Ever since I finished flight school, I’ve been more interested in airshows and fly-ins. Sadly, I attended the air show solo this year since the Fuss Nugget was just too fussy to stick around. Between the bright sun and uncomfortable shoes she didn’t have much of a chance. Speaking of sun, it was a hot one this year! Temperatures rose to about 104 deg Fahrenheit with only a small breeze keeping the event on the edge of bearable. The organizers of the show failed miserably on the availability of water, with only a few stations scattered in inconvenient locations, all ahead of long lines. A few vendors sold ice cold water at $3.00 per bottle, a price I was more than willing to pay. Another annoyance was the fact that many of the food vendors were located in the VIP area of the air show, requiring ticket upgrades. The air show nazis held the checkpoint steadfastly, refusing to allow anyone in for a temporary visit to the “restricted” food vendors. The combined lameness of these two annoyances, along with a lack of interesting exhibits will probably drive me to watch the show from across the airport with an air band radio next year. I’m sure that listening to the CTAF/tower frequency will be far more interesting than listening to the announcers.
The show itself wasn’t bad. Apart from the typical display of piston-driven aerobatic aircraft, we were treated to an aerobatic helicopter performing stunts I’ve only seen attempted by RC helis. The Air Force Thunderbirds were the main (and final) act and they didn’t disappoint. Their show only lasted about 15 minutes, but I believe it was worth the wait.
I found it amusing that so many people walked up to me inquiring about all the amazing photos I was taking. I only had my 28 to 70mm portrait lens with me, so most of my photos required significant post processing time, including a ton of cropping. Sure my camera looked impressive, but I wasn’t equipped to take the photos I wanted. I’ll be purchasing a 300mm lens as soon as possible since I do enjoy aviation photography.
