What's Your Most Embarassing Airshow Moment??

[Jack Cook]

That other thread made wonder about the opposite.
I have 2 possibilites..................
#1 At the Hillboro Airshow in the B-25 and has we were taxing down the crowd line
Jeff opened the bomb bay doors and all the bombs I forgot to safety wire in place fell out and scattered all
over the taxiway
#2 would be desecrating the American flag with the B-25 while participating in the warbird parade at Arlington
in front of oh 20-25 thousand people

[Holedigger]

At least the "Bombs" weren't live, you wouldn't be around to be embarrassed!!!

One of those little things about live ordinance, you don't have many chances to screw up before you don't have any more chances!

[Brad]

#2 would be desecrating the American flag with the B-25 while participating in the warbird parade at Arlington
in front of oh 20-25 thousand people

Ooooh I remember that!

[tom d. friedman]

getting busted by the gorgeous woman who i commented about to my buddy while she was within earshot of me. i commented about her gorgeous 3 b's..... boobs, butt & bod. an aircraft was running up the engines, thus loud talking. she read me the riot act, & lucky she didn't shove me into the prop spooling up!!

Last edited by tom d. friedman on Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[kingofthezing]

1. Almost walked right into an AIM-9 at Willow Grove in 1998... oops!
2. Langley AFB 2008... the Friday media/practice show... I and a few friends of mine happened to be in front of the announcer's stand, and announcer Rob Reider was doing a mic check. Keep in mind that I shoot video and try to get everything I can and share it with everyone on my site. Now, there were no airplanes in the air over the show area, or near the show area, and Rob does his mic check... "Ladies and gentlemen, look directly over show center at an altitude of 5,000 feet..." I instinctively point myself and camera in the direction Rob "announces", and he saw me do it, and says "Not right now Steve." Everyone around me start laughing their asses off. I'm thankful there wasn't 100,000 people on base at the time!

[TonyM]

In June 2007, at Davenport, Iowa, when airshow ground handlers accidentally tore off the tail wheel of my CAF Wing's Junkers JU-52 while trying to tow the plane out of soft grass marshalling people had directed the pilot to taxi onto. After refueling, the airplane sunk into the soft sod and the pilot could not taxi out, so the tow tractor was summoned and hooked up. The tractor driver had a hard time getting the aircraft to move, so he let up and the tractor rolled back, giving some play on the hitch and tow bar. The guy tried again and gave it some real power-- tractor jerked while there was some play on the tow bar and tractor hitch and the sudden force of the tow tractor pulling yanked off the tail wheel (the cast metal tail wheel yoke failed). The airplane fell down on its rudder, damaging the rudder. Although I had come in on the C-47, it was still embarrassing to us, our wing and all involved.

TonyM.

Last edited by TonyM on Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Eric Friedebach]

One time I was unloading the PX stuff out of the C-47 and dropped the 1 x 6 foot aluminum and Plexiglas case of enamel hat pins that we sold, dumping about a million pins all over the place. That sucker makes a lot of noise when you drop it!

[RyanShort1]

When I was about 9 or 10 going to an airshow and the Thunderbirds did their sneak pass. I wasn't prepared... I think I was actually on the ground with my hands over my ears. Never did like jets quite as much...

Ryan

[Jack Cook]

Ooooh I remember that!

Brad,
That was so bad I though we were going to get run out of town by the mob with torches and pitchforks

[Brad]

Ooooh I remember that!

Brad,
That was so bad I though we were going to get run out of town by the mob with torches and pitchforks

Yea but the sound was cool! I think that was the year we brought the Cobra up for the show. I've got a picture of my truck with the battery cart in back, sitting behind the B-25.

[Jack Cook]

Yea but the sound was cool!

Yup...nothing sounds quite like a 2600 eating old glory
But the expression on Jim's face was priceless
Bert said he just wanted to keep going and taxing back to the active and leave

[Matt Gunsch]

Ok Jack, let us in on the secret, what did you do to the Flag ?

When I was with Sentimental Journey, we were in Chino for a show and there was a 300+lb photographer, with a large video camera and tripod, on top of his van at a intersection of the ramp and taxiway. As we taxied by, the glare shield of his camera was snagged by the strobe light on the left wing, it turned the camera and then toppled it off the van, follwed by a very large cameraman trying to save the camera by holding onto the cables. Both cameraman and camera hit the ground at the same time.

[Hawkeye]

What did you do, decide to wave the flag out your side window, which happened to be a bit too close to the props?

[Myles]

I was at an airshow with some friends in Ukiah, CA June 1991. We took the PBY up there. It was really HOT. Ukiah in the summertime is like Redding, CA in the summertime, a real scorcher. I don't do well in heat. Must be a redhead thing. A bunch of us were watching the airshow on top of the airplane as you get an un-obstructive view of what's going on in the air as well as on the ground. I was wearing gym shorts without any skivvies underneath and a t-shirt and tennis shoes. When it was time to get off the plane I was scooting along with my hands at my sides and my feet out in front of me. For a brief moment while someone ahead of me had just stepped off the wing onto the fuselage I had been hovering above the lifting eye. The skin of the wing was so hot I pulled a hand up real quick out of a reaction to that heat and then I sat down not realizing the lifting eye was underneath me. I impaled myself for a split second on that lifting eye. I bolted up off that thing! A very loud expletive was heard above that airplane and out on the ramp. I'm sure everyone on that ramp was looking at me. I thought I had bruised my tailbone. The lifting eye was a steel plate about 3/8" wide and about 3" tall. When I managed to get down on the ground I was walking on my tip toes for a while. It must have looked like I had a broom handle shoved up where the sun don't shine. I became a regular boxer short wearer after that.

Jim Long
Santa Rosa, CA

[bdk]

When I was with Sentimental Journey, we were in Chino for a show and there was a 300+lb photographer, with a large video camera and tripod, on top of his van at a intersection of the ramp and taxiway. As we taxied by, the glare shield of his camera was snagged by the strobe light on the left wing, it turned the camera and then toppled it off the van, follwed by a very large cameraman trying to save the camera by holding onto the cables. Both cameraman and camera hit the ground at the same time.

That was Earl Statler as I recall. He was a PBS producer that was doing a piece on the museum. I think he might have been on a maintenance stand rather that a van, but my memory might be fuzzy on that detail. We all had a good laugh over that one.