Spent the afternoon at the Quonset Point airport watching practice for the air show this weekend. The Blue Angels are performing and they were the highlight of practice. I've seen them a number of times as well as the T-birds. Amazing every time. Anybody else ever see them live? Awesome sound as ther fly overhead at a few hundred feet with afterburners.
No but I have seen the Snowbirds.
In fact, they are coming to town next week for Armed Forces Day -June 3.
Seen them a few time. I even saw them when they had the Skyhawks. They weren't as loud, but they were very nimble.
I have seen the Thunderbirds and the Snowbirds also. I really wanted to see the old German demo team when they flew F-104's!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQasfk3LcTw
Only two of them, but no drop or wing thanks makes for a super sleek F104. Also makes for a very short demonstration 
Funny how its the Navy team, not like you could EVER get one of those on a carrier!
The Snowbirds put on a show in Anderson, SC earlier this week
This thread is good because aside from a Blue Angels routine, you'll almost never see an A-4 without drop tanks. And a slicked-up, non-humpback Scooter is a gorgeous airplane.
Will wrote: This thread is good because aside from a Blue Angels routine, you'll almost never see an A-4 without drop tanks. And a slicked-up, non-humpback Scooter is a gorgeous airplane.
This man speaks the truth.
In reply to aircooled:
There's more to naval aviation than carriers. P-3s are naval aircraft based solely on land.
The German Navy doesn't have carriers, so it's kind of a moot point.
But F104s? No less "Naval" airplane has ever existed!!
I am pretty sure the reason they had them though was that the F104 had RIDICULOUSLY high wing loading (as you can imagine) which make is very resistant to turbulence, which makes it easy to fly at low altitude. So I am guessing they would make a good anti-shipping missile carrier (if you could get one to fit on one of course).
Found one:
NGTD wrote: No but I have seen the Snowbirds. In fact, they are coming to town next week for Armed Forces Day -June 3.
The Snowbirds are performing at Quonset Point too. I saw them this afternoon. More graceful than the Blue Angels.
Blue Angels were doing a photo shoot above Boston earlier this week, so I got a number of excellent views from my office.
I have family in Pensacola where the Blue Angels are based. Seen then a few times, always cool. Sometimes even from the back yard.
I've seen the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds a number of times. Fantastic performances every time. I'm still sad I missed the Thunderbirds last year because the airshow here was the same weekend as the race in Long Beach.
In 2012 the T-Birds caused a but of a ruckus when one of them broke the sound barrier over mid-town Tucson. To quote the pilot "Oh crap", lol.
http://archive.airforcetimes.com/article/20121219/NEWS/212190304/Thunderbird-sonic-boom-caused-22K-damages
I've seen a few pretty cool air shows over the years, but two stand out.
Most impressive single moment was standing on a taxiway at Long Beach (we knew people) watching a B-1B takeoff in full afterburner. He apparently departed at low level and high speed over the city, setting off hundreds of car alarms.
Best aerobatic display was a single Austrian Air Force SAAB Draken doing a routine over the A1 Ring before an F1 race. From what I could tell, Austria has no regulations whatsoever on flight levels and overflying crowds, and the pilot had absolutely no sense of self-preservation. Crazy stuff.
In reply to 02Pilot:
The Goodwood Revival is on my Bucket List. But the Revival with Vulcan flyover would be spectacular. (The last remaining airworthy Vulcan).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0660788deTg
I saw one of the last shows where they still used the Scooter. Sheridan, Wy of all places sometime in 85. I still have the program.
I never really got to see the A4s; just a fogged-in (surprise) airshow at Worcester, MA in maybe 1978-80?. We just got to see them depart into the 100ft overcast single file. Bummer. I imagine the F4s were amazing in the opposite way, kind of like Miatas vs original TransAm cars.
I'll second O2Pilot on the B1, spectacular to see it do barrel rolls in full afterburner.
Funny B1 anecdote: when my son was 3 we went to the CLE airshow. He happily wore earplugs the whole way there, and most of the day, until just before the B1 flight demo. Then he freaked out and started crawling around under the CH53 trying to hide.
Good news: two Marines went above and beyond to help me corral him.
Bad news: CH53s don't seem to be very fluid-tight. All four of us, plus Nick's favorite stuffed animal, smelled like Jet-A and God knows what else. Mom was not happy when we got home. No clue where the ear plugs went.
We are spoiled here in Annapolis (nearly) every year they fly all over town for the Academy Graduation.
It's almost like: "Oh, you guys again...'
In reply to XLR99:
I've heard you never worry about leaks in a helo because it means it still has hydraulic fluid. You worry when it's not leaking, because that means it's empty.
Meanwhile, in A-4 news:
I have to say, as much as the Blue Angels and Snowbirds impressed me, I really liked the flyover with the military F-16 and antique P-51 Mustang. Two combat aircraft from two different wars and two different era's. The Mustang was at full velocity and the F-16 was at the lower end of performance, but they looked great flying together. Made me feel real patriotic because of our American technological heritage.
In reply to Gary:
They do the Heritage Flight training here in Tucson every winter. Its awesome seeing an F-16, F-22, P-51 and P-38 doing laps around the city for 5 days. I'm going to miss that...
You would love Chino (CA) then. One of the best warbird airshows you will ever see. Here are a few pics I took from this year:
The F86 came out super sharp in this one:
Very loud. Very impressive (tail slides in a jet?!?):
I thought this was a cool shot. They are probably a bit young, but not much younger then most new recruites:
Jets!:
The mention of flights with aircraft from different eras reminded me of another interesting moment. Show at Pratt & Whitney in CT, probably late 1980s or so. The headlining act, so to speak, was a meeting of the Grumman Cats. The finale was a five-ship of F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat, and F-14 Tomcat. The Tomcat flew #2; midfield he pulled up and hit the burners while the rest continued on in the missing man. Quite a sight.
aircooled wrote: You would love Chino (CA) then. One of the best warbird airshows you will ever see. Here are a few pics I took from this year: The F86 came out super sharp in this one:
Wow! That is awesome!
02Pilot wrote: The mention of flights with aircraft from different eras reminded me of another interesting moment. Show at Pratt & Whitney in CT, probably late 1980s or so. The headlining act, so to speak, was a meeting of the Grumman Cats. The finale was a five-ship of F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat, and F-14 Tomcat. The Tomcat flew #2; midfield he pulled up and hit the burners while the rest continued on in the missing man. Quite a sight.
Nice. They had all of those at Chino except the F14 (I don't think any are flying anymore). They even had two Wildcats. They are good at creating assemblies of cool photos (as above). Getting all the "cats" together would have been nice (they were organizing them by era).
In reply to Gary:
The coolest thing I have seen is the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Lancaster Bomber. A couple of years ago it was flying out of our local airport and we were in the pool. It kept coming over fairly low with all 4 Merlins singing their wonderful song.
I also had a chance to climb up in it and talk to the pilot in Hamilton about 8 years ago.
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