Any airshow fans on the hearth?

A few pics from this past weekends show at NAS Oceana. The most miserable weather I have ever seen for an airshow but
still got some cool pics and got to test out my new lens.

#1... F-15E on takeoff
#2 and 3... F-18 Super Hornet with some nice vapor

Thanks, I really like that shot in the middle.

kabbott, we used to take in several. Naturally the best was in Oshkosh, by gosh.

I really miss the shows at the Marine base in Yuma, AZ too. The night before the show they'd always give a fireworks show off one of the planes. And of course that would be followed by the Blue Angles show; their first of the season over by El Centro, CA.

Wow, awesome pictures I love airshows but haven't been in a looooong time. Gosh a while back went to Andrews AFB and one at Fort Dix here in Jersey. At Andrews we got to see Thunderbirds, Blue Angels and a Stealth plane, not sure if bomber or fighter when it was introduced, but not close it was surrounded by armed guards. We also have a local show, the Sussex County Airshow with the acrobatic planes and they bring out the birds from WWII. I got to watch a B-24 land. It was awesome. If you've never been to a show, all I can say is a total adrenaline rush. There are a lot of shows around the country during Armed Forces weekend in May. To see the skill and abilities of our military made me so proud, I - well I almost cried - really!

Never been to any other than east coast shows but of course have heard that Oshkosh is one of "the" shows to see.The show in Yuma sounds
nice, This was my first time to NAS Oceana and it was a huge disappointment. There was apparently a scheduling conflict and it was pushed back to
October 17-18. The weather was 50 degrees and 20-30 MPH winds, rain off and on, ceiling of 900- 1500 feet, NO beach blast, Hardly any static
Displays , the list goes on. I will have to try and catch this show again as I am told it is usually a great show.

I was at a show at Andrews I think in the early 90's when they had the stealth for the first time I believe. This year was the first time we have
gone to a show since the 90's before we had the youngsters, they loved it. We have been to three this year NAS patuxent, NAS Oceana, and
WW2 days at Reading. If you like WW2 era planes it is a great show at Reading airport, prolly my favorite out of the three. They do some
battlefield reenactments, the Iwo Jima flag raising and have the most WW2 era planes I have ever seen.

Thanks for the comments

Nice pictures.
I saw a bunch of air shows when I was with the Marine Airwing.
Last I saw, F-4 was still the highlight.

kabbott, my buddies and I drove up from Ft. Belvoir to Andrews AFB in the early 90's to the airshow and I believe that was the first one they had with the Stealth on display. I'm wondering if it was the same year you went. They had guards standing there and ribbon barriers, but you could still get within 10 feet of it. We didn't know what to expect at the show and then the 82nd Airborne came into view and eventually filled the sky with paratroopers. One of the coolest things we'd ever seen. They all landed, except for the guy caught on the radio antenna, shuffled to the planes, and flew back home. Very cool.

I been to Oshkosh airshow twice 95' and 96'. It is quite a show. Take a tour of the air museum. that is cool. I saw the concord there, some old MiGs, but the coolest looking plane I think is the B1b bomber. My uncle went back in the late 80s and there were armed guards around that plane too. Now you can walk right under it. I think I heard that there was the sr71 there with a stealth a few years back. They were giving rides in an old ford tripower I think. It is the same plane like in the old Indiana Jones movies. Didn't see any UFOs though!?

Would you call that a secondary burn? there are some great sound barrer videos on you tube

That would be the one, I remember the paratroopers very well. I also seem to remember it was HOT. I have some 35mm pictures of that
show, I will have to dig them out.Digital is sooooo much easier.

Ha ha secondary burn....good one. Wonder how many Btu's those buggers put out!

Great captures!
How cool.

I am an airplane nut, even work on them for a living, of all the shows I saw, my favorite moments were, fat albert doing a jato take off, (they don't do that any more the new fat albert is a J model so no jato), the northern lights aerobatic team (I love piston aerobatics they keep it in front of the show the whole time and five extra 300s doing the same thing at once was cool), the blue angels have toned it down since #6 crashed but they are the best jet team, and the one that impressed me most was a guy in a glider with smoke on his wing tips that did an impressive show and then stopped exactly where he said he would on the runway.
My favorite moment was at a show at hanscom AFB that was rained out, a B-52 and a Bone did missed approach flybys since the visibility was so bad, the B-52 was huge and impressive as it popped out of the fog, the Bone did three passes, on the third one he swept the wings and punched the after burners, the sight of four huge purple cones of fire fading into the clouds was awesome He set off every car alarm in the area! No wonder the Bone crews use it as their calling card when dropping bombs in Iraq, you can't miss the noise!

