coolest airshow moment

[mustangdriver]

Hard to choose

[Bear]

Geez, in that first picture, you can't tell that we were in the sun all day.

[krlang]

I am looking forward to having my list changed in 2009!

Parking on the top of the hill by the college, seeing the cornfield filled for the first time, Geneseo 1991

Holding a pole for SDT's ribbon cut, also seeing the Shackleton fly the same weekend. OKC a few years ago.

Non airshow,
Being told to babysit Scott Crossfield for a few minutes!

[O.P.]

Not an airshow, but, one of the best times I've ever had was at Chucks BBQ awhile back. Just an unbelievable fantastic time.

Here's a few seconds of it......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zafybUtgIDY

[wendovertom]

Ha - with companionship like that, one might have forgotten the air show at all.

Mine is one of those little known personal experiences. One of the first shows I helped organize we had a Hornet from the Marines come to the show. The pilot wanted to leave a bit early to get home and asked if he could do a few passes for his father who was there that day. We were pretty new at this and the air boss said no problem - ask the FAA observer if it is kosher and then I'll let the pilot know. Well, the FAA guys said yes as long as the pass does not exceed a 45 deg roll and the angle of departure is no more than 45 degrees on the vertical. So it is communicated back to the pilot. The first pass is pretty fast but fine, the second pass is even faster and, yes you guessed it - knife edge! No one seems to have the presence of mind to say anything - including the FAA guy - well then his final pass is nice and flat but at show center he goes AB and pulls into a vertical departure. Picture the show organizer, FAA guy and me staring into the sky watching this Hornet climb like a homesick angel. Finally, realizing what has happend and what it might mean, the organizer says, "Did you see that!?" The FAA guy, in a dreamy voice responds with - "See what?" WHEW!!!

[Rhino-9-3]

Mine would have to be at the Windsor Airshow back in the late 90's. Me, my family and some other people all went out to the end of the runway to watch the show on one of the days instead of going into the grounds again. We were sitting there watching the CF-18 demo taxi out to the runway (the planes were taking off towards us) it got out onto the runway and started to speed up, it continued down the runway farther and father, we were starting to wonder if he was having problems and couldn't pull up, at the last minute he slowly pulled up and flew right over us about 30ft off the ground with afterburner! Everything around us was blown into the ditch infront us and everyone lost their hats, it was amazing!

It turned out that the pilot was from Windsor and he wanted to put on a great performance for us. We also found out the next day in the paper that the pilot got into a ton of trouble for doing this, but he said it was well worth it.

[K5DH]

I think all of my coolest air show moments happened at Breckenridge. Every year, something really cool happened. You could just count on it. If you were EVER there, then you KNOW what I mean. . .

Dang, I miss that show. . .

Cheers,

[aseanaero]

I was watching the practice for an airshow at Edinburgh Air Base in South Australia in the late 80's.

The best time to watch 'da boyz' really put on a show when there's no crowd around. I was viewing from a small ridge on the fence boundary overlooking the airfield.

During the practice I had an F-111 pass over me from behind , didn't hear it coming AT ALL.

Looking at towards the airfield and then the hair on the back of my neck started tingling and then felt like the sky was falling down on top of me, I'm thinking thats weird and then BANG lots of noise and felt the heat from the afterburners as he passed overhead , must have been 50 to 100 ft.

The F-111s wings were fully swept back so he was moving and probably trans-sonic

Scary and awesome at the same time. Closest I have come to s***ing myself while watching someone else fly ...

Here's a clip of some F-111s breaking the windows in a control tower in Australia , similar sort of thing , now just imagine having your back to the aircraft and being directly under it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8124lhm6d7o

[StyrenePilot1970]

Hmmm..

Seeing Bud Anderson and Chuck Yeager fly "their" Mustangs at the Winston-Salem airshow in the late 90's.

Watching the Canadian Lancaster pop out of the clouds Wednesday at the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends in Columbus in 2007. Could not believe that I was seeing one fly!

The mass P-51 flyovers the GML 2007. Love that Merlin Music!

My first time seeing Glacier Girl fly.

