I got to see a thunderbird airshow today! That was the coolest thing I have ever seen. They had F-15 and F-16 flying. Also there was some stunt planes out there. (sorry I don't know all my planes yet.) They also had the F-117A. WOW! Is all I can say to that one.
There was alot on display as well. They had the A-10 B-52 C-5 Galaxy C-17 C-130 F-16 F-22A F-117A KC-10 KC-135 That is just to name a few. Anybody else see any airshows lately? Or any coming up soon?
One of the coolest I saw was Dayton's Century of Flight airshow in 04. They had performances by the Tbirds, Blue Angels, and Canadian Snow Birds. Also the Army's Golden Knights skydiving team. Stunt shows by Patty Wagstaff, Bulldog LeRoy, Sean Tucker, and a Tora Tora Tora and Wall of Fire show with old warbirds.
I was hoping to go this year to Dayton, but it falls on the weekend in the middle of our ORE.
I forgot about the skydiving team. They did have that too. I am going again today. Cause I actually missed the thunderbirds by 30 minutes. My daughter got tired so we left early. So I am determined to see them today. I also think Sean Tucker was flying one of the stunt planes.
I saw one almost exactly like that...minus the skydivers, at Columbus AFB about a month ago. We (my ROTC det) actually showed up early and all of the demo team pilots came by to give us a quick Q&A session in a room just off the flight line...including the Thunderbirds. Pretty damn cool. A Raptor, a Bone, and the Wobbly Gobblin came by for a while. The "stunt" planes that we had were the Pitts and Steermans. And had the P51 vs. a Zero mock dogfight as usual. On the A10 demo, they actually had pyrotechnics on the grass between the runways....the fire got a little out of control due to no rain for about 2 months.
When my guy was an A-10 SQ/CC, the Wing dubbed him as being in charge of the West coast A-10 demo team (the jets and pilots who fly in air shows). Those guys were too much fun...they used to call the house and check in with "Dad" - usually from some noisy sports bar or while on a beach somewhere. We (our family) enjoyed lots of 'percs' as a result - VIP passes to the air shows, we could park anywhere on base we wanted during the shows, VIP passes to the 'after hours' private night air shows and mingling with the performers, and VIP seating at show center (piles of free food and beer courtesy of local companies who are supporters of the base):
A-10 demo jets and pyrotechnics:
Peggy Wagstaff 'cutting a ribbon' while inverted:
Tora, Tora, Tora demo at D-M:
T-birds overflight (they look "fat" in this picture, don't they?):
I finally got to see the Thunderbirds today! OMG that was the best! Oh also there was an a-10 (I think) that dropped some kindof black powder bomb of some kind. It was really cool. I have never seen anything like that before.
I've been to dozens of air shows in my lifetime, starting when I was a kid - my uncle was an F-14 Tomcat pilot AND commanded NAS Mirimar, to shows stateside as well as in Europe. The most impressive show I have ever seen was the Paris air show in '95.
Originally posted by TheWifey: When my guy was an A-10 SQ/CC, the Wing dubbed him as being in charge of the West coast A-10 demo team (the jets and pilots who fly in air shows).
Lori, when was that? I'm just wondering if it was possible we may have crossed paths at some airshow in the past...
I used to love to go to Airshows with the C-5. When it was still relatively new, we had a sort of rivalry going with the T-birds. We'd trade jabs as much as possible...all in good fun mind you. We were in Donaldson, South Carolina and the hotel we were staying at had a big welcome on their marquee. It said Welcome US Air Force Thunderbirds. Well after a few beers, we decided it just wasn't right to leave out the world's largest aircraft! So we re-arranged the welcome to Welcome US Air Force C-5 and thunderbirds (tbirds were now at the very bottom in smaller letters!) Then when we were ready to depart, we were humbled when we had an APU problem that required us to borrow hteir Air Cart!
The next show was at Daytona Beach and the T-Birds were all sitting around the hotel lobby the morning of the show. We had just finished breakfast and were walking through the lobby with the local news paper which had a full front page color picture of our airplane. We tossed it on the table in front of them with the comment of "Oh Damn...made the headlines again!" They just sort of grumbled at us.
