BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — If the roar of an air show screams the song of an American summer, Phil Dacy sings in sweet harmony.
For the past 35 years, the longtime air show announcer has had the best seat in the house for all things that speed and soar to great heights, describing their dangerous, gravity-defying maneuvers in great detail.
On Independence Day, Dacy returned to the painted-white, wooden announcer's perch at Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field for the first of three air shows at Battle Creek Field of Flight.
"If we're not excited, how do we expect the folks that come out to the show to be excited?" Dacy said. "I'm excited. I'm hoping I pass it on to the crowd so they know that, ‘Hey, this is real.’”
For Dacy, a coporate pilot who grew up on an airport in Illinois, aviation seemed to be a birthright: "You didn't make a conscious decision. It was just what you did," he said.
His brother is in the Air Show Hall of Fame. His sister performed at Field of Flight last year. Years ago, when Dacy offered to take the microphone from a "struggling" announcer at an air show in Wisconsin, he found his 'in' to the booth.
"If you think you can do better, why don't you try it?” Dacy said, describing the day. "That's how things are born, you know? You kind of get goaded into it.”
The rest, he says, is history.
Rarely referring to a script, Dacy fed off the crowd at Field of Flight, congratulating the performers as they dove, rolled and parachuted in and out of "air show center."
"Rob high, Bill low, as they go right on around. Look at those airplanes absolutely tumble through the sky," Dacy said during Rob Holland and Bill Stein's duo act.
In addition to civilian acts, the Golden Knights, F-35C Lighting II, F/A-18F Super Hornet Rhino, and the A-10C Thunderbolt II demo teams showcased their strength.
The Thunderbirds, a sextet of synchronous, multicolored F-16s, headlined the day.
"If that doesn't impress you, I don't know. You live on a different planet than I think than I do," Dacy said.
Announcing around 12 full air shows a year and additional acts, Dacy gets to know many of the popular performers, including Chris Darnell, the late driver of the Shockwave Jet Truck. In 2022, Darnell died in a crash at Field of Flight. Dacy was announcing that day.
"If you knew Chris, you liked him. He was just one of those really, really good guys," Dacy said. “Fate sometimes takes that nasty bite and it was just a very sad deal.”
On Thursday, thousands packed into Kellogg Field. Dacy addressed them with a tone of aerobatic excitement, a voice that's become a soundtrack to family, Fourth of July memories (including yours truly).
"You're looking at things being done that one sliver of the population could ever dream of doing," Dacy said. "You don't want to be too cool for the room, you know what I mean?"
Field of Flight will continue through July 7, with air shows on Saturday and Sunday.
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