MCAS Miramar airshow

The annual airshow at Miramar is going on this weekend. Those Marines really know how to put on a show! I haven't actually been to it, but live nearby and get to see and hear quite a bit. The Blue Angels fly right over our house, and some of the other aircraft come by here as well. Today I saw a refueling tanker with two helicopters refueling from it, followed by another one refueling two fighter jets. Also saw a Stealth fighter a couple of times, including one pass over our house.

What's really different from the airshows back when this was a Navy base, is that they use pyrotechnics and such to do mock battles and simulated bombing runs. On Saturday evening they do an extra "twilight" show that had some huge explosions. I'd see a big orange glow light up the sky to the east, and about

10 seconds later a loud boom would shake the whole house! It must be awesome up close! In fact, I'm starting to think I'd like to attend one of these shows someday despite the crowds and heat.
Reply to
RayDunakin
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Hi Ray, gee, I had no idea you were so close. how come I've never run into you at Hayburner or out at El Mirage?

Reply to
Reece Talley

Even if the Blues or the T-Birds are at the show my favorite part is the show put on by the single F-14,15,16 or 18 pilot. They go to the extreme, I only wish they would broadcast the audio from the cockpit. The grunts and groans would add to the high G turns.......if you do go and the Blues are there about halfway through the show one of the solos will distract you with a silly little pass, all the while the other solo is screaching in from behind 250 feet off the deck to scare the bejesus out of you. Last time I was there a guy dropped to the ground he thought he was a deadman. :-D

About 10 years ago as part of the show at NAS Willow Grove the A-10 actually fired their cannons into the ground between the strips, I never saw it again and it was something that made me jump. The sound coming out of the gatlin gun was amazing.

They also demonstrated the difference between an American pilot and an Iraqui pilot........The American pilot breaks ground and flies into the wind....... :-)

Reply to
Chuck Rudy

Can you imagine how awesome the shows used to be when they were allowed to fly supersonic for that part of the show? WOW!

I never get to see the really cool stuff.

One of the best demonstrations I ever saw (outside of high performance aircraft) was a C-130 doing a low level cargo drop. They made a pass and dropped a large flare for a target, then came back around for the cargo drop. They were only a few feet off the ground, the cargo master released the chute and the pallet was pulled out of the plane. It literally landed on top of the flare, throwing it end over end into the air as it spewed smoke and fire. The MC matter of factly told the crowd that that was a prime example of precision cargo delivery. I always wondered if they were supposed to drop it and let it slide to a stop near the flare, or if the flare was the actual contact target.

The cargo drop was great, but his exit was much more intense. He pulled up to a few hundred feet and the next thing I know, he's doing a high bank turn. I swear his wings were past a 90 deg bank and slightly inverted as he reversed direction. I always thought the C-130 was an awesome plane, but putting a cargo plane into a high G turn was unexpected to say the least.

tim

Reply to
Tim

I went to an airshow at Scott AFB in southern Illinois (near St. Louis) back in the mid-80's. The local F-15 from McDonnel-Douglas came out and did his show with a couple of passes and high banked turns followed by an awesome vertical climb.

Not to be outdone, the Brits had a Nimrod (mil version of a deHavilland Comet), about the size of a 737, and he pretty much emulated the F15 with the low-level passes and high banked turns followed by a steep climb. It was truly a jaw dropping flight.

Turns out it was probably a little riskier than we realized. Just a few years ago, a Nimrod doing the same moves crashed at an airshow. Not good.

Doug

Reply to
Doug Sams

Live fire at an airshow? Holy jumping catfish! I didn't think they ever allowed that. Sure would be cool to see it though, especially from a Warthog!

Reply to
RayDunakin

BTW, I've seen the Blue Angels fly here for the past 20 years, and it never ceases to amaze me how they can manuever 6 planes in tight formation as if it was a single craft! Those guys have mega-skills!

Reply to
RayDunakin

I recall on the Navy put on out at NAS Point Mague where they fired live ammo into targets on the north side of the runway. Very impressive. They even had a Black Bird do a low level fly by at full military power. It went by and then a couple seconds behind, came the roar.

The last time I seen the mock bomb drop was two years ago at the last Rose festival air show to be put on. I thought it was good inspite of the last minute (two months) organizing of it.

John Hornsby

Reply to
a.hornsbyiii

Cool! I'm guessing this is a reproduction, right? I thought the few original flying wings were dismantled.

Reply to
RayDunakin

We *will* need video and pic uploaded somewhere of that.......isn't that the only surviving Northrop wing?

