Toby” McPherson is in charge of the Fargo Air Museum’s Warbird Review. The Page man, who restored and flies a P-51 Mustang he’s nicknamed “Boomer,” will be joined in the air by three T-6 Texan pilot trainers and a Douglas A1 Skyraider. “A lot of neat history of these airplanes protecting us,” McPherson said.
In addition to his warbird, there will be the Horseman Flight Demonstration Team with its three P-51s as well as “Plum Crazy,” a former racing P-51 painted a striking purple, piloted by aerobatics expert Vicky Benzing. McPherson said the P-51 is aerial adrenaline. “It’s a Corvette, essentially,” among aircraft, McPherson said.
“The neatest part is sharing it with the people, the history of that airplane. So many veterans say that without the Mustang, we wouldn’t have won the war.” The Merlin engine “is the sound of freedom,” McPherson said.
Benzing’s P-51 didn’t see action in WWII, but the Royal Canadian Air Force flew it for a decade before it traded hands a couple of times. It was flown as a racer from 1964 to 1972, winning a national championship at the Reno Air Races in 1970. Benzing purchased "Plum Crazy" in 2019 and restored it.
The Monterey, California, woman has been air racing in Reno since 2010. She raced “Plum Crazy” at Reno in 2023, coming in fourth in the unlimited class. “It was the fastest stock Mustang on the race course,” she said.
For years she flew a Stearman at air shows. Now she’s bringing “Plum Crazy” to the circuit. She loves to give the crowd “a look at the airplane from all different angles, and see the airplane in flight, and see the beauty of the P-51,” she said.
Pilot Tom “Lark” Larkin owns Mini Jet Airshows. He last brought his tiny but mighty jet to Fargo in 2021. The 500-pound jet weighs less than some motorcycles and is built with pop rivets, but it can go 300 miles per hour, he said.
“It’s really, really small (and kids) can literally walk up and see inside it. It captures their imagination, it’s their size. It’s something they can see themselves doing,” Larkin said.
“I love doing this. Hopefully we can inspire a lot of kids today and keep doing it for years to come,” he said. The former F-15C Air Force fighter pilot is now a pilot for a major airline, but the 61-year-old has performed at air shows for the last eight years.
“It’s a lot of fun to be here,” Larkin said. “It’s one of the better air shows in the country.” For Jarrod Lindemann of Valley City, this is old home week.
He’ll be performing aerobatics with his 1929 Waco open-cockpit biplane. “I kind of consider this my hometown show. It’s great to be back here,” said Lindemann, who has performed in Fargo several times since 2012.
The Waco has a powerful radial engine in front, plus “a Learjet engine strapped to it. It allows us to do some pretty unique maneuvers," Lindemann said. Air show legend Kent Pietsch, 73, is now in his 50th year of air show flying.
The Minot man will be performing two acts. His comedy act includes parts falling off his 1941 Interstate Cadet. In the other act, he’ll go up to 6,000 feet and turn off the power.
After that, he’ll perform aerobatics over about seven minutes on the way to making his way back to the ground. Tickets and other information for the AirSho are available at fargoairsho.com.
The website also includes maps to negotiate traffic, get around the AirSho grounds and where to park. Parking is $5 per vehicle at the Fargodome and in the industrial park west of the dome. Shuttles to and from the AirSho will be available.
The website also lists recommended items to bring to the AirSho to make the experience more pleasant, as well as items that attendees are not allowed to bring. No smoking or vaping is allowed at the airport due to fire risk and potential damage to aircraft. Drone flights are not permitted within five miles of the AirSho, per Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
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