ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Air Show takes to the sky this weekend! Some of the people piloting the biggest planes have deep connections to our region. 

News10NBC Investigate Reporter Jennifer Lewke got some special access this week, and went in the cockpit of the C-5 galaxy — which got to the airport earlier this week. The exciting part about air show is a lot of the crew members and pilots, actually have connections here to the Rochester area.

Connections to Rochester

Airforce Lt. Col. Aaron Cook is a 2000 graduate of Medina High School and a pilot of the C-5. His co-pilot is from Rochester, another crew member from LeRoy. This crew has traveled the world in service to our country.  

“We carry all the big cargo, we have long legs, we can fly for a long time, we go to far places,” explains Lt. Col. Cook. “This airplane is capable from flying from the east coast all the way over to turkey or anywhere in Europe on one tank of gas. We do humanitarian missions. We have missions supporting the Army, Navy, national countries… you name it, we’ll fly it.”

The crew is based in Dover, Delaware. But they were happy to jump on this assignment.  

“It’s really cool to be able to come back to western New York and show off our job and what we’ve been doing for all these years to all the people who helped get us here,” shares Lt. Col. Cook.

“Growing up, my first airshow was down in Geneseo and I saw those old war birds down there and I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do with my life.’ And it gave me a direction to go in. So hopefully we can inspire some kids to do the same thing,” says Lt. Col. Cook.

Event safety

Safety planning for the airshow started months ago.

Firefighters at the airport have to be prepared for anything. So, they have been studying each and every plane that is coming here to perform this weekend and putting individual plans together that cover every possible emergency.

A team of Rochester airport firefighters is dedicated to each plane. It’s best to be at full staff and over-prepared. 

“My firefighters absolutely love doing this, it’s interesting. That’s why they’re airport firefighters, because they love aviation and they love the aircraft and they couldn’t be more focused on the safety of the pilots and the spectators of this show,” says Chief Ken Stavalone with the Rochester Fire Department.

Speaking of spectators, it’s going to be hot on the tarmac. So, EMS crews are on standby. There will be more cooling stations then last year and plenty of water stations too.

“We’ve been working with our airline partners and the network planners at the airlines for about six to eight months now to make sure that their flight schedules fit into the air show flight schedule. So, in between acts, we turn the airfield space back over to the air tower and they’re able to get banks of flights in and out so flights are minimally impacted,” says Steve Barz, Assistant airport director for the Greater Rochester International Airport.

Just leave a few minutes early because there are some road closures in the area.  If you’ve got extra time to kill, park on the top of the parking garage for a cool view.

If you’re interested in the air show, we can connect you to all of the information about which planes are here, what time they’ll be flying and how much tickets are by clicking here.