Have to get back to see these guys:
Shopping Mall USA is having an airshow this weekend! The S.O. does not have a choice-she’s been told she is going. Buy sunscreen. We are going early and leaving late-gotta go see what I am really missing……………
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Have fun! I’m already looking forward to Offutt’s, which is coming up at the end of the summer.
Too bad you’re getting the world’s second best demo team, though…the Blues are nice, but the T-birds are where it’s at.
Have fun but please remember the objective of your mission………………………..plenty of photographs. Please. Thank you. Out.
So that’s where they are! This weekend is the annual air show in R.I. – last year it included the Blue Angels. This year – you get them. And I’m wildly jealous – they are just so amazing.
there is a basic difference between the Blues, and the Thunderbirds — the Thunderbirds put on a show that is “showier”, for want of a better term. More flash and appearance, less substance. The Blues are just workmanlike, and do things that a pilot will tell you can’t be done — and maneuvers that the T’birds don’t do. Two examples — first is a full line abreast loop. T’birds do about 1/3, then start peeling a/c out in a break. The hard part of that maneuver is staying lined up over the top. Blues do it, Brand X bails. The other is the roll into the echelon. Trust me, for dash 4, that is basically impossible.
You can see all of them here: http://www.airshowstuff.com/airshow_videos.htm
I saw the Blue Angels 5 times over a 7 day period last year (we live 5 miles from the airshow center from one last year). I love to watch them and I agree that they put on a better show than the Thunderbirds.
I too am biased, but the Blues have always been more impressive to me. Though raised an Air Farce brat I joined a real service, and the Bird’s are ho, hum compared to the Blues. The Blues are lower and I love the one where the solo “sneaks” up on the crowd from behind while pushing mach while most of the crowd is watching the rest in the distance. Always fun to watch a couple of people hit the deck. I am sure you would hear a lot of screams but it is just too noisy at that point.
Pix it is!
On July 8th. PBS/Wide Angle is running a show on the Japanese Self Defense Forces.
Thought that might interest you.
Thanks!
The T-birds do the same “sneak attack” surprise pass from behind.
However, I will agree with the previous commenters that the Blues are the more precise and professional demo team, having more substance as opposed to flash. I was just being parochial and tweaking some noses.
Also, I don’t think that any Blues pilot has crashed his aircraft because he forgot to reset the altimeter at the proper elevation for the airport he was flying from.
That was not where the four plane crashed was it?
“Oh shit”.
“Two”
“Three”
“Four”.
No, in that incident lead’s plane suffered a mechanical failure (think it was with the flight control system but I could be wrong on that) which caused him to lose the ability to control the aircraft. Since it happened in the middle of a four ship maneuver, the rest of the flight was keyed off of him and followed him as he augered in.
The incident I was referring to was the recent crash up in Idaho, where the pilot gets out half a second before his plane impacts the tarmac. He had forgotten to reset his altimeter for the proper calibration, having flown from an airport with a lower altitude, and subsequently did not gain enough altitude before beginning the loop, causing him to run out of altitude pretty quickly at the end of the loop.