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Man, that sucks. I live in Central Washington, and for the past several years they have come to Fairchild in Spokane, but not this year. That means I would have to travel to Minot if I wanted to see them...not going to happen. Oh pooey.

Aaron :pray:

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In past years the schedule changes, even mid-season. Three years ago I came within a few hours of leaving for an 8-hour drive to a show that was non-existent but on the Thunderbirds schedule.

A chance call to the base PAO led to denial that there ever was a show scheduled and no knowledge of being on the Thunderbirds schedule. And this was in August!

My moral: Check before you go.

Rick in Maine

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The Thunderbirds replaced the Blues at Mirimar? :blink:

Mirimar was always my only chance to see the Blues within reasonable driving distance.

Oh well, Makes for a good excuse to take a trip to DM AFB to see the boneyard/airshow or to San Fransisco for fleet week.

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Taunt! No blues at Barksdale this year! Taunt!

Gives me an excuse to try and see if the GF will want to go to St.Louis in Sept. :blink:

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They'll be here in July. Will be great to see them at my own base. On that note also, if I'm home I plan on volunteering to be on the airshow committee. I hope to bring a refreshing point of view the group, as last years show was pretty poorly thought out in regards to the statics and acts. Maybe we can lure Waco up this way in a Raptor, Karl over from Nevada with an Aggressor or two, SpongeBob with a Hawkeye, "Hoops" with a P-3 and the other aviator ARCers.

Jeff

Look at it this way, Jeff... the only way it could possibly go is UP! LOL....

(for those who don't follow, the McConnell show this year was a major piece of...)

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They'll be here in July. Will be great to see them at my own base. On that note also, if I'm home I plan on volunteering to be on the airshow committee. I hope to bring a refreshing point of view the group, as last years show was pretty poorly thought out in regards to the statics and acts. Maybe we can lure Waco up this way in a Raptor, Karl over from Nevada with an Aggressor or two, SpongeBob with a Hawkeye, "Hoops" with a P-3 and the other aviator ARCers.

Jeff

One very small correction though, we are getting the Blues at McConnell next year since we got the T-Clowns this year.

It's good to know that someone who KNOWS what people want will possibly be on the committee next year!

And, as Jeremy pointed out, the McConnell show CAN'T get any worse... TRUST ME

Cheers!

John

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Sweet... The Blues in Salinas and San Francisco in Sep and Oct... perfect...

Tbirds in Sacramento aint too bad either. It's too bad there's nothing going on at Travis AFB nor Moffett... the Tbirds were there about 2 years ago... put on a nice show

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I'm not really concerned with missing the Thunderbirds this year since it looks like this is the first time in awhile that they have scheduled a European tour. Visits to the UK, France, Italy, Turkey (been a long time since they've gone there) and I believe this is also the first year that they have put Romania and Poland on the schedule. As such, a lot of our international ARC members are going to be in for quite a treat.

In the Blues case, it is nice to see them coming back to Offutt. Plus, I think early May is the earliest that Offutt has hosted an Open House as lately the shows have been usually a week or two seperated from Oshkosh. I think this airshow might be one of the biggest they've hosted since they were doing runway renovations this year and had no airshow. As such, mark your calendars for it.

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Shaw isn't on the list :worship:

Let me ask you something, my airshow experience is limited, but why does it seem that Shaw's Airshow always pales in comparison to everything else out there? I've seen pics of many shows, and it seems like Shaw's missing a lot of static displays and air displays. Why does the HQ of the 9th AF have such a lacking airshow compared to most?

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Shaw isn't on the list :worship:

Let me ask you something, my airshow experience is limited, but why does it seem that Shaw's Airshow always pales in comparison to everything else out there? I've seen pics of many shows, and it seems like Shaw's missing a lot of static displays and air displays. Why does the HQ of the 9th AF have such a lacking airshow compared to most?

You would probably have to take that up with the organizing committee for the airshow. Organizing an airshow I liken to organizing a major convention, except it takes place each year in the same location as opposed to going to different cities. Dates have to be juggled, acts have to be invited, perks have to be given to the acts to make them want to come, paperwork has to be filled out, the FAA has to sign off on what is being done (since it is a public event), traffic control has to be organized, quarters for visiting aircrews has to be arranged, advertisements have to be printed...etc. etc... Plus, its not just the base that has to organize this as the surrounding communities also have to take part since state and municipal authorities have to be working on the same page as base personnel (it can't all be done on the USAF side). Donations of time and support from private businesses also are a necessity as well. Some bases just do it better then others it seems, but also each base has its own unique security requirements as well to safeguard their own assets.

Every airshow is different and even the same base can have quite a different airshow draw from year to year. For the big acts, requests typically have to be made at least two years in advance and even then it is by no means certain that an act like the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels is going to show up if the request is made. Plus, in terms of general aviation acts, there are also lots of other conflicting events that go on in a given week that a show is scheduled. So, even if a show said they were going to try and draw new acts and displays, it still takes time before the results are seen on the ground unless they get lucky.

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In the Blues case, it is nice to see them coming back to Offutt. Plus, I think early May is the earliest that Offutt has hosted an Open House as lately the shows have been usually a week or two seperated from Oshkosh. I think this airshow might be one of the biggest they've hosted since they were doing runway renovations this year and had no airshow. As such, mark your calendars for it.

Sorta sucks for me though in outstate Nebraska. I'll be in the midst of spring planting, and my nephews still in school. We'll see. Maybe we can make a quick Sunday trip. I sooo want them to experience one of the service demos. I too hope that new runway pulls in some great stuff.

Rick L.

Edited by Spruemeister
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Thanks for the information Jay. ShawFest used to be an annual event (and it used to be better from what I remember) but then it became every other year. There was one in Fall of '02, so the next was supposed to be Fall of '04, but it was moved to Spring '05 becuase the Camden,SC airshow was in Nov '04 and they had the T-Birds. The jets took off from Shaw though. The last one was Spring of '05, so there should be one this coming year.

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23-24 Galway, Ireland :(

First time any US display team will have displayed here! :D

I can see all the anti-fun protesters getting fits when they here this...... :)

I am assuming there will be no Red Arrows this year then, pity, but for a free airshow, not to worry. The only dissapointment is if you want to see the ground demo and get pics of the planes you'll have to be in Shannon Airport, and the display is in Salthill, so you can't see both!

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Yeah, Jeff. I understand your bitterness. A very similar thing happened at the last ME ANG show @ BGR. Officer that organized it used the show to largely massage a large ego. Static and flying, other than the Blues, was pretty sad.

Rick in Maine

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