Background

Having had a successful outing with my digital camera at the NAS/JRB Willow Grove "Wings of Freedom" air show near my house, I was itchy to try out some more air show photography with the camera. The very next weekend (20-21 September 2002) was the NAS Oceana "Neptune Festival" air show. With a six-hour drive each way to Virginia Beach to attend the show, I kept a close watch on the Weather Channel all week long. When I saw the weather was going to cooperate, I told my oldest son (age 7) that he and I were going on a road trip. We were going to give Daddy's new Fiero GT a good test drive and see another air show. He was thrilled (as was I).

This is the first of two postings for the attendees of the air show. This posting deals with the performers at the show. The next posting will deal with the static displays.

The following pictures pretty much outline the flow of the show. I felt this was the best way to show what happened. I have reordered a few pictures to keep like subjects together. The show was more fluid than I remember from years past. They used to do one thing at a time and not start something else until the first thing ended. Not so with this show. When they launched the F-14s and F-18s for the mass fly over, the final launch of the group was the F-18 demo aircraft, and he went right into his routine. Then, after the mass fly over, the AH-64 started his demo routine while the F-14s and F-18s were still recovering. It made for a very hectic period of photography.

In the pictures, where I could determine it, I have included the aircraft's unit designation and serial number / BuNo in the file names. If I could not obtain these, then the file name does not mention them.

This posting got a little out-of-hand as I found it very hard to limit myself on what to include and what to not include. I found myself wanting to try to give you, the readers, as much of the experience as I could. Bear with me on this, and I hope you enjoy all the pictures.

Warbirds Review

There were a bunch of Warbirds that flew in the morning. As I was just arriving, I was not close enough to get pictures of most of them. Only the T-28s stayed up long enough to get a few shots. I need to get a Monogram kit and a Black Box cockpit set. I especially like the blue one.

(click on the image below to load the full size photo)   Mass Launch, Fly Over, and Recovery This is probably my most favorite time of the whole show. Excitement mounts for about 30 minutes as you hear all the jet engines whining into life in the distance and watch the aircraft taxi to the runways. After this long build-up, the launches only take a brief one or two minutes, but it is some of the noisiest minutes of the whole day. The number and make-up of the aircraft vary from year to year. This year had six F-14Bs and five F-18Cs in the show. I was reliving the experience in my head as I processed these pictures. It still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up... Black smoke in the backgrounds of some of the pictures is the residue from multiple explosions set off to simulate airfield attacks from both a gaggle of four F-18Cs as well as a pair of F-14B "Bombcats". This marks the first time I have seen the Tomcats get to do a ground attack simulation. Between all the noise and the explosions, my son's eyes were as wide as saucers during this very exciting 30 or so minutes.               Hornet Demo The US Hornet demo was done by an F-18C. I was hoping to see an F-18E/F do the demo. I knew the Canadians were doing a Hornet demo later in the day, so it would have made sence to use a Super Hornet so as to be a bit different. Oh well... The Snowbirds The Canadians were well represented both on the ground in static displays and in the air with demonstration aircraft. It is usually a treat for me to see the Snowbirds. I had the misfortune of being at the Saturday show, though, where some low puffy clouds showed up over lunch and forced the Snowbirds to do their low show. Nothing personal, but the low show for the Snowbirds is only a little more interesting than watching paint dry. Other Demonstrations There were tons of things flying during the day. I did not waste much time on the performers that did not make lots of noise, though. I give them credit for their obvious flying skill and tallent, but I do not find them as interesting as the fast jets. This section outlines a few of the demonstration aircraft. I missed an opportunity on the Canadian Hornet that flew the CF-18 demonstration. It was one of the extremely colorful anniversary birds, but I realised too late and was not in a position to get a good picture. What I got here is the best I could do under the circumstances. Maybe some other time... A Patriotic P-3C The A-10 Demo was done by the flagship of the 23rd FW. F-14B, same aircraft as one of the mass launch aircraft from earlier in the day.     Another Patriotic Finish F-16C from the 20th FW   AH-64A Apache   F4U-5 Corsair   F-86F Sabre         CF-18A Hornet TF-51D Mustang Shock Wave One of the most popular performances of the show was not even an aircraft. Well, maybe it is some sort of aircraft. It is Shock Wave, a jet powered truck. It is powered by three engines that are afterburning versions of the same engines found in the commercial 727 airliner. Shock Wave's show is short, but quite spectacular. This is my son's favorite part of the air show. Go figure, with all the Tomcats and Hornets buzzing around, he likes the truck best... Typically Shock Wave races an aircraft in the show. I have seen this truck beat most anything put against it, including beating an F-14 Tomcat one year, but he did not race a Tomcat this year ... ;o( At a speed around 375mph, it is easy to see why it is labeled the fastest truck in the world (certified by the Guiness Book of World Records). The thrust to weight ratio on the truck is off the scale. The announcers were saying the truck could acellerate at three Gs, straight up! It is easily the highest powered vehicle on the airfield for the weekend (and probably the whole year). The Truck Getting Around with the Engines Off Part of the Fire Show. This was very impressive in the dark on the Friday night show.   Getting Ready Getting Set GO!!! Blue Angels The headliner for the day was the US Navy Blue Angels. By the time they flew in the afternoon, the weather was CAVU (Clear And Visibility Unlimited, pilot talk for no clouds or haze) and they put on one of the best performances I have seen in recent memory. The Blue's show started with Fat Albert (the team's C-130 support aircraft) demonstrating a rocket assisted take off (RATO). This is always neat to see. It was even more spectacular on the Friday night show when they did this in late evening twilight. The thin smoke trailing from the aircraft as it climbs out sparkles with burning embers over most of its length -- very cool! An interesting note on the Saturday show involved one of the Blue Angels solo aircraft. I saw them wheel away #6 and #7 early in the morning. Apparently #6 had a problem that could not be fixed by show time, so #7 flew as the opposing solo. "So what," you say. Well, for the first time I can ever remember seeing it, they repainted #7 to have a "6" on the tail. Hence, there was a two-seated #6 flying for the show. Call me a geek, but I thought this was kind-of neat.   Being Towed Away Being Worked On The Morning Line-up Note the Missing #6 Heading for the Runway Note the Two-Seat #6   A Beautiful Opening Pass I know that they fudge the formation to make them look even tighter from the audience's viewing angle than they really are, but it is still very impressive. If you saw this formation from somewhere other than from the intended audience view, you would find #3 is practically in trail to #1 and #4 is in trail to #2, distorting the diamond formation for the sake of making the wingtip-to-canopy separation appear even less than the 36 inches that it really is. If you really watch this pass as they run the length of the flight line, you will also note a gentle shift in the positions of all the aircraft in order to maintain the illusion of the super tight formation. Make no mistake, these pilots are the best of the best... David

Photos and text © by David W Aungst