Blue Angels

I have a lot of great airshow memories. Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, and Snow Bird. B-1 takeoffs. Harrier going from hover, pivoting the nose up 60 degrees while hovering, then accelerating up-up-and-away. F-22 pulling from the deck into a brief vertical climb and basically stopping mid air, pivoting about the wing centerline into level flight due to the thrust vectoring, then kicking the afterburners. Now I don't recall the evocative song being played, but the heritage flight of F-22 and F-86 led by P-38 finishing with the two jets splitting off in either direction and Glacier Girl just flying off into the distance alone was powerful enough to make my allergies start acting up. My favorite though, was standing right at the end of the runway, while doing volunteer duties, as a P-51 took off and kept it so low to pick up speed that I had to fight the urge to duck out of the way of the prop as he went thundering directly overhead at as shockingly low altitude and under full power, before yanking back on the stick shortly after passing me, was AMAZING!

Believe it or not, when I was a teenager, tiny little Kalamazoo, MI had one of the best annual airshows I've ever seen. Blue Angels, full compliment of the military aircraft of the day (flight demos from F-14, F-15, F-16 and A-10 at one show) and warbirds like you can't believe. One year, they had a 4 ship of Mitchells, 2 B-17's, Fifi, and 2 full "finger 4" flights of P-51's. They also used to have a "Grumman Cats" flight - F4F, F6F, F8F, Tigercat, Panther and F-14 all information. The funny part was the Wildcat would be straining trying to hold its position, while the Tomcat would be wings full forward, flaps down, engines barely above idle. Partway through the pass, the Tomcat would throttle up, sweep the wings and do the "missing man". IT . . . WAS . . . AWESOME. Got to see one of the last operational flights of the F-8 Crusader. 4 ships of ANG Phantoms still in their SEA camo. Tactical bombing demos with 4 ships of A-7's, with really impressive pyro. So many cool memories. That used to be the highlight of the year for my dad and I.

Sadly, after a few years, the general public kind of go bored with the whole thing and stopped showing up. It eventually collapsed under its own weight when it started loosing money.

The most impressive thing I ever saw was one of the last demos of the SR-71. One came over Oshkosh in 97. Its the only time everything, and I mean everything, stopped. We're a jaded bunch, but the Blackbird had everyone's eyes cast skyward. I have never seen it done since.

That plane is otherworldly.

Seen the Blue Angels about a dozen times at least. One of the best was the Make-A-Wish day on practice day. That's my boy standing in the blue t-shirt right in the center ...

I haven't been to an air show in many years. I think at the last one I got to see Bevo Howard flying his Jungmeister. He died not long after.

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.

Agreed!

And, it was instrument of choice when I saw my only Blue Angels show.

Of course, the Blues weren't the ONLY ones to fly A-4's "slick".

We usually alternate between the Blue Angela and the Thunderbirds in CLE for the Air Show. Either way, you can't go wrong!

Best way to watch is from the Municipal parking lot across the freeway from the airport...set up in a "tailgating" fashion and watch the stunt planes, parachuters, heli-shows, and fighter jets all day long while playing cornhole, sharing brews, and some 'gars!

When I was a kid, we lived off of the approach end of the runway at McConnell AFB, KS. I still have a very vivid memory of the T-Birds coming over the house at treetop level, hauling ass, as they started their pitchout to land the day before the open house. The next day, I was standing behind my dad on some sort of yellow ground equipment when he took this picture. The F-100's afterburner was an on/off affair, instead of having different stages like modern engines, so it would light off with a BOOM! Then, multiply that by four.

I got the see the T-Birds with F-4s, too. After those, the T-38s were disappointing. I never got to see the Blues fly the F-4, but saw them in the A-4s several times. Great show!

In reply to BenB:

Great pic!

I've seen the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds and Snow Birds several times. Grew up around an Air Force base and Thunderbirds were there annually. Circa 1982, I once partied with the Snow Birds. Was in an airshow with our army CH-47 helicopter and went to the after party for participants. Those guys were wild and crazy. Balancing on top of a 6-ft fence and chugging beer to see who would fall off first.