Warbird Information Exchange

For the past 14 years we held the Olympia airshow on Father's Day weekend. After too many years of bad weather we rescheduled for a different date this year.

The new date is August 10-11 at the Olympia Regional Airport in Olympia, Washington.


http://olympicairshow.com/

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Brad

My understanding was a few confused people drove past the airport on Father's Day weekend this year, wondering where the show was, anyway.
That said, the weather has been pretty bad that weekend each year. It was downright cold the past 3 years or so and heavily overcast (several people in ym re-enactor group were wearing field jackets and overcoats last year and the year before... in June! That ain't right). Moving it to much later in the season was a very good idea and I'm really looking forward to it, as I've been to every one of these.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Very excited about the date change. Always spent that day with my dad and family up in Snohomish County. Can't wait to attend!!

I've not been to every one, on account of the rotten weather in a couple of recent years. But even some of the rainy day ones that I've been to have beenttruly excellent. P51, you mentioned being to all of them--which is very cool, by the way (like me attending Arlington Fly-In for every one of the last 26 years)--and I'm just wondering: what year did they start having the Oly Air Show? I think the first time I heard about it was something like six or seven years ago, but I don't know that for sure, as Oly is one of those shows I just stumbled upon and turns out it's one of the best series I've ever been to so far as helicopters and local aviation, with some surprisingly great contributions by USAF independent display teams (F-16, F-4, A-10, etc.). Just curious as to when Oly airs shows actually started.

TIA...

--Tom

Well, this year's is billed at the 15th annual one, so I guess that means they would have started in 1998. So, that means I haven't been to them all, as I moved here in the fall of that year. I never realized that until just now, and I'm a little bummed to learn that...
http://www.olympicflightmuseum.com/airshow.php
I belong to the WW2 display group that sets up a camp right next to the hangar. I went to the 1999 one as a spectator as I was active duty and just got out of the field the day before the show and the last thing I wanted to do was wear a uniform right after that...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Okay, now I feel stupid ha ha ha Like you mentioned, P51, it say's "15th Annual" right there--DUH! I'd better not operate any machinery or try to drive today.

Still cool you've made that many shows and have seen the quality develop. I might have even met you, as we usually visit the camp and learn from the guys and gals in period uniforms there. Always a GREAT showing in that respect! I can't remember my first time there, but the helo portion blew me away: the HH-43 Huskie flying, Huey's bringing in the "USO girls" (actually, dancers and buff babes from the local health club); my gosh, could it have gotten any better?!! Oh wait, IT DID! A beer garden flanked by Cobra gunships, dancing with the USO girls, suds with Bud Granley, I forgot what happened after that, but I'm sure my no good low down buddies have photos somewhere that'll appear when I least need it ha ha ha

Anyway, if I'm back from Canada by then, I hope to go again this year. Thanks for the background on the Oly Show, P51. I'm glad they moved the date; I'm thinkin' it's gonna be a much better date, weather-wise.

--Tom

Umm...

You do realize that if the 2013 event is the 15th annual one, then the first would've been held in 1999, right?

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Seems odd that they would try to have an airshow the same weekend as Abbotsford Canada. That's a huge airshow and only a couple of hours up the road. But then again they had last years show in competition with the first public flight of the IL-2.

We didn't want to have the airshow the same weekend as Abbotsford. Our choice was that weekend or cancel for the year. We originally changed our weekend to July, based on military participation and then sequestration happend. Based on schedules of our participants, my schedule flying "FIFI" and some of our helicopters not being available we ended up going with the only other weekend that all the stars aligned. That was Abbotsford weekend. This is the only year we will do it this way because most of us like to go to Abbotsford and are not happy about missing it.

So, long story short, it was this or become another victim of the sequester. If you cancel an airshow for a year it normally doesn't come back.

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Brad

Man, I should have paid more attention to the math. I asked my wife about that at lunch and she also thought that would mean 1998.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

The airshow in Olympia went well, even though I was utterly exhausted and drained afterward by Sunday evening. While the weather cooperated (it rained Friday night, though), attendance was way lower than I would have expected. Maybe it was the shift in dates or the fact that no military aircraft showed up due to the sequester, but I was surprised to see a much less dense crowd than in most previous years. There weren't even many people hanging out in the 'triangle' at the end of the runway than in previous years. Everyone I talked with (I was with the WW2 re-enactment/display group) said that parking was a breeze and nobody had to walk very far to get to the gate. I didn't take that as a good sign, either.
I'm of course hope I'm wrong but I got a strong feeling that there weren't many paying spectators this year...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

I also noted that attendance was down. A bunch of the PSAAC (Puget Sound Antique Airplane Club) folks couldn't make it in Saturday morning before the waivered airspace time due to weather (low clouds / ceilings).

I also made note of the fact that it looked like there were more people outside the fence (in that field) then there
were inside! (looked that way anyway...).

We've been going to this show for years, and we always enjoy it (this year was no exception).

Bela P. Havasreti

Shouldn't there be copious Huey pics in this thread?

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