FW Alliance Air Show Oct. 22/23

K5DH · **Posted:** Sat Oct 15, 2011 2:46 pm

Anyone else going? I will be in the Photo Pit on Saturday.

Ztex · **Posted:** Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:05 pm

I'll be there Friday and Saturday

It'll be fun!

Lynn Allen · **Posted:** Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:27 pm

Today's show went well. Doug Jeanes had Cavanaugh's out in full force. A little light in Warbirds but a great crowd...

K5DH · **Posted:** Sat Oct 22, 2011 9:32 pm

I had a good time, though I've had better. The static ramp was noticeably less populated than in previous years. There was some cool stuff on hand, to be sure. Navy Heritage Flight was supposed to be FM-2 Wildcat and F/A-18E Super Hornet, but the Hornet had to land early due to some kind of warning light. Cavanaugh's Fat-Face Skyraider had a minor equipment failure and had to land early during the warbird flybys, but the crew said they'll have it fixed tonight and be flying again tomorrow. Nice to see Devil Dog participate in the show. Beth was flying, and she did a great job of it. The Dog's paint finish looks a bit scruffy and weathered... and I like it! I think it helps convey their message very well. Lots of great Fast Jet flying (2x F-16C, F-15E, F/A-18E, BAE Hawk, Ross Perot, Jr's T-38A). Also got to see the new Hawker/Beech AT-6C Texan II light attack demonstrator N3000B fly. Impressive! The narrator claimed the ship was hitting near 400 MPH on a couple of passes.

Vintage warplanes and classics: (flyers)
TBM Avenger
FM-2 Wildcat
P-51D Mustang (The Brat III)
EA-1E Skyraider
PBJ-1J Mitchell (Devil Dog)
Bell 47 helicopter (not part of show, but sold rides all day)
T-38A Talon (Ross Perot, Jr -- painted in Thunderbirds colors)

Vintage warplanes and classics: (static only)
P-51C Mustang (Red Tail)
2x AT-6 Texan (W. German and S. African markings)
SNJ-5 Texan
PT-17 Stearman
Spartan C3-225 biplane (NICE!!!)
Cessna 195
DC-3 Flagship Detroit

There won't be much in the way of pictures from me. Apparently my long lens has developed a problem, because nearly every shot I took with it is blurry and grainy (several hundred worthless frames!). Crap! Gonna have to replace it, I guess. Thinking seriously about replacing the entire camera with a newer, faster model with IS lenses.

Craig59 · **Posted:** Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:23 am

Cancelled today, Sunday. Can't frickin' believe it. I notice the "rain of shine" statement on their website is now gone. We get one inch of rain on ground which is dryer than a popcorn fart from drought and the rest of today clear, dry, and 80 degrees and they say the grass parking lots are too wet. Seems as though contingencies for rotating the entry spots (sandbags in the gutters so curbs may be driven over) could have kept any one section from receiving too much traffic. Oh well. I'm just pissed at not getting to finally see the V-22 fly up close.

CAPFlyer · **Posted:** Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:55 pm

Craig, it was a good call on their part. It may have been "just an inch", but on extremely dry soil, it ponds instead of soaks in when it comes in 30 minutes of torrential rain. They had a pretty good downpour during the show before last and a lot of vehicles got stuck because they couldn't get traction on the wet topsoil and grass that acted like ice because of the clay in the soil. If you don't have serious offroad tires, you won't get any traction and even then it'll be questionable. I've seen full-fledged offroad vehicles get suck in that mud.

K5DH · **Posted:** Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:37 pm

You didn't miss the V-22 flying, Craig. They didn't fly it on Saturday and weren't planning to on Sunday, either (according to the crew).

Perhaps they cancelled the show because of wind damage to all of the vendor and food tents, signs, etc? The storms were pretty bad in Denton County last night. We had a LOT of strong wind, which could have made a mess of the show grounds.

Ztex · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:07 am

I talked with the V-22 crews a bit early Saturday morning....they had no idea they were touted as a flying act. One pilot said he saw it on the web site Friday night...the others were quite surprised.

The airshow folks issued a press release and posted on their Facebook page that the V-22 would open the show.
"Presenting Sponsor Bell Helicopter will open both days of the show with an MV-22 helicopter"

It is amazing the things that this airshow goofs up. Last year they got it 95% right....this year was badly run in many ways. I support my local show....but I'm not happy about it sometimes.

CAPFlyer · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 12:43 pm

It's getting worse every year. You can tell that there is a lot of apathy/wear out of the grew that is in charge of putting it together.

BHawthorne · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 2:06 pm

Actually, the V-22's both flew around Sunday noon. IMHO, the air show was disorganized. I heard that attendance was down on the first day. I was helping run the B-52G simulator that was behind the Orbis DC-10. A lot of people just setup randomly as the ramp layout really deviated from the layout diagram and noone was telling anyone where they should be. We just picked an area that was open right in front of the Alliance office and sat up there. Perot's T-38 was fun to watch. Saw it fly all three days we were there. Having no contingency plan for the parking was a total fubar on their part. With Sunday being a wash we packed up in the morning and trailered over the B-52G simulator to the Forward Air Controller museum and gave out rides there in the parking lot for a few hours that afternoon.

CAPFlyer · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:08 pm

BHawthorne wrote:

Having no contingency plan for the parking was a total fubar on their part.

Umm, there's nowhere else to go for parking, so what exactly were you expecting, parking on the ramp?

BHawthorne · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:13 pm

BHawthorne · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:13 pm

CAPFlyer wrote:

BHawthorne wrote:

Having no contingency plan for the parking was a total fubar on their part.

Umm, there's nowhere else to go for parking, so what exactly were you expecting, parking on the ramp?

Hrrrm, rhetorical questions are always fun... :wink:

I don't expect anything. I had fun all three days I was there. And we did park on the ramp all three days. What other people did is not my problem.

Lynn Allen · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:01 pm

CAPFlyer wrote:

BHawthorne wrote:

Having no contingency plan for the parking was a total fubar on their part.

Umm, there's nowhere else to go for parking, so what exactly were you expecting, parking on the ramp?

They had wall to wall parking on the grounds and in the Cabela's parking lot, not to mention IH-35W. I thought the annoucer was crap though.....

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FW Alliance Air Show Oct. 22/23

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