Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Sandman on September 29, 2003, 12:32:18 AM

Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Sandman on September 29, 2003, 12:32:18 AM
http://kerncountyairshow.com/


Can't understand the logic of making it on a weekday, but what the heck... it's fifteen miles away and the Snowbirds will be there.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Octavius on September 29, 2003, 12:36:12 AM
"... featuring the Canadian Snowbirds"

Booooring..

They make formation passes for about 20 minutes and thats it.

The Thunderbirds aren't much ahead of them either, but somewhat entertaining.  

Only formation flyers I've seen and would like to see again were the Blue Angels and the four AT6 Texan guys (forget their names).

All four of these groups were at Dayton during the con.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Sandman on September 29, 2003, 12:38:40 AM
Well... we haven't had the Blue Angels here in China Lake since 1992.


The last show I went to was at Edwards AFB about three years ago. It was practically unbearable.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Chairboy on September 29, 2003, 12:43:47 AM
It looks RV friendly and my wife seems interested, so I might go.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Strange on September 29, 2003, 07:38:33 AM
I think the AT-6 guy's your talking about are the Aeroshell Texans..   White with Red wings?

I know they put on a good show.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Octavius on September 29, 2003, 11:24:28 AM
Yeah, that be them, Strange, thanks :)
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Golfer on September 29, 2003, 02:42:03 PM
Anyone who thinks airshows are boring...

Wasn't in Dayton in July.  Tops the list for airshows I've been to...and its a fair number.

And now for a shameless plug...

Come to the Wings of Victory Airshow, Lancaster, OH 2004.  The last 2 years have been great successes and August '04...Mark your calendars!  Presented by the Historical Aircraft Squadron...

HAS (http://www.historicalaircraftsquadron.com)
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Octavius on September 29, 2003, 03:04:17 PM
Hey,  I love airshows.  They're the greatest thing since sliced bread.  It's the Canadian Snowbirds that bore me ;)
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: slimm50 on September 29, 2003, 03:20:26 PM
Another cool airshow is put on by the Lonestar Museum of Flight, in Galveston every Fall. They have some great planes, and you can get up and personal with 'em. But the best thing is the crowds aren't nearly as crushing as the Wings Over Houston air show.
Slim03
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: KanadianKrusty on September 29, 2003, 07:01:03 PM
Having seen them at the Quebec City Air Show in 97, 99, and 2001, the Snowbirds are indeed boring, and I'm glad they weren't there this year, intsead we got one more CF-18 demo w/ cpt. Dan Belanger (he's AWESOME), and as far as canadian teams go the Northern Lights were FAR superior to anyone else, but 2 years ago they got jets and started sucking.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Chairboy on September 30, 2003, 10:37:55 PM
I'm going.  Not going to take the RV after all, just gonna drive up in the morning with a friend and his friend's kid.  If any of y'all see a fat guy with a skinny beard & mustache, frameless glasses, and a hat that says 'The Onion', that's me.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Sandman on October 01, 2003, 10:50:59 PM
I have to admit... typical of this type of bush league event around here. The small scale only marred by the poor planning.


Still... There was one highlight... the SnowBirds. They're not as loud nor as fast as the T-Birds or Blue Angels, but I definitely admired their precision.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Chairboy on October 01, 2003, 11:04:24 PM
My beef with the planning was this:

1. Waiting until one act until starting the next.  At Chino and Van Nuys, when one act is 1/2 way done, the next one taxis out and takes off to get some altitude.  The pause between acts is a couple minutes if anything at all.

At Kern, one act would finish.  They would fly a couple passes to get applause, then set up, land, and taxi off the runway.  Then the next act would walk out to their plane, get in, taxi out, and take off.  Easily 10 minutes between some of the acts.

2. They didn't deal with problems well.  When the Zlin 50 "Tumbling Bear" had an instrumentation problem and decided to prudently resolve it before doing his thing, they decided to just stop the whole show.  Eventually, the next act did their thing, but there was a 15-25 minute delay before it got started.  They should have told the other acts to be ready to go on.

Nobody said hi, guess I need to wear a bigger hat next time.  :D
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Sandman on October 01, 2003, 11:07:52 PM
In a town this small, I couldn't walk 20 feet without bumping into someone that I knew...

Had my eye out for an "Onion" cap... didn't see it... but then again, it got a little congested after 3PM.
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Sikboy on October 02, 2003, 08:50:33 AM
I always wanted that godawful balloon show to work (I take it the Air Show replaced the Balloon thing?). But it was allways ****ed up. For starters the first week of October is ALWAYS windy.  Secondly, the price was always ludicrous. I would drive out to Inyokern just to ask how much it cost to get in, so that I could laugh and walk away.

how's the restoration on "Doc" going? That's a pretty cool story.

-Sik
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Sandman on October 02, 2003, 09:07:09 AM
From what I hear, the Balloon Show was just expensive. I'm not sure how they compensate people with airplanes, but they had to pay the balloons to show up.

Price was great for the airshow... $10 for parking and that was it.


I'm not sure how "Doc" is going. That dream of a warbird museum fell flat and all of the aircraft that were parked there are gone.


Heard one quote from a woman about the Snowbirds... it was something along the lines of, "Sometimes, men are just amazing. Women would have never thought to do something like this with weapons of war."
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: Hawklore on October 02, 2003, 09:55:40 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Octavius
"... featuring the Canadian Snowbirds"

Booooring..

They make formation passes for about 20 minutes and thats it.

The Thunderbirds aren't much ahead of them either, but somewhat entertaining.  

Only formation flyers I've seen and would like to see again were the Blue Angels and the four AT6 Texan guys (forget their names).

All four of these groups were at Dayton during the con.



Totaly agree, Thunderbirds are crap, they just do everything, or attempt to do, what the blueangels do... Blue Angels are the oldest and the best. Snowbirds, for the first time seeing them, they were ok.. I got a nice Patriotic Pass of the AT 6's and the Thunderbirds, just a loud annoying flying painted aircraft team...

Hehe,

I live in Jax, Birthplace of the Angels, so.. I can't agree more..:lol
Title: Kern County Air Show
Post by: muckmaw on October 02, 2003, 10:00:24 AM
I dont know. I say the T-birds at Schenectady in Aug.

I was throughly impressed.

The opposing solos did alot of head on, Knife edge passes, some surprises in there.

Perhaps they've changed their routine. Having seen the blues and the T-birds, I would say they're routines are quite similar now.

(I've never seen the snowbirds or the Texans. Everone who sees the texans cannot stop talking about them, though)