You know, it really was.

This is going to be a big one, as there was a lot going on. If you just want the pictures, they will be <HERE>

Otherwise, grab a drink and read on….

I’m not going to get into a lot of each act, as we didn’t get to see all of them. Traffic was REALLY bad, much worse than it was last time we went. The Show started at 11, we were on the road just a bit before 10. We didn’t make it to the show area until after noon. The good (and bad) is that we saw much of the early part of the show from the road, basically through the sunroof.

The good – We saw it.

The bad – MV and William: When are we going to be there? Now? Now? Now? Are we there? When are we there? Why aren’t we already there. Go Dad. Go NOW, Dad.

I love my kids, and never considered throttling them once. But if they had not been blood relatives… hmmm.

A few of the pictures Jeff posted show me right at the fence, with space to the side. This gives the impression that it wasn’t crowded. The truth of the matter is that I was RIGHT on the edge of the acceptable position and there were PLENTY of people. The police and, later, the military were continuously herding people to the other side of me. There was a line of orange stakes in the ground forming a line. A ribbon would have been better, but listening to the conversations, the stakes were better than what they had in the past. I heard lots of “on the other side of the guy with the Camera”. Given that I did have the full kit on, with a large White zoom lens, it was a pretty good reference. I didn’t mind, as up until the end, I had a pretty clear shooting range. Having that position definitely changed my plans for the day, as I didn’t expect to get that, and once I did, I didn’t want to give it up. Mary and William visited me from their location (ten feet further back with the wagon and spread.) William was funny as heck crawling to me, going ‘dadadadadada’ the entire way. He’d point at the planes and yell.

Onto the Show!

The Geico Skytypers,

Gene Soucy

and Michael Wiskus

all put on a heck of a show. Prop planes all, they did quite a few maneuvers, with multiple stalls, loops, and other acrobatics. I don’t want to appear like I’m leaving them out. We saw only part of the Skytypers, but they did some very good formation flying. Michael Wiskus in the Lucas Oil plane was quite acrobatic, as was Gene Soucy. (He went out twice… Once with a wing walker. SHE got some more cold.)

Shortly after Michael Wiskus landed, we had Julie Clark come out.

Sponsored by Chevron (complete with the cheesy plug over the PA system mid-show.) she put on a heck of a show, complete with fireworks, one of which was a BIT close. Honestly, I wish that they had left the plug out, as she basically circled the airfield while talking about Chevron. I mean, come on, you have a VERY prominent corporate sponsorship on the place. Everyone knew about Chevron. Leave it at that.

The Red Eagles came out after that, complete with a pretty cool maneuver where one plane stalled and dropped several hundred feet, while the other plane spiral circled around the falling plane. The pictures don’t really do them justice.

John Klatt, in the Air National Guard sponsored plane flew up right as the Red Eagles finished up. I’m surprised that guy was able to stay in the air. His plane was an absolute acrobat, but he couldn’t have more than a few minutes of spare fuel on board, simply from the size of the plane.

He definitely gave it a workout, right up until the point that they brought the Shockwave truck out.

With 3 Jet engines (including Afterburners), this guy had even less endurance. We were treated to several big unfocused burns from the engines, throwing tons of flame out the back… Looking quite impressive, but doing little besides generating lots of heat vapors. He burned about the runway a few times, trying to get lined up for the ‘race’.

Of course, once the race occurred, the burners were focused, and the truck won fairly easily against an acrobat plane. Guess who had to be towed back however?

Next up was not the headliner, but I absolutely loved it. The AF-16 Tactical Demo came out, and WOW it was good.

All I can say about that is that it was absolutely rocking. From take off to land, we were on burner for much longer than we were off. It was loud, shaking the ground continuously. Mary decided that this wasn’t that interesting, as she slept right through it. I couldn’t believe it. William hid from the noise, but she stayed asleep in the wagon. Now, given that the bird was on burner so much, you’d expect it to be gone, but it was cutting some very tight turns, stripping water from the air from high AoA.

It was a single plane, none of that precise formation flying here…. Just turns and burns. This wasn’t about how good the pilot was (although that was never in question), this was just showing off the airframe and power plant. It shined.

Gene Soucy came out as an intermission with the wing walker show. At this point, after the F16 demo, I think the only thing I thought of throughout that show was “She has to be REALLY cold”. I’m sure it is a heck of a rush, but considering that she fully linked in to a support through out all the maneuvers, and the acrobatics were toned down a bit from the earlier show, it just didn’t seem impressive. It also didn’t have afterburners, so that didn’t help.

Fat Albert (The Blue Angel’s C-130 support plane) came out right afterward, doing some turns that you wouldn’t expect from a craft that size.

No JATO takeoffs today, unfortunately (Do they even do that anymore?). He came in on a steep angle for landing, completely with a quick stop on the runway. It was pretty cool to see that sucker shift it’s weight forward from the deceleration, and start backing up (ramp lowered).

Look over from Fat Albert to the staging area, and low and behold, the Blue Angels also use Fat Albert as a diversion so they can get setup and ready to go.

They put on their show, from start to stop. It appeared to be their low ceiling show, so you didn’t have lots of columns, but it was still some extremely nice formation flying. I really want to make sure we make it to Pensacola this year for practice. It was both impressive and disappointing at the same time. I KNOW that it was designed as a different demonstration than the F-16, but to me, I got much more of a visceral thrill from the single F-16 than I did from the 6 FA/18′s. Don’t get me wrong, there was some definitely awesome demonstrations being done. But I’d like to see the Thunderbirds now. I imagine they will be more ‘polished’ as well, but I do wonder how much of a difference there is between the shows based solely on the airframe.

F16′s vs FA/18′s

I think they are two sides of the same coin. The F16 Demo grabbed you. The fact that the bird was on burner for so much of the time, absolutely vibed the ground, and grabbed you by the insides. To describe the feelings as visceral is really appropriate. The FA/18′s rarely went to burner, but they flew wonderfully. Intellectually, they meshed well, and all the maneuvers were well executed. The opposing passes were very nice, but you ‘knew’ they weren’t as close as they appeared, because of the angle. They choreographed everything very well. The F16 wasn’t dancing to the same song, and felt more free flowing. I think the Angels were better pilots, and their flying required more, but man, the 16 was FUN, and I’m sure those G loads were not easy. I’m glad both were there.

And yes, we left before they got out of the planes, and went to the autograph area. Given that I had been standing the entire afternoon in the same spot, Mary and William playing in the same area, and Jeff generally showing a smiling face, in spite of the biting wind and chilliness, I thought it best to call it a day and try to get the Family warmed up and home. And yes, the traffic out of there was horrible as well. We cheated however, by making sure the heat was on, and put a movie on the rear entertainment system. So at least the Kids were happy, which of course, meant that Jeff and I were happier.

Oh yeah… First time since the SPICA cast came off, William stands on his own. I think the look on Jeff’s face is appropriate. Wet, uneven ground, but he decided that he wanted to stand up, so he did.

It was a GOOD day.