I went to the airshow at Battle Creek this past weekend to see 2 things; Starfighters and Balloons......
It was somewhat of a different show. There were no "static" aircraft on display, no real warbirds beyond the planes in the show. It was a more of a carnival (35+ rides or so) and a festival more than an airshow. Of course there were several aerobatic flyers there, wingwalking, Navy and USAF Heritage flights, and of course the Thunderbirds. We also had the Starfighters, L-39 and Yak Teams and several others. (and that Jet Truck too). The show would have been a bit more interesting if Snort got turned loose in the P-51 more than just flying the heritage flight.
Conditions were rough in that the mirage was bad enough that taking pictures within 40 feet of the ground came up pretty darn blurry. The crowd was predominantly local with lots of kids. It was pretty well packed on Friday. Since the Starfighters were in Goshen on Sat, we skipped the morning session on Saturday and did other things. Sunday it was pretty well deserted. I'm sure most people came for one day and spent Sunday celebrating the 4th. Admission was reasonable at $10 for the day and $5 for the evening balloon launch.
When I skipped Sat AM we headed to the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo. I hadn't been there in about 20 years. I can say they did well. I don't know if the show had anything to do with it, but there were about 100 cars in the parking lot. Along with the aircraft they installed some carnival rides and other attractions in the Museum (aviation themed) which seemed to do good at getting the pre-school crowd in. There is something a bit north of Kalamazoo worth seeing, and that is the Gilmore Auto Museum. It is probably one of the premier auto museums in the country. Absolutely first rate, filled with Concours cars of all vintages, from turn of the century to muscle cars, a Chrysler Turbine, a Tucker, to a $3million Mercedes SSK (with some other multi million dollar units parked around the facility. A reasonable estimate is that they have at least $100million in cars there. Very Impressive.
The Starfighters were great (all the airshow acts were top notch), only problem was that the show was short and fast. The speeds were high (up to 700MPH according to their announcer) and it made taking decent pics pretty tough. Of course they were quite willing to admit they had all the flying Starfighters in the USA (I guess N104JR in Phoenix isn't flying anymore; it was at Nellis this past Nov); this is kind of in the "We have the only B-24 statements some have made. They also mentioned they flew airshows "everyweekend", well maybe 4 shows a year or so accoding to their website. Still they were awesome.
The balloons were a lot of fun, colorful and really nice. I understand one crashed Saturday night too. I you have never been around 65 or so balloons flying, its worth it. Really nice.
I can say parking was great and you didn't have to walk too darn far (nothing like Oshkosh or Sun n Fun). Sunday there were so few people, I got there 10AM (gates opened a few minutes before) and I was in the 2nd row.
Overall it was a pretty good show, beats staying home for the weekend......
Mark H
You can find about 120 photos here:
http://community.webshots.com/album/564021073znBONO
All photos are uncropped and color not corrected, etc......
Me taking pictures......
Stars of the Show
Snort Firing up the Mustang (Literally)
Awesome 1/3 scale F-117 for pics with kids. Also drives with a built in golf cart drivetrain.
Balloons
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