LVSteve
Member
The had the Aviation Nation Airshow over at Nellis this weekend. Didn't fancy going yesterday as it was quite windy, and windy at Nellis means eating a lot of dust and dirt. Turned out the parachuting was canceled because of the wind, and the shuttle bus service got totally screwed up for some reason. People were waiting two hours in the sun in the Speedway car park.
Today was forecast to be much calmer, and it was. Sadly, the sky had that odd glare that we get when there is a bunch of particulate and/or pollen in the air. That's not good for photography or allergies. Turns out whatever is out there is making my wife sneeze and causing her eyes to water. After a short debate, we decided to watch the show on video.
Boy, what a great decision. We have been to the shows there before, and it seems that most of the flying routines were the same old, same old. Also, I suspect world events are such that the USAF had few heavies spare for the static display. No B-52, B-1, or B-2, and the CAF only sent a B-25, Hellcat, Spitfire XIV and a Texan. Apparently there were no big transports, either. About the only static aircraft of real interest was the Scaled Composites Proteus. Apparently, the joints are covered in some kind of duct tape!
As usual, the Thunderbirds provided the finale...well, most of them did. The #4 kite aborted as they lined up for takeoff, wrecking the diamond formation. Buddy who was there said the display was "off", like losing that aircraft at the last minute put the whole gang off kilter. Watching the video it seemed like the repositioning maneuvers were taking longer than in previous displays. Maybe it was so calm they had to extend things to allow the smoke to clear. Don't know for sure, but the display wasn't tight like normal.
All in all, we are glad we stayed home.
Today was forecast to be much calmer, and it was. Sadly, the sky had that odd glare that we get when there is a bunch of particulate and/or pollen in the air. That's not good for photography or allergies. Turns out whatever is out there is making my wife sneeze and causing her eyes to water. After a short debate, we decided to watch the show on video.
Boy, what a great decision. We have been to the shows there before, and it seems that most of the flying routines were the same old, same old. Also, I suspect world events are such that the USAF had few heavies spare for the static display. No B-52, B-1, or B-2, and the CAF only sent a B-25, Hellcat, Spitfire XIV and a Texan. Apparently there were no big transports, either. About the only static aircraft of real interest was the Scaled Composites Proteus. Apparently, the joints are covered in some kind of duct tape!
As usual, the Thunderbirds provided the finale...well, most of them did. The #4 kite aborted as they lined up for takeoff, wrecking the diamond formation. Buddy who was there said the display was "off", like losing that aircraft at the last minute put the whole gang off kilter. Watching the video it seemed like the repositioning maneuvers were taking longer than in previous displays. Maybe it was so calm they had to extend things to allow the smoke to clear. Don't know for sure, but the display wasn't tight like normal.
All in all, we are glad we stayed home.
