The Thunderbirds are flying as I type this. Watched them a bit from my deck, but eight miles from the runway and trees between makes it hard.

I teared up, remembering how I used to fly formation like that. Never again, of course, and that hurts.

But you can always say that you have done it! And Lived it! Many of us have not!

I was offered the job of T'Bird announcer at one time, and turned it down. Coulda, woulda, shoulda... But at that time, my daughters were pre-teens and the idea of them spending three years in Las Vegas with me gone 300 days a year was not tenable.

On the bright side, that decision eventually allowed me to be the NASA countdown guy, so it all worked out for the best.

Still, there is NOTHING like flying high-performance jets.

flying is one of those things that the more you do it, the more you WANT to do it and the less you do it the less you want to do it.

I am glad some of those days are past.

We go over the hill about 4-7 times a winter to watch the Blues off the end of the runway at NAF El Centro. Kinda ruins the regular airshow at Miramar you are so damn close. The last few years we have been treated to the T birds when they come down for the pilot exchange program........fantastic show they fly.

I'd give my left nut to go watch the T/Birds....

Entry price is not the question...$15/family !!!!!!!!

I'm 3+ hrs away.....hard to leave Podunk to go to the city

100K people ? My Gawd...........

Rocky....tell us of your AF career..........

NASA countdown guy !!!!!!!!! whoa......(:

https://www.ksl.com/article/5042955...ns-dazzling-spectators-with-performances

Tikka, one of these days, you're gonna send me an invite to come and ride into the backcountry, sip beer, and allow me to regale you with memories. And I'll show up.

In the meantime... When I was a little kid, I wanted to be three things. I wanted to be John Wayne fighter pilot. I wanted to be Scotty Powers, the guy who counted backwards for NASA, and I wanted to be Jack O'Connor gun writer. Believe it or not, I manged to be all three. (I was never as good as O'Connor but I did manage to publish almost 100 shooting articles.)

I was at Hill for 8 years, always "worked" the airshows, then would enjoy them the next day. The T-birds are fun to see. When I was there, worked with the "Viper West" demo team. IDK what they do with the new -35, but seeing the Viper train most Fridays was never not cool.

All that said, I am over the jet noise for a while. I am soon to be moving far away from it for a while.

Probably one the greatest recruiting tools ever for both teams. The shows they do over air stations are the best where they can get things down near the ground. They have to keep movements quite a bit higher around the mega cities. Videos from the ground suggest they're nice smooth synchronized rides. Shots from the cockpit indicate they're constantly on the stick and the epidemy of concentration.

I can't imagine the skills and training it takes to do ground level stuff upside down. Doesn't seem right to push the stick forward to climb out at the end.

Quite an accomplishment to make those teams. Being USN, I'm partial the Blue Angels. Back in about 1972 they did a 9-day airshow at Dulles (Transpo 72 ). I think every team in the world was there and 3 or 4 pilots bought farm that week. Even got to kick the tires and sit in the shade of a SR-71.

If I could do life over again, I'd not change a single experience across my 4 years of working Naval Air. Worked with A3-B's. I could do everything except pull the chocks and take off. Just tying them down and running them wide open for high power tests was a kick in the ass.

Reaching the age here where several of my pending experiences might be the last go around. One's final flight probably fits in that realm.

Rocky

UR on.......I've been known to just disappear for the day

Just like Thursday..almost headed to CR NP area...but didn't

Kool trail goes into the south Park..from Lower Bowns

Pic .........near there

I feel the same way when a Blackhawk or Huey fly over head. I used to be there. Those used to be my birds. I got to touch them, set in their seats, turn wrenches on them, move them with a tug and put fuel in them. I love the smell of 23699 mixed with WTR and the odor of mothballs. I miss it all. I know, I'm weird.

kwg

Those air show's are a huge needless waste of tax dollars.

