TBA
Pacific Air Show
The Pacific Air Show in Huntington Beach continues to be an excellent show, although this year was marred by low clouds pretty much the whole weekend, and contrary to forecast, they didn't burn off as much as hopeed in the afternoons.
Things kicked off with an early practice on Friday morning from the United States Air Force Thunderbirds, then US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet Demo Team went to town. The California Air National Guard's firefighting-equipped C-130J was next, doing its trademark water drop, which was most definitely difficult to appreciate with the low clouds making a difficult background.
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds and their massive 9-plane formation of CT-114 Tutors was next, with a prime noon-ish timeslot. Seeing nine aircraft doing acrobatics that much more spectacular than one or four or six, even if the little CT-114 Tutors don't have the power of the heavier front-line supersonic fighters. The US Navy brought out their F-35C Lightning II Demo Team next, which was fun but not nearly as impressive a high angle of attack fighter as they claim to be when they show off. Still fun to see, feel, and hear 40,000lb+ of thrust tho. Somewhere in there was the usual acts I didn't get any good photos of, including the FedEx 757-200.
Not to slight western air shows, but after the Dubai Air Show two years ago, military helicopter performances here are all pretty tame. They fly in formation, they fly in a straight line, they hover, they might spin in place... pretty boring compared to the acrobatics done elsewhere. The US Army National Training Center's UH-60M Blackhawk and UH-72A Lakota are capable aircraft but watching the Blackhawks hover in place, causing the floating position markers to fly into the air... zzzzzzz...
The US Navy did their final contribution next, with the EA-18G Grower Demo Team putting on some spectacular vapour cones, and then a USAF KC-135R Stratotanker from nearby March ARB helped out, complete with a boom extended pass. Both were followed shortly by a bit of a break in the clouds, and some great weather for the USAF F-22 Demo Team, including a high angle of attack maneuver that puts most other "high AoA" aircraft to shame thanks to the F-22A's massive controll surfaces and thrust vectoring. Also the US military seems to finally have discovered that expending flares at air shows makes for some extra excitement, as the F-22A finally took full advantage of this, including showing off falling at the same rate as one of their flares while ejecting another and recovering-- way cool.
The US Air Force's F-35A Demo Team came next, and joined up for the trademark Heritage flight in addition to their own performance, where the F-35A, F-22A, and a vintage P-51 Mustang (of which there are many enthusiasts flying one that they can scrape up).
Final act was the USAF Thunderbirds, who probably got the only bit of truly clear blue sky the whole day. They had a brief mechanical glitch with one aircraft but were able to continue the show, including their trademark The Delta, The Diamond, and some great solos.
The day's fooding was started off with two food trucks at the air show. Express Hibachi for a tasty but very overpriced steak hibachi bowl ($24 for a little bowl), followed by the Berlins Truck for a late lunch of a kielbasa that was also yummy but more reasonably priced at $12 or $14 or so. Dinner was Fisherman's Table by Yamasaki, where they have a pretty solid selection of fish from international locales including Mexican tiger shrimp and New Zealand uni. I then unfortunately ruined the meal by getting the "fisherman's karrage" which was basically their take on fish and chips... and was not particularly tasty. Sigh.