2012 Cleveland Air Show

Time....No matter what that damn clock keeps ticking. No matter how much stuff piles up it never stops and as I know all to well time keeps on going no matter what. I'm still trying to blog. I still think about doing it, but well that damn clock.... I'm determined to post at least once a month. Yeah some months are going to slip by, but i'll do my best to make it up. This month I'll go back a few weeks and give a brief review of the 2012 Cleveland National Air Show.

It was awesome as usual.... Seriously Cleveland puts on a great air show and amongst enthusiasts it is a don't miss as they always manage to grab more than you expect. This year they had some extras for the Sunday crowd and the Monday crowd. The downside of course is if you want it all you need to go all 3 days plus practice plus fly ins.....You get it. Well the 2 hour drive from central Ohio was not going to allow it although I was in Cleveland on Sunday as well for hockey... In fact had I not won 4 free tickets via a trivia contest on Facebook (Thanks Fox Sports Net Ohio!)I probably would have skipped this year. Friday I was Chief Instructor for a high performance driving school at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in 93˚ heat. Saturday was recovery from Friday and I was supposed to be the pace car driver for SCCA club races at Mid-Ohio(too tired). Sunday was Hockey in Cleveland and that left Monday and the photos you see below!

A few of the highlight aircraft: FA-18F Super Hornet FA-18 CF-18 F-22 C-130 "Fat Albert" B-17 P-51 F4U-5 T-6 C-31A/Golden Knights Of course there were many more primarily Air Show legends like Sean Tucker, Jane Wicker Wing-walking, and Michael Goulian, but I tend to focus on the Military and former military aircraft on this blog.

I'd also like to point to a great writeup on flying with the US Army Golden Knights that can be found here: http://www.theclevelandsound.com/?p=14002

I took the kids for Monday because I had recovered and it was another opportunity to see the F-22 Raptor make a brief appearance after finishing up at the Ft. Wayne Air Show. It also had a very rare US stop for the Canadian CF-18 which is of course an FA-18 as seen in the Blue Angels squad. We had hot weather but it was mostly sunny with a breeze off the lake and the normal hour and 40 minute drive was stretched out to over 2 hours not due to traffic, but our *friends* at the Ohio State Highway Patrol and their 16 speed traps... The humidity made the vapor trails pretty spectacular and I missed the best one of all off the FA-18F Super Hornet which formed a huge vapor cone while at transonic speed. Even the CF-18 got a big cone which I caught a part of as seen below. Enjoy the photos. I had camera issues and didn't o to well, but I have plans to fix that for next year. With the end of summer its full on hockey time and I'll have so much to blog about. Tons of stuff has happened with that already!

Dayton Air Show 2012--2 F-4 Phantoms!

Jump back a month to the 2012 Vectren Dayton Air Show and once again we loaded up and headed out for the (shh don't tell anybody) FREE practice day on Friday to watch the performers practice for the weekend show. This has become a tradition for myself and my kids and we expect some heat, but this year was crazy hot with temps around 103 and thankfully low humidity along with just a few clouds. I brought along my EZ-Up canopy and got a small lesson in aerodynamics when you don't secure said canopy to the ground properly.... In any case the Blue Angels were the feature with appearances by an A4 and Harrier as well as a few other brief flybys.The cool factor was not 1, but 2 F-4 Phantom's aking part in the Heritage Flight with a P-51 Mustang. Certainly the cutback on the military displays are hurting as beyond the Blues and Thunderbirds the only other attractions are the F22 and the Golden Knights. No more Strike Eagle and Viper demo's has really hurt. Luckily the upcoming Cleveland Air Show will have an FA-18 Super Hornet demo and F-22 Flyby to go with the Blues and maybe a surprise or 2. I'll never complain about an air show so despite the heat and canopy incident It was a great day. I brought my camera, but tried to enjoy the show more than take photo's but here are a few... Enjoy! Even with the low humidity I did manage to capture a bit of vapor off one of the Blues FA-18B's.

Andrews AFB Air Show Open House

Over the previous weekend Andrews Air Force Base opened its doors for an open house and air show. The weather was perfect and here are some amazing shots. If you have never been to an air show you really should go and experience one. There are many free shows across the country as well as many high powered shows featuring the big acts like the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, Golden Knights, Viper East (F-16), Raptor F-22, and the solo acts like John Mohr and Patty Wagstaff among dozens of acts. Many local airports host free shows put on by the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) and these are so much fun with vintage warbirds like B-17's or B-25's. Sometimes even a P-51 Mustang will be there. In any case enjoy some great shots from Andrews!

More Airshow Pics

Here are a few pics from the Wings of Victory Airshow from Lancaster Ohio.