I've been to air shows all over the US and many in Europe from Paris to Farnborough,
Probably the most thrilling air show I've ever been to was in 1987 at Ramstien,, I know I was there in 1988 as well and I'll get to that!
In 1987 the runway was fogged in but they had planed on the weather and had 5 or 6 helicopter teams there, not really all that thrilling, I'm not a big fan of helicopters anyway, me and some friends got up on top of this bus to get a better view, there was a B-52 flyby during a mild break in the fog, they were on a round the world flight so no touch and go.
, I'm not sure what flight team of jets did it, but one did fly for a bit, then the fog got really bad and we thought it was over,
, about then a single VO105 came over, and started a routine over the crowd, that year there wasn't nearly as many as the next , maybe 50 thousand give or take,, the bus we were on top of was pretty much alone except for the sea of people and I'm sure, stood out for the pilot who began to use it as his focal point in his routine, at first this was neat, we had ring side seats to a helicopter show! Pretty soon tho I was looking at the edge of the bus judging the distance to the ground and the amount of damage my ankles were going to sustaine as I jumped off in case this went all wrong!
this guy would fly towards us, pull nose strait up climb, roll back somewhat,,, then spin the tail around and look "ME" in the eye! As he came down, pulled back and rolled out towards the runway, and again,,I'm thinking just in case I hadn't seen it the first time! LOL
The fourth time he did this same move, me and my friends all looked at each other and wondered when we were going to jump? But we stayed,,, on the fifth try, he got it over, spun the trial,around inverted, then nosed over and pulled it back to the deck, the rotor wash blowing us around ! I'd seen my first upside down flying helicopter!
The show was over wise a wasted trip, but I'd never seen a helicopter upside down, and I'd never been as scared and still spellbound as I was that day,, at one point I was afraid to jump because I thought it might panic the pilot and cause him to otherwise crash!
A very personal show for me! And probably not much of a show for anyone not within 50 feet of my location!
The next year was the big crash, I was way to close to that one as well and paid with some flesh, but I'm still here, almost a hundred are not!
I love air shows, yet it's like pulling teeth to get me to one since then, I seem to chicken out as the dates get near, I still love to fly, just don't like being on the ground near low flying jets!
Early the next year 1989 I was on Manuevers in Germany on the side of a hill overlooking a valley when an F-4 phantom came roaring over, low and slow, smoke trails standing out as they always did, that startled me, he was almost in the trees,,but then the F-16 coming in low from the F-4s 2 o'clock, nearly strait at me doing a breakneck turn, rolling over and locking up instantly on the phantoms tail made me fall to the ground, the second F-16 falling in on the firsts wing was the icing on the cake, I had cracked! Laying in the ground, tears in my eyes, I'd had all I wanted!
I love to fly, but I keep it on the computer,, I've flown a handful of times since then for real, I missed Red bull again this year,, still chickening out at the last minute! It's like a game of chicken for me just to see how close I can get to actually going to an air show!
The picture is from 1988 Ramstein.