Some of us who have flown close formation rather jokingly refer to the teams as the Blunderbirds and the Blown Angles because we KNOW how rough it is in there with your wings nearly overlapped in the turbulence from the lead jet. It is indeed a workout to keep a jet that close and appear to be welded together. You never actually move the controls, in fact. You THINK the plane up six inches or closer by a foot - and it goes there. You ignore EVERYTHING but Lead. If he flew into the ground, there'd be four holes exactly spaced.

Great shot Tikka!

Training........

I can think of a hundred other ways the fed's waste money

joe for example.....$400K

that dick head ain't worth $400/year

They are actually very valuable training opportunities, much like fly-overs at sporting events.

LIKE......

Rocky wants to go here (:

Air shows are more of a recruiting tool than training. The idea of getting to play with all those wonderful toys and getting paid to do it is a powerful incentive.

Those T-birds are pretty good but I like my Blues better. 😁 Very few understand the schedule and pace involved with being a member of either team.
Several years ago the Blues put on a show here at Meridian and when it was over I walked up to the ropeline with my grown daughter and her two daughters. They were completely flabbergasted when several of them called me by name because they had been students of mine earlier. Score one for “Pops” 😊

You're right, of course. Those tax dollars could best be used to pay for free housing, free food, free medical and hospitalization, free cell phones, free beer and whisky, free drugs, and free lotto tickets for all the illegal aliens pouring across our southern border plus all the welfare cheats already sucking at the tax payers' teat.

L.W.

Gotta neighbor kid I watched grow up.
He's a AF guy, all he ever did his entire career was work those air shows.
He spent most all his time working out of Great Falls, he retired last fall.
The amount of money they went through on fuel alone was crazy.

It's the equivalent of a police department putting on demonstration shows of what badazzes they could be driving their cruisers.

They do things more like wheelchair basketball benefits.
The Airforce should consider something more like that.

Or they could just lower their budget which could lower our taxes

Look up sometime how much fuel is used daily by UPS, or FEDEX, or Amazon to being you "Made In China" junk. Not tax dollars, but they come out of your pocket, too.

The only thing more expensive than a strong military is a weak military.

It's more of a deceptive tease for recruiting.
How many kids that join the AF ever some much as gets to park their azz in one of those planes let alone fly one?

But some DO get to fly them. Or work on them, or support them in some way.

How many kids get to drive NASCAR?

If they are worth half a chit, they do get a ride. We've flown everyone from SERE to personalists to the Airmen running the post office.

That said, there is a whole lot more to getting airplanes in the air than just those that fly them.

And lastly, if you were ever privy to a sliver of the planning and work that goes into an airshow, demonstrations, etc, you would realize how valuable of a training op it is.

I'm reaching hard for the relevancy there but I can't quite touch it.


And those air shows are what makes us stronger?

Yeah, somebody's gotta scrub the windshield and change the tires.
Believe me, there is nothing about those shows the neighbor kid hasn't told me 20 times over.

Yes, a B-52 making a 100-ft high pass down the runway while spitting out rivets is so wasteful (said my buddy who replaced said rivets at Carswell AFB)

No, I don't believe you. You do not have the knowledge of what a military movement takes, even at the lower levels. How that planning for the airshow is directly correlated to an actual combative movement. How the planning of the show contents itself is akin to a strike op on our enemies. It is all related, and certainly not a waste.

I've got memories of B-52's lining up NE of Carswell AFB to land right before DFW Airport opened for commercial operations, before that I was beneath the Grand Prairie Naval Air Station flight pattern during the 1960's in Irving, Texas. I saw everything fly right over my backyard.

I could careless what you believe.

This kid was just a enlisted man but he retired a Chief Master Sargent and air shows are what his entire career was about.
I'll take his word over yours.

His entire career was only airshows and he made it to CMSgt, huh? You seem to be missing a good bit of the story. But keep on keeping on, man! lol

Yes, I'm sure you know more about the kid next door to me than I do.

I am saying you don't know what you think you know. There is no Airshow career field.

