Miramar Airshow 2004 Highlights
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This
was an unfortunate year for the Miramar Airshow - aerobatics performer
Sean deRosier was involved in a fatal crash on Friday, and bad weather
on Saturday and Sunday forced the cancellation of many displays, and restrictions
on others. However, John Helton was able to do his "World's
Smallest Aircraft Carrier" act both days, landing his 1940 Piper Cub on
a moving Chevy van fitted with a roof rack, and then taking off again.
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There were other novelty acts as well, including Robosaurus
and the Shockwave jet truck, which certainly pleases the audience even
if it isn't an aircraft!
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The Shockwave truck "racing" the Red Bull MiG-17 fighter. The truck
races various aircraft at different shows, and somehow the plane always
loses, probably because he's being paid to! The truck has a
high enough power to weight ratio to beat its competitors if they were
both doing a standing start, but there's no way it can win as it did here
from a standing start against an aircraft that's already in the air.
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The Patriots civilian jet display team did their usual proficient display in
their attractive L39 Albatros jets, built in the Czech Republic.
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The promised F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter wasn't able to make it because
of commitments elsewhere, but the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber did a flyby.
As usual the stealth bomber did a high flat pass and turned around far
from the viewing area, despite the large areas of empty space around Miramar.
I really don't know how it's possible for a display by such an extraordinary
piece of technology to be boring, but I'll be saving my excitement up for
the day when I see it bank with its top side toward the crowd.
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Yes, something like this pass by a world war two P-51 Mustang and its navy counterpart
the F4U Corsair would do nicely!
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An F-16 Fighting Falcon takes off using afterburner before meeting up with
"Val-halla" and another Mustang called "Six Shooter" for one of the air
force's Heritage Flights. The guy in back is the pilot for
next year's demonstration season, learning the ropes from the current demo
pilot.
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All
of that water in the air did at least allow some of the aircraft to pull
a lot of vapor out of the air as they did their turns. This
is the F-16 again, an aircraft which isn't normally associated with this
much vapor.
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The highlight of the show for many people was the Marine Air Ground Task Force
display. This large CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter carried a
16,000 pound (7,250 kilogram) howitzer onto a simulated battlefield while
a pair of CH-46 Sea Knights like the one in the background brought in troops.
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A pair of AH-1 Super Cobra helicopter gunships also orbited around the area,
performing simulated strafing runs to soften up the landing zone for the
Sea Knights. The F-18 Hornet and AV-8B which are usually involved
in the display were grounded because of the low cloud ceiling, so the Super
Cobra also had the honor of igniting the Wall of Fire which is a regular
part of airshows in the United States.
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The
end of the display brought an impressive Pass in Review by all of the helicopter
types used in the display, as well as the troops on the ground with their
tanks and armored personnel carriers.
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At the end of each daytime show the US Navy Blue Angels display team performed,
and on Saturday showed that they were pretty proficient with the vapor,
too.
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The dark blanket of clouds forced them to do their low show, but the audience
didn't seem to mind as they buzzed in front of the display stands.
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At the end of one show we were treated to the extremely rare sight of one
of the Blue Angels doing a tailhook landing, made possible by the arrested
landing training equipment which crosses one of the runways at this base.
This wasn't part of the act, apparently it was made necessary by mechanical
problems with the front nose gear.
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See highlights of the Miramar airshow in
2008.