We were at Eglin AFB for a show and I was standing out front resting my arm on the Fire bottle (big green tow behind model). A guy walks up and says "Did you bring this in?" Of course he was talking about the airplane but I played it off as if he meant the fire bottle...started giving him all the stats on the fire bottle...he looked at me as if I was insane and walked away!
We were at a show once and two kids were arguing...one of them looked across the cargo compartment and saw us standing there in our flight suits..He said "Look there's the "Captain" lets go ask him!" they ran over and he said... "I was telling my friend that it's harder to fly this than the Blue Angels right?" Of course we saw what a brilliant young man he was so obviously agreed with him by telling his freind that the Blues fly such tiny little airplanes and that it's much harder flying ours and making it go where you want....plus they always follow each other so never get lost...but we have to find the next place on our own...They bought it all. As they were walking away, I heard the first kid say "Told ya so!"
And then there was the inevitable question of "Does this thing really fly" to which we would always respond "No ma'am we trucked it in just for the show!" We did have one of our guys get very creative though. The fire suppression system on the A model had large bottles along the top sides of the cargo compartment. On the Engineer panel, there was a dial that you set depending on how much cargo volume you had...it had settings for Under 10,000, 10,000-20'000 and above 20'000. Depending on where you set it it would dispense a certain amount of agent. Well this guy when asked if it really flew said "Yes ma'am...see those bottles? They hold helium. The dial on the engineers panel is set for how high we want to float up and then the engines on our wing are just to move us forward...when we want to land, the engineer sucks up the helium in the bottles again" She bought it and said " I thought so because I didn't see a propeller out front!"
I mentioned the private (not open to the public) night time air shows we attended. The performers were typically really unique people - I remember some were folks with disabilities flying really strange-looking flying machines that were lit up for night flight.
It was always funny going home later, turning on the local news and hearing that the base and the police and the news stations had been flooded with calls reporting UFO sightings earlier that night.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: TheWifey,
OK one more...We were at Montreal for a show and the weather was not the greatest for a show...so we spoke to the AirBoss and had him call HQ to request us to particpate in the flying portion of the show (we usually only sit as a static display). We got the approval and put on a low show that was VERY impressive. Several spirals past the tower, high & low speed passes, etc. Taxiied into parking and did a crew in place kneeling and opened the doors. When the engines shut down, the security folks dropped the ropes surrounding us. The crowd came rushing into the airplane...Biggest crowd I've ever seen! The crew Chief was on the flight deck ladder and when the crowd was half way into the jet, he yelled STOP! The whole crowd stopped in their tracks. He then yelled WAVE! And they did as he snapped a picture!
Oh I know I said one more but... At Williamsport PA, we had a guy ask if he could taxi his Quickee kitplane in front of ours to get a size comparison picture. We did him one better. We picked his airplane up...physically picked it up! and carried it into the cargo compartment! Then we each took turns sitting in it and having our picture taken.
My guy is off in a foreign land 'bossing' an air show right now...he is going to have PA give him copies of all the pics and video they take, and he took my digital with him as well so I ought to be able to share some photos in a few weeks.
That air show in Paris BLEW my mind, and I'm not that easily impressed! LOL! I know we took tons of video during the show, but I don't recall any stills. I'll look around and see.
When I went to the airshow down here, I forgot to bring my camera. I did bring my video camera though. I was recording the Thunderbirds then my video camera died. LOL! I forgot to charge it before I left.
I ran across this picture and at the time,I never thought to ask why the AF toy car was numbered 21. Time was critical and I needed to pack it up and get it in the mail.
The only thing I can think of is a CSAR-type reference to Bat 21.
Love the airshows and always enjoy these threads. I had posted this link to photos I shot at an airshow at Tyndall before but worth repeating. Tyndall AFB Airshow
Wifey, Its number 21 becasue that's the Wood Bros car. They have been number 21 since the beginning with David Pearson. The AF is just a sponsor for them. The number has no relationship.
Stoney, Love the sound of the F-4! THAT's when the T-birds were really impressive! When the Solo's did the sneak up behind the crowd in an F-4 in blower! It rattled your teeth!
Horizon, That sounds like what happened to us at the Utah Airshow. It was so funny. We were all watching the 4 Thunderbirds doing there thing and out of no where one of the solo ones came out and scared the livin" day lights out of all uf us. It was awsome! My husband was laughing because two minutes before he was saying he wanted a really close fly by. Well he got it! LOL!
