The Aero Experience: Greenville, IL Airstravaganza Shares Love of Flight With Local Community, Part 4: Warbirds Review

By Carmelo Turdo

The Greenville Airstravaganza, a favorite Midwest Aviation fall fly-in, was held October 6 at Greenville Municipal Airport in central Illinois. The event is more than a fly-in - it is a family-friendly, community gathering with fun activities, good food and, of course, aviation! Organized by the Greenville Pilots Association and the Greenville Airport Authority, the annual Airstravaganza provides the opportunity for local residents to experience aviation first-hand by visiting with pilots, touring classic cars and display aircraft, and flying in a Cessna 172, Robinson R44 helicopter or World War II-era aircraft. Regular arrivals of general aviation aircraft, RC aerobatic aircraft shows, skydiving demonstrations by Gateway Skydiving Center and overflights by Kevin Kegin’s American Warbird AT-6D Texan kept everyone’s eyes to the skies. As is evident in the photos, the skies were sunny in the morning but a storm front moved in during the mid-afternoon after much of the aerial activity was winding down.

In Part 4 of this series, we take a look at the warbirds flying during the day: American Warbird AT-6D Texan, Beech T-34 Mentor and Brad Deckert's beautiful Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bomber. We will cover our flight in the Texan and the multiple passes with the Avenger in future stories.

The Aero Experience flew the morning wakeup flight in the American Warbird AT-6D Texan over the local Greenville area. Pilot Kevin Kegin's expert airmanship made it a great photo flight.

Brad Deckert made several flights in his Grumman Avenger, fulfilling the life-long dreams of several guest riders (to be covered in more detail later). Here we feature several passes from the Avenger and an accompanying, locally-based, T-34 Mentor.