Thunderbirds x2

[RidgeRunner]

I was lucky enough to see the USAF Thunderbirds this past weekend. If you never had the pleasure, make time and go see them or the Blue Angels.
Lakeland, FL became the busiest airport in the nation last week as the Sun-N-Fun Fly In brought hundreds of airplanes to our little town. A lot of experimental planes, manufacturers planes and classics were on hand. Not to forget the helicopters that put on quite a show at the conclusion of the Thunderbirds. The show consisted of:
F-18 solo, Thunderbirds, Wing-walker stunt plane, Hercules, C47, Four Acrobatic Bi-plane demonstrations with multiple aircraft in at least one team,Two Extra 300 acrobatic shows, and a acrobatic Twin Beech 18 that was crazy looking. And that is what I recognized. Great show.
I have seen a few airshows but I have never seen one where two F-16's failed to pass the pre flight checklist . They had two more planes at the ready but two of the original six Thunderbirds were deemed NOT SHOW-WORTHY and the show was delayed by about 30 minutes while the crew scrambled to switch the pilots and warm up the spares. One pilot taxied his less than perfect plane over to where the spares were and the other pilot was taken by truck to the spare planes while his aircraft remained in the original staging area. The other four F-16's taxied down the runway and waited on the other two.
It was probably just some small thing but geez, 33.3% of the planes were less than perfect. I bet maintenance got a little a$$ chewing.
Spectacular none the less.
Loved it so much I ended up there again on Sunday(ie x2)

[spareparts]

I didn't know they were still doing the sun n fun, my father used to go every otehr year, with the off year going to Oskosh, he stopped going after teh EAA stoped their involvement in the operation of the show. We had teh Blue Angles here in CHarleston this weekend, I saw them praticing over the harbor last week, but I had too much going on to go watch them Saturday or Sunday

[reelapeelin]

Originally Posted by spareparts

I didn't know they were still doing the sun n fun, my father used to go every otehr year, with the off year going to Oskosh, he stopped going after teh EAA stoped their involvement in the operation of the show. We had teh Blue Angles here in CHarleston this weekend, I saw them praticing over the harbor last week, but I had too much going on to go watch them Saturday or Sunday

Ridge...both my daughters were at the Charleston show Spare's talkin about...my 18 yr old was genuinely THRILLED by what she saw and that's a kid who's not impressed by much...

Speaking of things that fly...

http://mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/VideoAbspielen?id=188

[RidgeRunner]

Originally Posted by spareparts

I didn't know they were still doing the sun n fun, my father used to go every otehr year, with the off year going to Oskosh, he stopped going after teh EAA stoped their involvement in the operation of the show. We had teh Blue Angles here in CHarleston this weekend, I saw them praticing over the harbor last week, but I had too much going on to go watch them Saturday or Sunday

Funny, I quit going because the EAA was involved with the show operations. The only way to get access to the flightline was to have credentials and credentials meant you had to produce a pilots license or your membership card with EAA. It was many years ago but I remember paying $25 to get in and then I could only see the planes from a distance.
Never again.
This year the fee to get in was $35 for non-residents or $25 for residents of Florida and you could walk up and see everything.

[spareparts]

my father is a lifetime member of EAA(he's eat up with it), the memeber ship dues are well worth hte price of "sport aviation magazine"(I had to stop reading it, too many hobbies)he said once the EAA got out of it, the price of everything there went up, the last time he went, there were four fatalities at the show, I've heard several pilots say that once it was taken over by locals, it a mad house to fly in there