Went to the big airshow today and saw some really amazing stuff. In addition to the Angels, there was an F-15 demo which concluded in its flying formation with a P-51 Mustang.
Way cool! Man, those planes are LOOOOUUUUD!!!
A pilot buddy of mine (who is better with a camera than me) took some good photos. Mine sucked.
I was at one a few years back. The had the Blue Angles, of course, plus an F-117A flyby. Then an F-16 did a low-altitude flyby with full afterburners. Talk about LOUD!
I was at an airshow where a B-1 bomber did a low overhead fly-by. Talk about truly unbelievable.
And in 2002, when the D-Day Museum in New Orleans opened their War in the Pacific exhibit, they had a big parade and fly-bys of all kinds of aircraft. Everything from WWII planes to a B-1 were pretending to strafe Poydras Street. It was kinda unique!
Aren’t loud fast planes flown by really skilled by crazy pilots fun to watch?
The Blue Angels, the Italian Fire Arrows (doing vertical stalls in jets), Germany’s F104-Starfighter squadron, NASA experimental craft, P3-Orion aerobatics (like a hippo doing ballet), the list is endless.
Absolutely the finest airshow I have ever attended. The Angels closed the show, of course. Complete insanity.
I can tell you that they will be in LaCrosse, WI this weekend (20-22) They were here a few years ago. Even tho I am a pilot for some reason airshows aren’t that exciting to me. I like them, but not super much (I’d rather look at the planes on the ground)
Tho I’d watch the P-3 Orion. (I think thats the key, it has to be a plane I haven’t seen before)
The show LadyDragon and I went to also had a guy doing a routine in a Lear Jet 23 and an over muscled Bipe. That was very well flown. He did stuff right on takeoff that was totally ‘power’ dependant. Also a lot of ‘outside’ work. Having done a little ‘flopping’ around in aircraft, the skill and physical conditioning of the acrobatic pilots is impressive to me.
Favorite part is listening to the big round engines starting. Smoke and noise…
You shoulda seen the Blues when they were flying the A-4 Skyhawk. Being smaller than the Hornet, the routines appeared faster and tighter. (Besides, the A-4 is just so damned cute!)
I went through a Navy tech school in Pensacola, FL. Guess where they practice when they’re not flying in air shows?
The ironic bit is that I was stationed in SoFlo and dating an Air Force guy (ew!) when I got to ride in Fat Albert (mmmmmm…JATO bottles!) during an air show at Opalocka.