Thunder in the Valley

Today I went to an air show. If I have ever been to an air show before, I can't recall it, so today was a lot of fun for me. It was the inaugural day for the Cedar Valley Air Show, Thunder in the Valley. Parking was free, tickets were only $10, the weather was mostly sunny, 80 degrees, and there was a wind of 10-15 MPH all day. All in all, the perfect day for an air show.

Given this was the first-ever air show at our local airport, I was quite impressed with how well executed the whole day was. Mom, myself, and one of mom's co-workers arrived about an hour in advance of the anticipated show start. We were efficiently directed to a parking space and only had to walk about a mile to the entrance (truly, I didn't find that too bad at all). Then it was time to stand in line for 25 minutes to gain entrance to the air field. A quick bag search and body wanding by some cute military personnel, and it was time to find a place to park our lawn chairs.

Things kicked off about 11:30 am, roughly 30 minutes late, with the U.S. Army Black Daggers. The Black Daggers are a Special Operations Command Parachute Team. Throughout the day the Black Daggers made several jumps, but every single time each jumper made a perfect standing landing on a circle about the size of an ice cream pail lid. I've always thought it would be fun to make a skydiving jump, and after watching these guys today it seems even more intriguing. Definitely one for the bucket list.

After the Black Daggers got the show going there were a lot of individual aerobatic planes and teams. And a school bus with a jet engine on the back that reached runway speeds of about 350 MPH. That was pretty cool. And more than a little ridiculous. And then the Stealth Bomber arrived.

I've seen B-2 bombers before. In fact, I was at a ceremony at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri when one of the B-2's arrived and was installed. I have always found the Stealth Bomber to be a fascinating plane, and today's example only added to the allure. The plane was flying over the crowd before anyone realized it was there. The B-2 made several passes before heading off to other air shows and to buzz a few football games. Each time, despite being only a few hundred feet above the crowd, the plane was quieter than the typical sound you hear when a car passes you. Of course, that's the point, but it's still pretty darn neat.

After the Stealth took off for locales unknown, it was back to aerobatics for awhile. There was one stunt flyer who was pretending he didn't know how to fly. Most of his performance was only 10-15 feet above the ground. The stuff thousands of feet in the air was cool, but then, so was the stuff that happened right in front of us, on our level. While we had fantastic seats and were able to see all of the ground level stuff, I did feel bad for the majority of the crowd that was unable to appreciate the skills of all of the performers.

Mid-afternoon the pace of the show slowed down as the USAF Thunderbirds prepared to take to the skies. There was an Air Force recruits swearing in ceremony, and then all of the final pre-flight checks for the Thunderbirds. And then the real fun began.

The Thunderbirds performed for almost 45 minutes, making multiple passes. The level of skill, precision, and obvious dedication was nothing short of awesome. And inspiring. It was the perfect way to end the show. Everything was wrapped up by 4:30 in the afternoon, only 5 hours after it all officially began.

It was a wonderful day. I cannot remember the last time I was able to just sit and enjoy time in nature, with family and friends, and not have to worry about accomplishing some task. It was a gorgeous day, I'm only mildly sunburned (thanks to about 10 applications of sunscreen and the giant umbrella we took to provide periodic shade), and I got to see some pretty amazing things.

And now for pictures!!!

Stealth Bomber. It was quite stealthy. Impressively so, in fact.

The AeroShell Aerobatic Team. Normally this team has 4 planes but today performed with just two. They made some great smoke designs and provided a good demonstration of precision flying. Of course, the Thunderbirds kind of outshone these two pilots later in the day...

USAF Thunderbirds, Diamond formation

The announcer called this one the "photo pass". I wonder why.

5 of the 6 Thunderbirds on one of the last passes of the day. The whole demonstration was quite impressive, and yes, made me feel just a little more patriotic.

And for a final bit of fun....

Love!

~g