coolest airshow moment

Nathan · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:00 pm

Question to everyone is, what was the coolest thing you've ever seen happen at an airshow?

Bill Walker · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:11 pm

I may be biased here, because my father was flying the aircraft involved.

CFB Namao airshow, 1967 or 1968. The announcer starts asking between acts for the driver of a brown Ford Galaxy to move the car, it is blocking an exit. Finally, he says "OK, we tried to warn you, now we are moving it ourselves". A Voyageur (Sea Knight to you Yanks) enters stage left, with a brown Galaxy on a long line. At show centre, with the car about 100 feet AGL, they punch it off. The car disassembles itself spectacularly on impact, and for a split second the crowd is totally silent. Then they get it, and roar in approval. All very neat.

IIRC, the car was a wreck that had been donated by a junk yard next to the air base.

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:19 pm

I saw the "car drop from a chopper" done at the Willow Run airshow back in the early 90s..it was an old Datsun with the engine removed.

Probably the coolest thing though was the mass B-17 flyover at Thunder Over Michigan 2005. Eight Forts in the sky together..what an incredible sight and sound!

Interesing avatar Nathan..bad day at work? :wink:

SN

Steve T · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:20 pm

Nathan--

Oh man. Winnowing it down to one is probably emotionally impossible after 36 years of airshows! But I can cite a few...

*the seven-plane "stinger" formation of heavies at Geneseo, 1991; five Forts in vic with the CF Lib and the CWH Lanc in trail in the slot, and four Mustangs high above as "top cover"; Amazing Grace on the PA being drowned out by the thunder of twenty R1820s, four R1830s and eight Merlins...yep, I'm misting up thinking of it, as I always do...

*the pas-de-deux at the final Batavia Wings Of Eagles show, between John Ellis in KAHM's F7F and Dale Snodgrass in a VF-101 F-14...especially the formation joinup with the Tomcat on a low pass as the Tigercat took off down the runway!

*an arrival-day memory rather than an airshow one, strictly speaking: 1982, playing "Alain deCadenet" to Jerry Billing's "Ray Hanna" in Cliff Robertson's Spitfire...there's nothing like a good Rotol Haircut to energize one...

*not at an airshow, but one of my favourites and almost surreal. February 1985...George Aird departs Mt.Hope for Dayton on the last leg of the delivery flight of Mosquito RS709 to USAFM. Cold, bright day. Three passes, the last of them diagonal, across the flightline and low over Hangar 3; the Mossie vanished behind the building...then as the song of the twin Merlins started to fade, a huge cloud of snow rose off the hangar roof. I do paintings of airplanes, and someday I'm going to paint that...

Over to others...this should be a fun thread.

S.

Garth · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:32 pm

Mid-1990s, my first trip to a DoD Joint Services Open House (Andrews AFB Airshow).

A fair number of military aircraft have done lows and slows from right to left relative to the static park. Announcer comes on and says "And now, approaching from the right, America's premier strategic penetration bomber, the B-1B Lancer."

I (and the rest of the audience) expecting to see a B-1 slowly fly by and maybe waggle its wings, barely get to start turning my head/camera to the right when the Bone rips down the runway at about 500' altitude with all four afterburners lit and a nice mach diamond wrapped around the middle fuselage. It hits about midfield and the pilot pulls it up into a near-vertical climb. At the same time the noise from every single car alarm in the parking area (this was back before 9-11 when not only would you park on base, but if you got there early enough you parked right at the end of the static park), plus a LOT of freaked out attendees screaming in abject terror, reaches my ears from the right.

John Dupre · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:04 pm

One of my coolest moments was at the Brunswick NAS in Maine watching the Thunderbirds do fly by over the Blue Angels. The T'Birds were at Pease AFB in NH. The Blues returned the favor the next day. Missed that flyby but did get to see both teams in the same weekend.

corsair166b · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:05 pm

Two of maqny come to mind, both with a crew of warbird folk from Colorado Springs headed by Whitey Wannemacher and Jerry Flesher....it seems years ago Whitey had a Lockheed Harpoon (believe it went to Lone Star) and he was at the Aspen airshow, started the thing up, began to taxi, and knocked over a mannequin in WWII dres....folks started hollering and pointing...Whitey circled the plane around and when he saw what was going on circled the plane around over the mannequin AGAIN.....folks finally figured out it were'nt real....

