Culpeper Air Fest Event Accident Occurred After 2000 ET

The airshow industry finds itself in the unwelcome, but familiar, role of mourning another pilot whose life was lost while performing an airshow routine... this time, at the Culpeper Air Fest in Brandy Station, VA. A night performance, accompanied with pyrotechnic displays, was underway with the two ship team of Jon Thocker and Ken Rieder were flying just after 8 PM, Local Time. For as yet unknown reasons, Thocker's RV-8 went down midway through the performance with fatal result. Air Fest officials posted a short statement to social media following the accident, "During the night portion of the Culpeper Air Fest an aerobatic act experienced an accident. Emergency services that were onsite wer

“This was such a powerful storm for building up in the Gulf of Mexico. It doesn’t happen often that you see a storm increasing intensity while making landfall.” Source: Lt. Col. Sean Cross, 53rd WRS pilot, who flew into Hurricane Michael as it made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast.

A physician with training in aviation medicine designated by the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI).

Forest Service Smoke Jumpers

Smokejumping was first proposed in 1934 by T.V. Pearson, the Forest Service Intermountain Regional Forester, as a means to quickly provide initial attack on forest fires. By parachuting in, self-sufficient firefighters could arrive fresh and ready for the strenuous work of fighting fires in rugged terrain.