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Miramar attracts about 200k people every year, about 80k per day.

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The first public flight demonstrations of the F/A-18 as the Blue Angels airplane was in 1987. I know because I was at the first five shows of the season and burned over 100 rolls of film during that time. The F/A-18 was unveiled (taxied out) in Blue Angels markings at the end of the 1986 season when the Blues were still flying A-4s, but they did not fly the -18 until the 1987 season. IIRC the '86 rollout paint scheme differed from the one actually flown the next year.

Pics?

They're all back in Texas, I'm TDY in St Louis... Sad

Heh heh!

Living within 50 miles of NAS PNS, I got to see last performance of Blues in the Scooter and first one in the Hornet!

Whole problem with Blues is that their routines are sloooooooowwwwwww. Four-ship comes zooming over, then we wait while announcer tells us about thier wives and family and Blues' history, then solo guys come over, then more droning.......

'birds have something in front of you every 10 seconds. Much tighter show and much more action in same time period as Blues. This became very evident when the 'birds went to Vipers.

As a yute, I watched the Blues in Panthers and Cougars and Tigers and Double Uglies. First at New Orleans NAS, then other venues.

Saw 'birds in F-100's, then Double Uglies then T-38's and finally in the supreme airshow machine.......

I still vote for the 'birds, even though around here the Blues are held in highest esteem and we all support them and love them.

later,

You want to see a tight show, catch the Red Arrows. Nine jets, three colors of smoke... there is always at least one plane over show center at all times.

Habu wrote:

habu2 wrote:

And don't forget all of the Thunderbirds show is subsonic - even the "high-speed pass".

Yes, but reaching the transonic regime Wink

If you can see a show at a near-sea level site (like San Diego or Moffet) the high speed passes are much better. Being that low they can approach 600-or-more knots and still be well below the Mach (depending on the day's WX conditions and what the machmeter is telling you). TOTALLY cool! Very Happy

Been to Miramar every year since '87. The HS passes are very fun to watch.

OK, all you hornet / Blue lovers... I was at the Little Rock AFB airshow in 1999 in the T-33 doing my x-cntry duties. The boss decides he wants to sit in the rental car behind the T-Bird, and the Blues, after his show. So we are about 500 feet from the runway and about 1,200 feet in front of the crowd. The Blues taxi out and due the show. We are having arguments over who was in charge of having beer in the car that day and the solo does his pass right over our hood. Well, the car got compressed by the shock wave of the high speed pass, hood gets pressed down, windows move, and we both go holy sh!^ that was cool!!! Then go back to the argument of who was responsible for bringing the Coors Light. Cool

My photo buddy Scooter and I got to go out and photograph the Blues on press day one time, this was probably '88 or '89, not long after they switched to -18s. They took us right out on the taxiway adjacent to the main runway at show center to shoot the show, from takeoff to landing. It was a very windy day, maybe 25-30 mph out of the south and we were all holding onto our gear and hats in the wind. Scooter and I had seen the show many times so we knew the maneuver sequence and had it down knowing where to look and when. We're out there with maybe 20 or so other photogs from various papers, all clicking away. The four ship does a slow pass and are exiting to the north so we are all focused on them. Then I look at Scooter and he looks at me, both thinking the same thing - where's the solo? We turn and look south and here he comes, speed-o-heat and maybe 100-150 ft off the deck. Shocked

He was coming so fast there was no sound of him approaching. We didn't even have time to get our cameras up but at least we saw him coming, all the other photos were still looking north at the 4-ship when the solo sprung his sneak attack - scared the bejesus out of all of them. Scooter and I were hootin' and hollerin', it was great!!! We got slapped by the bow wave as he passed over us and then we were all engulfed in the heat of the jet blast - our hats were blown off our heads and straight into that 30 mph wind Very Happy

we just waited for them to blow back to us. It was great!
Very Happy

habu2 wrote:

You want to see a tight show, catch the Red Arrows. Nine jets, three colors of smoke... there is always at least one plane over show center at all times.

Frecce Tricolori....best damn show, bar none. Been my favorite military team for many years. Never seen the live, but the maneuvers and precision they show are top notch.

Its been a pretty standard trick for the Blues to sneak up on you. Something about those 404's you just cant hear them till they are leaving the party.

Although for crazy stunts, they actually got permission to break the sound barrier ... OVER THE FRIGGEN CROWD at last years Dayton Air and Trade Show. Solo lead, the Number 5 plane did it and was low enough you could see part of the pressure cloud forming.

Drew

They also set a world record the first day with largest pyrotechnic display (pretending to bomb the runway) and then stepped it up every day to beat it all the way threw. Last day it was like sitting infront of a space heater.

Back in about '85 I went to the Dayton International Air Show. The show started with a diamond pass of four Double-Uglies over the crowd at near supersonic. No noise until they whooshed overhead from behind most of the crowd. I picked up on it because I always have my head on a swivel at airshows. Was a heck of a show. We watched the crew chiefs do engine run ups on the T-Birds an hour or so before the show began as I recall. I have photos of the line of F-16s with guys in white t-shirts and T-bird helmets sitting in them with the canopies shut. I'll have to find them and scan them sometime. The special 'secret' guest that showed up late the first afternoon was B-1B #13 on the first visit of a B-1B to an airshow. They announced it as a secret visitor and said it was coming from the west as I recall. We turned and watched that big bird rip over the treeline at 600 kts. She was dragging a cloud of condensation under the inlets that covered the entire bottom of the center of the aircraft. The pilots pulled around into the pattern, dropped the gear and touched down. Not a big show, but impressive as hell to see something that big, that fast, and that low. They had it on static display on Sunday, but you could only get past the ropes if you were on the list of approved people. Still, I got some nice photos of it.

The pyro display back then was on the far side of the runway, and was pretty impressive as helos danced and A-7Ds roared overhead. I think I felt the heat from one blast, but that could have been a demo I saw at Duchess Co Airport in NY some time later. The big screw-up on that Dayton show was a Nimrod tanker that gave the crowd a real good view of the bomb bay by overflying the crowd on its low pass. I would say it was about 100ft over my head before it started climbing and moving back to show center as the tower ranted on my friends scanner....

Kevin
The Ejection Site

kmceject wrote:

Not a big show, but impressive as hell to see something that big, that fast, and that low. They had it on static display on Sunday, but you could only get past the ropes if you were on the list of approved people. Still, I got some nice photos of it.

Heh, ain't it cool how you can just walk up and around it nowadays?

Forum: Off-topic

Thunderbirds & Blue Angels