Anyone attend this weekend? I was there today (Sunday 10/31/10) with my daughter. It was great! F-16, F-15 and F-18 demos. C-17 flybys. Geico Skytypers were pretty neat (SNJ5 should join them ), Rob Holland and his MX-2 did some crazy stuff. The MS760's were really interesting, evidently there are 40 or so purchased by the company authorized to build and sell them here in the states - a 4 place jet that you can do aerobatics in. The Thunderbirds were awesome - actually the first time I've seen them live. I had tickets that put us on the beach, 10 feet away from dead show center - so we were right where all the action happened. Funny thing I noticed, with all the technology involved with the Thunderbirds, one of their team members was standing right near me pivoting a small mirror back-and-forth towards the planes during most of their show. I assume that he was just indicating where show center was. I uploaded a couple of video - unfortunately most didn't turn out good because I couldn't see the LCD viewfinds as it was washed out in the sun. The first one is the start of the Thunderbird show. The second one, is one of them doing a minimum radius turn. Watch closely at the end - as while I was trying to see if I could see in my viewfinder yet, I got surprised from behind and the other solo flew by from behind at what seemed like 500 feet. Scared the crap out of me as you can see from the slight camera shake.. Turn up your speakers! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSKD6cHzzM4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIahuxRE-PY
I was in Orlando so I missed out. However, there were A LOT of C130s, KC35s, and C17s that were flying over us in Winter Park lining up to land or something at Orlando International Aiport. It may have been the same 3 planes flying over and over again, but it was odd. The last time I saw the C17 yesterday was like 3:30PM and I think the show ended at 4PM. No idea why they came over us (starting from 11AM no less). Pic I took at 250mm: http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1134/img7014gz.jpg
I think I remember they said the C-17 that flew the show was out of Mississippi - it surprised me because I thought for sure it would have come from Charleston just up the "road" so to speak. My daughter picks the F-15 as her favorite - because of it's sound. Was pretty funny, there were a lot of startled people as most of the aircraft made their entries from behind, unexpectedly, low and fast. I wish now we had attended both days - the F-22 was there only on Saturday.
I didn't realize the show was in town til Saturday afternoon. Then I saw on their webpage the F22 as only there for Saturday...very odd. The F15 (maybe a different one) flew past me while I was jogging on Canaveral National Seashore. It was pretty loud as you said. I first thought it was a Raptor due to the wings and how they looked at low altitude. It wasn't til I was right next to me that I noticed. Pretty cool area, but sad to see the shuttle pushed back. Last launch had 2 F15s do low flybys afterward in front of the crowd. Pic from the road leading to the parking lot: http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/8763/img6505.jpg Pic after the 1 mile jog on the beach. Closest you can get: http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4075/img6511e.jpg I'm still a couple miles away from it (250mm zoom). Heat was up that day and a lot of heat haze as you can see. Can't wait til February. Both shuttle pads will be occupied!