Trying to keep the smirk off my face and seeing my stepson jump at the "Sneaky Pete" pass the first time we saw the Thunderbirds together...

When's the next airshow? <winks>

[Jack Cook]

We took the B-25 to the Eugene air show a few years back.
I jumped out the back has we were shutting down and has
I stood there and watched the blades come to a stop. Somebody
walked up beside me and said "that's a good looking airplane". I
turned and was face to face with Robin Olds! He was a cool dude!

[p51]

In (I think) 1987, there was an air show at Tallahassee, Florida, right before they built the new air line terminal. I was in Air Force Junior ROTC at the time and they wanted a few of us to gather the flag and fold it from the Golden Knight jumper. I was in charge of the color guard for the unit at the time so I was picked with two underclassmen to retrieve and fold the flag for the Army. We were told to wait in front of the announcer trailer well before the jump. Nobody was in front of us! We weren't there for very long when [url="http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25registry/b25-4431508.html"]this[/url] B-25 came over the runway, trailed by two Mustangs! It felt very much like that scene from "Empire of the Sun," and to this day, I remember the scene in slow motion. The sound was incredible, being about 100 yards away at the time. I only wish I'd had a good camera for that moment, though. I've had what most would consider much "cooler" moments later on and flown in all kinds of neat aircraft, but for me this was the moment I cherish the most.

[RyanShort1]

Probably realizing that I had successfully transitioned, at least for one event if never again, from the little kid in the seat wanting to be a pilot, to being the pilot talking to the little kid in the seat!

I do also still get a lump in my throat every time I see Tora.

Ryan

This (above) is still just about tops, but I have to say the event below was probably better! We've just landed after Mr. Todd's first time in an L-5 in 60+ years. His last flight had been in Okinawa.


Mr. Todd (on left) with other members of his flight


Picture apparently taken over Okinawa


60 years later


Wow

As fast as this generation is passing on, you sit there and have to wonder if things like this will ever happen to you again. Very moving.

BTW. We're hoping Mr. Todd and one other L-bird pilot will be with us for this year's picnic again!

Ryan

[bootlegger]

After riding my bicycle miles to get to the Bicentenial air show at Richmond and dealing with the thousands of people I was pleasantly surprised to find out a few days later that I won the lucky door prize of a free flying lesson. Not bad odds considering that over 80000 passed through the gate that weekend.

Another memorable moment was an F111 doing a dump and burn over Sydney harbour for New years eve. It flew low over The Parramatta river into the harbour and over the bridge. As it flew along Fireworks exploded into the air in its wake. It was just awsome.
I was directly under it in my boat.

[Airlift48]

What?!? You mean it wasnt standing around in a hotel lobby post show drinking god-knows-what in Ypsilanti with us?

Definately the arrivals on friday night at my first Geneseo show in 2005. Everyone was eating their chicken dinner in the crew tent when off in the distance I could see a Corsair banking towards the field. He came in from the direction of the hangers, head on towards the tent at a high speed. Nobody seemed to notice him except myself, but they sure noticed when he buzzed over top of the tent with about 15 feet to spare!

LOL, that was what I was going to say was one of mine! I was in the tent when it happened.

Another one at Geneseo was getting straffed by an slightly errant Hurricane!

And one of the most memorable ones was at Dayton in 92? Three Hercs passing in formation, suddenly they each dropped a platoon or so of paratroops, never seen so many parachutes in my life!

And the combined arms display that day was amazing as well, with recon, air strikes, A-10 and AH-64 support of a SF insertion and extraction, covering attacks from the A-10s followed by more airstrikes and a BDA run from a Rf-4, all with squibs and pyro. Was intense. Never seen one better.

[stephenk]

Had a ride in Fat Albert during the Sunday 2006 Chicago Air & Water Show. I was seated in the bench/bunk at the rear of the cockpit. Due to remote location, take-off was only simulated JATO, but exciting none the less.

The emperor didn't seem to mind our close passing of the Sears tower


Approaching show center, southbound


Navy Pier ahead


Short final to Gary


This was an experience compliments of one of my very best friends. I wish everyone could share it.