Air Sho..fog, storms and disappointment
In the decade and some years of the CAF being headquartered in Midland, we've never even come close to a rainout of the Air Sho. But all good things must end and today was the day. Dawn broke with low clouds, fog and drizzle but the forecast called for the weather to change. And it did, with thunderstorms and more low clouds.
At the pilot's briefing the prediction was for all the weather to lift between eleven and one o'clock, so we knew we might have to adjust things in the show to some degree. But the "lifting" never came, only a few breaks that served to falsely raise our hopes. By 1:30 the main event, the Tora Tora Tora reenactment of Pearl Harbor, was scrapped and we never got anything else significant off the ground. Most of our loyal fans stuck with us, however, and we did have all planes do a powered run down the taxiway in front of the crowd.
The crowd did get an extraordinary thrill however from our explosives teams. The charges that make up the explosions for the show are laid early in the morning and so were ready to go for this afternoons show. Not to disappoint, the decision was made to fire off this significant amount of ordnance in rapid fire fashion. To say the least it was impressive.
Later in the afternoon, with a thunderstorm on it's way a few entrepid aviators did take to the skies including the Masters of Disaster Aerobatics team. I would term them "The Three Stooges take to the air". Some exceptional flying and at very low level below the clouds. The Jet Truck is also part of their act...zooming along at 400 mph on the runway while the three biplanes try to run into each other in the air. I have to admit, their aerobatics are the closest I've seen to pilots having a mid-air and getting away with it. We also had a low level demonstration of the F-16. F-16's normally use airspace upwards in altitude of 15,000 feet in their shows. This was all below 4000 feet, mostly high speed passes, which suited the crowd just fine.
I feel a great disappointment about the situation today, mainly for the many 1000's of people who come to the airshow. A great many come every single year..and look forward to it each and every time. Many more are first time visitors who are there to see what I consider to be one of the best entertainment and historical events in the country. Like one couple with two small children. They looked and sounded to be Eastern Europeans. They stopped me and asked in broken English..."will there be flying today"? I had just heard an announcement from the "Show Boss" over my radio that the Tora Pearl Harbor event was scrapped so I had to tell these nice people that "flying didn't look good today". I've never seen four people look so crestfallen. I hope they had a good time anyway and that they'll come back next year.
Today's amazing pictures: Sunday Air Sho Pictures
In the decade and some years of the CAF being headquartered in Midland, we've never even come close to a rainout of the Air Sho. But all good things must end and today was the day. Dawn broke with low clouds, fog and drizzle but the forecast called for the weather to change. And it did, with thunderstorms and more low clouds.
At the pilot's briefing the prediction was for all the weather to lift between eleven and one o'clock, so we knew we might have to adjust things in the show to some degree. But the "lifting" never came, only a few breaks that served to falsely raise our hopes. By 1:30 the main event, the Tora Tora Tora reenactment of Pearl Harbor, was scrapped and we never got anything else significant off the ground. Most of our loyal fans stuck with us, however, and we did have all planes do a powered run down the taxiway in front of the crowd.
The crowd did get an extraordinary thrill however from our explosives teams. The charges that make up the explosions for the show are laid early in the morning and so were ready to go for this afternoons show. Not to disappoint, the decision was made to fire off this significant amount of ordnance in rapid fire fashion. To say the least it was impressive.
Later in the afternoon, with a thunderstorm on it's way a few entrepid aviators did take to the skies including the Masters of Disaster Aerobatics team. I would term them "The Three Stooges take to the air". Some exceptional flying and at very low level below the clouds. The Jet Truck is also part of their act...zooming along at 400 mph on the runway while the three biplanes try to run into each other in the air. I have to admit, their aerobatics are the closest I've seen to pilots having a mid-air and getting away with it. We also had a low level demonstration of the F-16. F-16's normally use airspace upwards in altitude of 15,000 feet in their shows. This was all below 4000 feet, mostly high speed passes, which suited the crowd just fine.
I feel a great disappointment about the situation today, mainly for the many 1000's of people who come to the airshow. A great many come every single year..and look forward to it each and every time. Many more are first time visitors who are there to see what I consider to be one of the best entertainment and historical events in the country. Like one couple with two small children. They looked and sounded to be Eastern Europeans. They stopped me and asked in broken English..."will there be flying today"? I had just heard an announcement from the "Show Boss" over my radio that the Tora Pearl Harbor event was scrapped so I had to tell these nice people that "flying didn't look good today". I've never seen four people look so crestfallen. I hope they had a good time anyway and that they'll come back next year.
Today's amazing pictures: Sunday Air Sho Pictures
