Eddie Merchant performs a roll in the sky above the Red Cedar River near Vinton with a smoke trailing behind, which he created by a smoke machine attached to the airplane, on Friday afternoon. I was lucky to spend several hours with him shooting photos and video for the newspaper. He was a really awesome guy, with many stories. Afterwards, we went out for beers.

Here Eddie skims near the ground for a fly-by, over me. He was about 10 feet above me.

Eddie sitting in his S2B Pitts Special before takeoff.