That wartpiggy in your profile pic is one of my favorites.Awesome gun on that thing, not what you want to see if your on the ground in armor!
I heard that fat albert was no longer going to do jato. They did jato at Oceana so prolly my last time to see it.
NAS patuxent had a B-52 fly over, one of the few I have seen. Cool thing about going to an airshow, there is always something to see no matter how
bad the weather.
One I have not seen yet is the F-22, Should be around for a little while so hope I get to catch one.

The snowbirds were at Oceana but didn't perform. :-S

Saw the BUFF/B-52 mentioned-I had to reply. Active duty @ Griffiss AFB 85-88 crew chief pullin' Cold War alert duty,elephant walks,MITO's,ORI's and TDY's. Flew TDY with the AC -enroute to Red Flag @ Nellis did a screaming flyover the runway @ Wright Pat with the gear up! Experienced weightlessness @ Red Flag in the BUFF.

Retired Sept. 08 from the NY Air National Guard(Formerly known as "The Boys from Syracuse") after quite a few deployments-1st Gulf War,Northern Watch,OIF/OEF. Lot of good times, not so good times, and a lot of great people looking out for all of us/U.S.!!

Nice! Haven't been to a show in forever
since they closed the S Weymouth Naval Air Base
in the late 90's. Thx for sharing.

I was on a Airshow this summer.
It was really fun. F16 and Jas 39 Gripen was there and some other cool planes.
picture here "not my"
http://flygfesten.com/album/2009/Fredag/index.html
http://flygfesten.com/album/2009/Lordag/index.html
http://flygfesten.com/album/2009/Sondag/index.html

I spent 10 years active duty in the Navy working Naval Aviation. The best airshows are on a carrier out in the middle of no-where. They do not hold anything back, I remember one airshow in the early 80's onboard USS Constellation where a Tomcat and a Hornet did a low level pass on each side of the ship, and both broke the sound barrier at about the same time, pretty impressive

Also was impressed on how fast those old A6 and EA6b planes could fly, they were some ugly birds, but they could really move when pushed to their limits

forgot one other moment that sticks in my memory, the only airshow I ever saw at Pease AFB before the air force left. we drove in with friends and we drove out onto the ramp and parked (tailgating at an airshow awsome!) there were all kinds of demonstration airplanes f-15, f-16, f-14, (no f-111 even though it was their base) a couple of Harriers came in in formation did a couple of flybys and then came to a halt mid-air in the center of the flight line, they rotated in formation and then set down, one took back off and screamed out of there, you could have heard a pin drop! everyone was looking at the motionless planes 50' or so up in the air, Awesome

btus on a f-15 alot when I was in the air force we went to Germany for a month we had to trim the engines on open air trim pad and the blast fence was to low we burned up a couple of there old trees, they where pissed.We had to run them at full afterburner to get the trim right.it was awesome tweaking on the fuel controller while the engine was at full power

hi guys,

I am big airshow fan my self I have been to many airshows in europe and they are just awesome.
I did the midsummer night airshow and many more butthe best are the ones in the UK the Royal international air tattoo (RIAT) is the best so far.
I spend 10 years in the Royal netherlands air force working the mighty F-16 and now I am working the C-130 here in Depot in Utah.

I am also a airshow participant.
I work on a T-33 as crewchief during airshows I did Hill AFB this year and Nellis AFB is coming up.
So if any of you guys go to Nellis / las vegas nevada stop by the shiny T-33.

Talk to ya'll later

Henk

wow talk about an old bird, (T-33) so far the oldest jet I have seen fly was the collings foundations F-4 phantom, lots of noise but not as nimble as the current crop. I wonder if there will be F-15s, F-14s, and F-16s doing the airshows long into the future.

well guys,

I know that we will be flying the T-33 long after the F-15 and the F-16 retires.
The other problem is that the US government will not sell any of these to civilians period.

The faith for the F-14 is all ready spoken for and all of them besides the ones in museums are all ready cut up in to pieces.
After the problems they had with people trying selling stuff to foreign countries they took care of it.
The biggest problem with that was the fact that IRAN still flies the F-14 and there for all the retired F-14's are chopped up or gutted and put in to a museum.

Henk