Last Flight of the Thunderbirds

[Oberon]

You've still got the Blue Angels haven't you?

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Oberon

You've still got the Blue Angels haven't you?

Supposedly, not any more. I'll find out this summer, as they will be flying over my house. The local Navy base commander was talking like it was already a done deal. Who knows at this point?

[geetrue]

I had heard this rumor of the Thunderbird's being canceled

sorry to hear it came to pass

Those Blue Angels are really something too ...

I saw an F-18 walk across the runway on it's tail just a few feet from the concrete like it was prancing dog one time

another time I was standing under the wind of a B-52 at a Blue Angels airshow in San Diego at the old Top Gun airfield Miramar and they flew overhead with the vibrations of the B-52 wings and the pride I felt ...

the moment will never be forgotten

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by geetrue

I had heard this rumor of the Thunderbird's being canceled

sorry to hear it came to pass

Those Blue Angels are really something too ...

I saw an F-18 walk across the runway on it's tail just a few feet from the concrete like it was prancing dog one time

another time I was standing under the wind of a B-52 at a Blue Angels airshow in San Diego at the old Top Gun airfield Miramar and they flew overhead with the vibrations of the B-52 wings and the pride I felt ...

the moment will never be forgotten

That must have been a fascinating experience

[geetrue]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

That must have been a fascinating experience

It was an exciting time ... 200,000 people at one show. They let you park (if you were first) right next to the field except for a small burn area.

I was like in the second row and could watch from my camper truck. I only had ten dollars left till payday so I bought a box of doughnut holes and drinked water while all of the people around me were eating corn dogs and hot dogs and hamburgers ...

it was worth it and that was on a Saturday with another 200,000 people attending on Sunday.

My news just said they have canceled all military air shows as of April 1st for the rest of the year due to budget cuts.

[yubba]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Supposedly, not any more. I'll find out this summer, as they will be flying over my house. The local Navy base commander was talking like it was already a done deal. Who knows at this point?

The birds might stay here with a little luck, it has been the talk of the town, they were here years back when I worked in the port, I got a pretty good show I was cleaning the upper deck of a Casino ship and they were up practiceing they were so close over my head I coulld see the rivets I saw ones wing bump the other in the belly right over my head they scattered and the show was over..

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Supposedly, not any more. I'll find out this summer, as they will be flying over my house. The local Navy base commander was talking like it was already a done deal. Who knows at this point?

A quick check of wiki shows that you're right, they're rolling up the carpet on the 1st as well.

Blimey. No more US military aerobatic teams. I must admit, that does surprise me. There was a rumour over here that the Red Arrows were going to be pulled, created quite an uproar and nothing came of it.
Sad thing to see, although with the debt crisis I guess it's inevitable, I'm sure they'll be back once the economy is better. We've had quite a few aerial display teams go by the by. The Yellowjacks, the Black Arrows, the Red Pelicans, the Sharks, all gone.

[Red October1984]

Man...this is a damn shame....

In 2010, the Blue Angels came to the local air show and I got to see them. Man it was awesome. I got autographs from all of the pilots and I'll never forget it. I also saw them when I was real little but I don't remember that as good. There was also an A-10 demonstration by the A-10 East Coast Demo Team. I caught the tail end of it and got that pilot's autograph too. It was amazing.

Man...I never got to see the Thunderbirds. I bet it was a hell of a show.... This is sad. Looks like it'll just be civilian pilots at this year's Air Show. I loved meeting the military pilots.

[Buddahaid]

Soon to be replaced by aerobatic drone teams.

[AVGWarhawk]

Sequester on.....

[Armistead]

Just like they cut the tour program of the White House, but Obama will spend more than that on his golfing trips. It's all about politics, not what needs to be cut, like all the money we send to nut nations that hate us.
Let's face it, you can't make make sound business decisions when you're a greedy self serving politicain.

Our unemployment rate rose last month.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Soon to be replaced by aerobatic drone teams.

The Thunderdrones

[Stealhead]

Kind of lousy.If you really want to see a show though you have to watch their practice sessions they are much longer than the routines they do during a show.They will also do things that they are not allowed to do.

I got to watch them practice for a few days before a show they did in Tucson, Arizona from Davis-Monthan once.They would did all sorts of neat tricks and they buzzed us very low several times stuff they would never do at a public show.They practice the planned routine several times to get down the timing and also to get their bearing for landmarks which is important for the timing of the tricks they perform.

Some guys would kill to get assigned to the Thunderbirds they had a small squadron 120 of enlisted mainly for maintenance.Compare that to a typical squadron which might have up 1,000 people in it.Of course the Thunderbirds are pretty expensive with all the travel they have likely why they got nixed.I only ever met one guy that did my job in the T-birds.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Platapus

The Thunderdrones

These you can watch from the comfort of home. The pilots do.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Blimey. No more US military aerobatic teams. I must admit, that does surprise me. There was a rumour over here that the Red Arrows were going to be pulled, created quite an uproar and nothing came of it.

The rumour exists every few years, that and the closing of Scampton, but in reality as long as they're around then Scampton will remain open. Even when they officially moved to Cranwell they were back every day to Scampton because they're such an interruption to the RAFC flying program, so all the staff involved had to travel from Cranwell daily - air traffickers, firemen, groung crew. Every other military airfield in the country, and at least one civvy one (St. Mawgan) was considered and discarded for numerous reasons. Personally I like them being 40km away from me, I can sometimes see them practicing from my village.

Originally Posted by Oberon

We've had quite a few aerial display teams go by the by. The Yellowjacks, the Black Arrows, the Red Pelicans, the Sharks, all gone.

Blue Eagles, The Poachers, Linton Gin , The Blades (JP team from Linton-on-Ouse, not the current civvy team), The Meteorites, The Skylarks, The Macaws, The Magistrates, The Black Knights, The Tigers, The Blue Diamonds. There are probably a few more uber-unofficial ones.

That was the good old days when a squadron or station fielded a display team, and we had airframes and crews to spare.

I remember seeing the Blue Angels at a UK airshow, must've been Finningley in 1992, I've probably got some old photos somewhere but knowing me then, and knowing my wonderful 110 camera (or my disk camera) the pics are just dots against the sky.