First air show I recall was at Palm Beach AFB in the mid '50s. Thunderbirds were flying F100s and closed the show with a low level diamond formation as I recall...supersonic. Big Booms!

Damn I forgot that was today. Only an hour away. Something flew over Park City the other day but I never saw it just heard the boom. Amazing.

Hey Rocky where can a I get some autographed copies of your books?

We lived in Midland for a couple of years and thoroughly enjoyed the airshow there.

http://www.airsho.org/performers.html

Spoken like a man who never served, in ANY branch of the military.

Per Wikipedia, Malmstrom Air Force Base at Great Falls, MT has been closed to fixed wing aircraft operations since 1996, still used for helicopter ops.
Place looks like a ghost town. Those must have been some pretty exciting air shows your neighbor worked.

The T-Birds are based at Nellis AFB here in the Vegas Valley.

You're aware that's a traveling show, just like a circus?

But do standby July 23/24 2022, if you're near Great Falls, MT. look up in the sky.

He left there once for a few months when he was deployed during the Gulf War. Other than that his every day was spent at that base.

Just shows what a waste of money it was.

I think you'd find the NG still uses it but on that I'm guessing a little.

A couple years back there was talk of housing up to 5000 illegal immigrant children at Malmstrom AFB. I don't know if it happened or not.

https://www.montanarightnow.com/gre...ca04fba-8be2-11e9-8abf-6ffe142d5eef.html

Tikka, here’s some good reading written by Rocky Raab. These two books are labeled fiction but I have a feeling they are closer to real life.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2925542-baggy-zero-four

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...m_srp=true&qid=XbmL6YddoX&rank=1

Yep, I’ve read and enjoyed them both. Have the e versions on my iPad.
I mainly read military history and related fiction and Rocky did good!

You don't have to fly one to get attached to the job. I was a medevac CE (crew chief) for several years and one deployment to Ft Knox and Ft. Hood. I really enjoyed my time on a team and I served a purpose. It's hard to describe unless you have been there.


kwg

you're pretty much an idiot aren't you? no need to reply. this worthless babbling is proof.

Please provide your Military service record below or in Private Message. I anxiously await it.

Fu CK Bag

I really do miss the thunder. T birds were here about six years ago, Angels a couple before that. Both just spun back the clock for me. Formation flying like that is SO difficult, everything else is easy peasy. As for flybys, they have a training purpose, mostly time on target for tactical proficiency, so I wouldn't call that a waste at all.

And for all of the support agencies, getting materiel and personnel in place for mission success is great training. Especially in today's constrained ops, it is very important to exercise the mass movement muscles, whenever available, to ensure they will work when the real-world need arises.

Post WW2 that's exactly what happened to a flight of four P51's--into the backside of Four Peaks mountain.

Rocky, was that a P51 we saw screaming around there today. We had to come down to Mt Green for a fam reunion and ended up at 5 Guys in Layton. Say outside and watched for about an hour. Always amazing.

I was one of those kids that worked the Fairchild show when they debuted the 117 It was a thrill

Maybe I missed it, what branch did you serve in ?

That'd really come as a surprise to those that have dedicated their military careers to air show support, speaking of what you think you know.

Enlighten us all then, what is the career field solely dedicated to air shows?

Also, as many have requested, provide your military background.

18-year, multi-deployment USAF vet here.

As for airshow support, I have been sent in support of airshows in 8 states and 5 countries outside of the US. That in addition to many multi-national training events and exercises.

You?

So they didn't keep you around as regular huh?

There is no such thing. Out side of specialty units (ie Thunderbirds) the airshows are an operational unit function. Even the T-Birds is a limited time, special duty position.

You continue to have no idea as to what you speak.

You're obviously still butt hurt because they didn't keep ya.

There was no one to keep me. I did these air shows from 4 different bases with 7 different units. It simply works nothing like the bull snot you are spewing.

You are obviously completely clueless as to how anything in the Air Force works at all.