The Sunbeamer Air Show

On Saturday April 14, the Relay for Life's Sunbeamer team held it's yearly air show event. This was the sixth one the relay team of the Sunweaver/Angel community had held.

As in previous years, the event was held at Farshore Field, which is in the sim of Sunlight Bay.

Cynthia Farshore was the woman behind this and previous air shows. Normally an anthro goat, for the event she was sporting a wolfess look due to a "Bid Me" the Sunbeamers had done.

Team captain Rita Mariner, with her friend Gil Otaared and a few other teammates.

A number of people showed up, Relayers in and out of the Sunbeamer team, as well as some from outside the Relay.

One of the popular attractions of the event was the cannon, which one just crawled in, then lit the fuse.

The cannon would then launch you into the air at a replica of the Moon.

Getting one of the parachutes from a box next to the kiosk near the cannon was recommended, which automatically deployed when you got back down to a certain height, and gave one a longer look at the scenery below.

The parachute was decorated with this year's Relay theme, "All Aboard."

One other cannon would send you two sims away to the north into Pacific Waters, though as the sim was mostly water, parachutes were more optional.

There was also a race. One would pick up a bicycle blimp, and go through an areal "steeplechase" course.

Those taking part had to get their blimps around a course of fence rails, getting the areal vehicles just over them to count.

 Snowy Sugar Blossom (Skylark Lefavre) was offering balloon tours of the area.

Becky Shamen showed up in an airship of her own.

There was a German 88 gun, though not just for display. People could sit on it and lob shells at a target, a hit sending a volunteer into the dunk tank.

There were also a number of planes up on display, such as this German FW190.

An American Dauntless torpedo plane and light bomber

A US Gruman F-4 Wildcat fighter.

 An American P-40 Warhawk.

A US Thunderbolt fighter, one more noted for it's engine power and durability than it's maneuverability.

A Japanese Mistubishi A6M "Zero." This fighter was deadly in experienced hands early in the war. But as it was lightly armored and the Americans learned how to go up against these nimble plans, losses began to take their toll on veteran pilots. Plus Japan's smaller industrial capacity meant it couldn't replace losses as quickly. As the war in the Pacific went on, American pilots faced fewer, and less experienced opponents.

There were a few WW1 and between the wars aircraft, like this French Nieuport 17 fighter.

A look at the Nieuport's cockpit. The controls were a lot simpler then.

Some float planes were next to a dock on the side, such as this Japanese Kawanishi H8K bomber.

Cynthia would do a little flying of her own with a couple planes.

But thanks to the "Teleport Disconnect" bug, which affected sim crossings as well, flying around was tricky, often ending in a viewer crash, much to Cynthia's frustration.

Despite the bugs, the Sunbeamer Air Show was a success, taking the team past Gold fundraising level, and up past 150,000 Linden dollars. The music event at the Happy Vixen a week later would raise the team total past 180.000, closer to Platinum Level.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan