BAKERSFIELD MAN TO PERFORM IN BURLINGTON AIR SHOW
By Natalie Jackson
Dan Marcotte, a resident of Bakersfield, is widely known for his profound AirShow Aerobatics. Since a young age, Marcotte has been an adventurous person.
After a long history of stock car racing, driving motorcycles, and land speed racing, Marcotte’s interest in flying began in his 20’s after he ran out of ground motorsports.
He started racing his airplane in air races, that led to air show competitions. It didn’t take long for Marcotte to realize how much he enjoyed learning and performing aerobatic maneuvers. With this, he began executing his own air shows in 2005. By age 30 Marcotte had successfully made his mark in two of the world’s most prestigious air and motorsport races.
“It takes a lot of commitment, staying in good physical condition, and really practicing diligently. That helps take some of the nervousness away,” claims Marcotte.
Marcotte practices for his shows at the Franklin County Airport, where he works, and travels throughout the United States and Canada to perform the acts. Because there are not many Air Shows in Vermont, Marcotte says he will travel as far south as Florida and as far west as about Cleveland, Ohio to perform. He has even gone to Nova Scotia for an AirShow as well.
“I’ll do loops, rolls, twists, tumbles, hammerhead turns, fly straight up, straight down, fly backward for a short amount of time, and the whole time it will be choreographed to music, and there will be smoke pouring out of the back of the thing,” Marcotte says excitedly.
Although he never went to flight school, Marcotte is a master at all of the aerobatic maneuvers. He taught himself everything he knows.
Marcotte started out flying an ultralight aircraft. Today, his show features the Ultimate 10-200 Biplane. Its four, full span ailerons provide a 400 degree per second roll rate.
This coming weekend, August 13-14, there will be an Air Show at the waterfront in Burlington. The opening ceremonies will begin at 11am and flying demonstrations will occur from 11:30am-4pm.
Come watch Dan Marcotte perform his AirShow. You can also learn more about Dan on his website: http://www.danmarcotteairshows.com