Chuck

Reply to
Chuck Rudy

It was quite a treat. I was there to help out my son's Civil Air Patrol squadron, which was there to help out with getting the grandstands set up for the twilight air show. In exchange, the kids got seats as "guests of the Blue Angels" for the twilight show!

They had a couple minor incidents/accidents involving fireworks, but no problems with the planes during the day or night shows. Some of the twilight show stuff was pretty incredible, in that they had the jets flying about 100 feet above the runway on full afterburners, so that you could see the flame. If I get any could pictures out of my camera, I'll try and post them.

The finale involved (as Ray discussed) a couple of big 'booms', in that they lit (separately) two one-thousand-foot long "walls-of-fire" (explosively). These were done out on the far side of the runway, and even in the grandstands you could feel the intense heat of the fireballs.

They also did a fly-by of the B-1 bomber, in both low-speed and full-speed configurations. When it is flying swept-wing, that thing is really a bat out of he**!

One thing that bothered me (this group will hopefully appreciate my concern), was that during the opening ceremony for the day, they did a routine with one skydiver flying down with an American flag flying from his shroud lines, while being circled by three older airplanes (I'm sorry, memory fails for the type of plane). The Star Spangled Banner was being sung while this was occurring. After the skydiver touched down with the flag, the three planes landed. As the lead plane landed, the announcer told the crowd that the plane was being piloted by "retired Lieutenant General William Anders of the Air Force". First, he is a Major General. Second, they didn't bother mentioning WHY people ought to know him (and remember, this was the 100 years of flight air show). Third, after he landed, they had him driving back and forth in front of the grandstands waving to the crowds, but didn't bother putting his name on the car or mentioning it while it was happening (they were too busy "jazzing up the crowd").

I talked with several people (including some of the CAP cadets), asking them if they knew why the announcer had mentioned the name of the pilot, or who he was. Not a single one knew.

This is pretty sad, that at an airshow celebrating 100 years of flight, not only did the announcers see fit to 'educate' the audience, but even those who ought to have known better didn't have a clue...

David Erbas-White

P.S. For those who have forgotten, he was one of the first three astronauts to a) leave the orbit of the earth, b) fly on the first manned Saturn V, and c) orbit the moon, on Apollo 8 (with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell).

Reply to
David Erbas-White

They did a C-130 JATO (jet-assisted take-off) last night, during the twilight show. If my pictures come out I'll post them. It actually appeared to be more of a 'rocket assisted take off', but it was impressive as he**!!!

David Erbas-White

Reply to
David Erbas-White

RE Anders ---

More importantly, Anders actually has some serious skills, other than being "Spam-in-a-Can" and smiling for a camera.

Anders is a remarkably effective executive and manager, and is actually capable of operating / running an organization, unlike say, Frank Borman (can you say Eastern Airlines), or Bruce Kelley, or John Glenn (can you say Royal Crown Cola?), or Dick Embry.

-- Jim McLaughlin

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Reply to
Jim McLaughlin

Was it the Blue Angels' Fat Boy C-130 or another C-130?

tim

Reply to
Tim

"Fat Albert" (don't know if that answers your question)

David Erbas-White

Reply to
David Erbas-White

I'm kind of partial to seeing Fat Albert (the Blue Angel's support cargo plane) do a Jato when it leaves. Lots of fire and thick smoke. I also like the simulated bombing runs that the jets make....especially when they start a fire and have to scramble the fire equipment. ;-)

Mark Simps> Even if the Blues or the T-Birds are at the show my favorite part is the

Reply to
Mark Simpson

Yep...This is r.m.r. so the Estes Fat Boy name was screwing with my thought process as I typed. ;)

Reply to
Tim

Sorry to hear about your wife Ray. Perhaps when she gets better we'll see more of you. Until then, please accept my best wishes.

Reply to
Reece Talley

Yeah, and quite an impressive machine. It was restored by the Planes of Fame air museum

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in Chino, CA. They fly it quite a bit it seems, and always send it up to Edwards for the show. It sure is a beautiful plane. There are a few pictures of it from the Chino Airshow 2003 at
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. I might try to put up some video from Edwards if I can.

Go see it up close the N-9M the Planes of Fame museum sometime. It's a great active museum - just about all the planes are flown fairly regularly.

-Tony

Reply to
<tony

Sorry, my brain doesn't know what my fingers type sometime. Try this rewording:

Go see the N-9M up close at the Planes of Fame museum sometime. It's a great active museum - just about all the planes are flown fairly regularly.

-Tony

Reply to
<tony

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