Same bunch of folks, coming home from Aerospace America 1992 in Oklahoma city and on approach to Liberal, KS.....4 T-6's above and in front of us (Dave Fain, Dick Jones, Jerry Flesher and Red Williams), Whitey flying us in the Howard DGA.....they don't know we're below them, they form up and do their usual pass down the runway and then break....unknown to them we slide in on the runway underneath them, go careening aroung the corner to the FBO, whip the DGA around, throw everything out and set it up like we been there for days....the looks on the approaching T-6 drivers faces was priceless....

So many great memories from 16 years of travelling to air shows....these are but a few...I'll be back.

Mark

AIRIC · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:18 pm

Although not an airshow, I would have to go with the very first flight of the CWH Lancaster with Tony Banfield at the controls. All those years of seeing it slowly being restored, the high-speed taxi tests the day before and then the go-ahead for take-off. A truly magical day.

As for airshows I would go with Geneseo 88. The first time seeing six B-17s in the air with a host of fighters flying top cover.

Eric

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:33 pm

Osh 95, when there was about every bomber, fighter, T-6, T-28 and T-34 was in the air and over the field at the same time, followed by the T-28 that had his gear stick up and he had to belly it in after everyone else was on the ground.

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:43 pm

1976, my 1st air show, 15 years old. cleveland ohio. an sr 71 blackbird fly by. after it did it's passes the announcer stated it would be back to it's base out west with in 1 hour. naturally it didn't pass over the show supersonic, but there was debri, garbage etc, blowing all over when that beauty flew by. 2003, mt. comfort indiana corsair gathering. i never saw so many warbirds in the air at 1 time!!

IndyJen · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:45 pm

Coolest airshow moment for me? The first time I ever was on the flight crew in a show, that was it.

In the circuit with the other WW2 planes, seeing the B-25 and B-17 from angles I've never before seen them. Ducking from one cockpit window across to the other to keep everyone in sight, keeping track of who's on the run, who's clear, and now it's our turn to roll in. Barreling low down the flight line, going to my knees with an "oof" from the g's as we pull out ... calling out "two fighters, nine o'clock high" and just that fast, a little smile of self-realization that yeah, it kinda sounds hokey, but that's what they are and where they are, by golly, so that call is not only correct, it is exactly and entirely appropriate.

Oh man. I just ate that up with a spoon. It never gets old.

Of course, then you land and spend forty minutes wiping off oil. But that never really gets old, either. It's the airplane equivalent of petting your dog.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:56 pm

I thought about this and I cant come up with one but I can think ahead. So july 2009 when Geneseo hosts 5+ N3N's in formation!!!

EXPAT0149 · **Joined:** Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:44 am **Posts:** 163

Machine gunning the crowd line at the fairford air tattoo , oh and covering them in orange smoke

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11336

Standing at the base of a pylon at Reno and watching the Super Corsair and Dago round the pylon at 440+. I'm not sure which I liked better, the song of the Merlin at 3950 or the sound of the tortured air following about 5 seconds behind the Super Corsair.

Vessbot · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:31 pm

Probably 6-7 years ago at Moffett, where I first fell in love with the Sea Fury. It's Getchell's turn to do his routine, and the first thing he does is come ROARING from out of sight, down the runway at Vne, and pulls into this loop that had to have been the better part of 10 thousand feet tall.

The visceral feeling of ultimate speed and power, pushed to its limit.... I don't know that it sounds that impressive in written form (I was never a poet), but it was just a total "F-yeah" moment on a personal level. You know it when it happens to you, and can't really describe it to anyone else.

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