Almost 40 years ago I was a team mechanic for Howie Keefe on the Miss America P-51 race team and got to work with some of the legends.[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif] I'd work in LA, mx Yamaha and CanAm dirt bikes at Indian Dunes, and Southern Cal in those days was truly exciting for a 20-ish airplane fanatic.[/font] I also got to hold the poles for inverted ribbon pick ups by Art Scholl and Leo Loudenslager.
[It's not Art shown below]
It's damned hard to not move when that airplane rolls inverted and looks like it is heading STRAIGHT at you. When it gets close, your eye can't keep up and the wingtip feels like it brushes your skin as the plane goes by. Shows now are more based on power and pilots trying to do "ultimate" maneuvers or depending on the engine to run absolutely without hiccup.