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2007 Oceana Air Show Report


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I've just about completed editing my images from the 2007 Oceana Air Show. Cdr Erie did an awesome job, the theme was "Accelerate Your Weekend" but should have been titled "The Show Must Go On". Just weeks prior to the show, some static display aircraft regretfully backed out. Then a few performers, including the popular E-2 Hawkeye, cancelled as well. On Thursday, the weather shack was forecasting heavy rain for the weekend. Finally, there was the tragic loss of Jan Wildbergh and his SNJ Skytyper during a practice session on Friday. But the weather was georgous, the show was awesome. If you were there, please post your pix here.

Cheers,

Dave

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The Legacy Hornet Demo was...ah...exciting, loud, really cool, but it was not a Tomcat Demo with vapor sreaming off the wings as they swept forward. Sorry, my intent is not to start a flame war, but it is what it is. Just so you don't get confused, three different Hornets were used over the three days of the show.

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I was really impressed by the Blackwater Parachute team, especially this perfomer who has two artificial legs. The teams were transported skyward by a pair of Navy MH-53s. They even made a flawless jump on Sunday despite the high winds.

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And what can be said about the Blues that has not been said or written before? I've been watching their demos since they flew the F-11 and their show is just as awesome to this old man as it was when I was a kid. During one show they put up two number 7s.

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There were plenty of warbirds present. Unfortunately, I have yet to edit all of them. The Yak-9 was awesome and put on quite a show. The Strike Master was equally awesome and added some variety to the line up. Unfortunately, the Navy did not put up its legacy flight. My understanding is it was due to a funding cut. I would have liked to have viewed the Skyraider and Corsair in the air.

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The Fleet Fly Past was perfect. The TAC Demo was a yawner. None of the Hornets banked left or did a banana pass, they all banked left, away from the show line. I was at the north end of the field and it would have been great to see some Hornets pulling vapor. The Navy canceled the Fleet Flyby and Tac Demo scheduled for Sunday.

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FYI, I shot the majority of the show from the far north end in the grass. It was much cooler there, softer too, and there were no children stepping in my camera bag. I know many of you prefer show center but I think the north end is best. If you had been there and had to change lens to a 28-135 mm in order to get full frame banana passes, I'm certain you would be a convert to the grass and leave show center. I used my trusty Canon 30D with a Canon 100-400 Ultra-Sonic Zoom. Shutter speeds used for the fast movers were between 1500 and 2500 of a second. I used 250 to 320 of a second for prop blur.

If you can only attend one show a year, attend the Oceana Air Show. Next year will mark the show's 50th anniversary and talk right now indicates it will be massive with all three jet teams in attendance.

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