2004 AirPower Over Hampton
Roads
Langley AFB, VA
May 21-23, 2004
Airshow report written on May
28, 2004.
The area around Hampton Roads, Virginia is noted for its
beaches and its military 
hospitality, as there are a large number of military
facilities within a half hour of each other. I spent time on or
near two major bases - NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach and Langley
AFB in Hampton. Langley AFB is the host of the AirPower Over
Hampton Roads airshow, while NAS Oceana plays host to the NAS
Oceana Regional Airshow, which would be held in September. NAS
Oceana is home to almost all of the F-14 Tomcat squadrons (which
there are only about seven left, and Oceana does NOT have the two
special Tomcat squadrons, which are at Point Mugu) and the entire
Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic's element of Hornets. There are
other types that are based at 
Oceana but they are rarely ever mentioned and they won't
be mentioned here either. 
Langley AFB is home to the 1st Fighter Wing, which is
comprised of the 27th Fighter Squadron, the 71st Fighter
Squadron, and the 94th Fighter Squadron, all flying F-15C/D
Eagles. There are also a few C-21A Learjets based at Langley,
operating outside of ACC.
My original intention was to head
down to Hampton Roads early Thursday, spend the day at Oceana,
and be at Langley AFB on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, head up to
the new Udvar-Hazy center on Monday, and drive home, thinking it
was Memorial Day weekend. However, it was not Memorial Day
weekend, and I had to drive home after the 
show on Sunday. The drive down to Virginia Beach on
Thursday morning took about 5 hours and 10 minutes, not counting
the two stops I made (one for gas and one just to
walk around on the CBBT). I was offered a tour of NAS
Oceana by the Assistant Air Operations Officer at Oceana, whom I
met at Dallas back in December. Thursday's weather was horrible,
as it was foggy the entire day, hampering operations at the base.
The base tour consisted of visiting the various ramps full of
Tomcats and Hornets, as well as heading out to Runway 5R to catch
a takeoff and landing of a Tomcat and Hornet, respectively, and
an F-14 simulator. My only complaint was with the weather, but I
enojoyed being on base on a time other than the airshow.
After the base tour, I spent several hours outside of
Oceana watching the operations 
from Runway 5R. If the active runway is 5R or 23L, park
on a dirt turnoff from Oceana Boulevard as the takeoffs are
several hundred feet over your head and the approaches are MUCH
lower. Virginia Beach Police shouldn't bother you at all, but I
have heard that people have been chased away from the spot in
some instances. I took note of some Tomcat and Hornet operations,
as well as an F-21 Kfir, a Beech 1900, a P-3C Orion, and a C-2
Greyhound loitering in the area. I called it quits around 5:30 pm
and decided to check in at my hotel. Big mistake - rush hour
traffic on I-264 heading west wasn't too bad, but 64 was stop-and-go
the entire way to the tunnel.
My intentions on Friday were to just head over to
Langley to watch static display arrivals, but that got pushed
back to later on in the day as I went to Oceana to watch 
aircraft. The weather had improved slightly over
Thursday, as there was fog but it was clearing as the day
progressed. I sat at the same spot as I did on the previous day,
with the aircraft using 23L as the active runway, meaning I would
be watching final approaches. There was slightly more going on
that day, as takeoffs were plentiful for a 2½ hour period, and
landings were nearly as plentiful. Hornets, Tomcats, and a
Prowler orbited Oceana when I was there.
After leaving Virginia Beach, I made the trip up to
Hampton and to Langley AFB to catch static display arrivals.
Unfortunately, the large majority of static aircraft were 
already
on display, and I wasn't able to get aerial shots of the Phantom,
B-52, among others. I did, however, catch a pair of F-16A
Fighting Falcons from the North Dakota ANG do a break to land,
caught Glacier Girl landing, a trio of Kfirs shooting low
approaches (with one landing and going on static display), a KC-135R
Stratotanker from Grissom ARB, IN on arrival (he was parked in
the static display by the time I got on base), C-17 Globemaster
III 96-0005 from Charleston AFB, SC. The static displays included
a KC-135R Stratotanker 60-0353 from McConnell AFB, KS, KC-10
Extender 87-0120 
from McGuire AFB, C-5 Galaxy 84-0061 from Dover AFB, C-130H
Hercules 66-0418 from Pittsburgh with Let's Roll nose art, a trio
of T-38s from Laughlin AFB, Columbus AFB, and Holloman AFB, F-16A
Fighting Falcon from the North Dakota ANG, F-16C 
Fighting Falcon from the Virginia ANG, a trio of 1st FW
F-15 Eagles, E-3B Sentry from Tinker AFB, B-1B Lancer from Dyess
AFB, B-52H Stratofortress from Barksdale AFB, QF-4 Phantom from
Tyndall AFB, T-1A Jayhawk and T-37 Tweet from Columbus AFB, C-21
Learjet from Langley AFB, CH-47 Chinook, F-21 Kfir, Panavia
Tornado from Holloman AFB, NASA's Cirrus and OV-10 Bronco, F-117A
Nighthawk from Holloman AFB with Let's Roll nose art, F-35 JSF
mockup, Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation's C-54 Skymaster, P-38
Lightning Glacier Girl, the Red Tail P-51C Mustang, B-25J
Mitchell Panchito, a couple L-birds, C-60 Lodestar,
Cessna 182, a pair of CJ-6As, Yak-9, Poosemouth, Beech
Staggerwing, a pair of O-2A Skymasters, an LCAC, Yak-52
taildragger, WAVY-10's Bell JetRanger, and a Beechcraft Baron.
As far as Friday's airshow report is concerned, I
wouldn't know where to start, so I'll start with the Airborne Red
Horse Demonstration. This demonstration shows how 
ground forces can secure an airstrip that has been
damaged by enemy or coalition forces, making the runways unusable
by any aircraft. Air raid sirens were included as explosions
across the field simulated a battle-damaged runway at Langley AFB.
Two aircraft brought in Red Horse teams, with a team of eight
members jumping out of a Delaware ANG C-130 Hercules (64-0206),
and a team of twelve members jumping out of a Charleston-based C-17
Globemaster III (96-0005). The teams on the ground secured the
airfield by decimating enemy forces before calling in the C-17 to
perform a short-field landing and offload equipment to fix the
airfield. A mound of dirt was placed on the taxiway to simulate
runway damage, and 
the C-17 loitered around in the area before it was
"safe" for him to land. When it was time for the C-17
to land, he performed a short-field landing, taxied to the
taxiway in 
front of the crowd and came around to the mound, backed
up several feet, before offloading what looked like a couple all-terrain
vehicles looking like golf carts, a backhoe, a dirt transporter,
and a front-end loader. Right before the offload, the Golden
Knights' C-31 Friendship departed to get ready for their jump.
That really wasn't very realistic, if you ask me. Those vehicles
prepared to move all of the dirt from the taxiway and dumped it
in a location that was out of the way of anything. The C-17 then
taxied out to its parking spot on the ramp - very quietly, might
I add, as with the C-130, 
which had just landed when all of the equipment was
being offloaded from the C-17.
The Golden Knights were next up
and I believe this was a jump where the public was actually able
to get onto the base for the night show and concert. The weather
was somewhat ideal, as it was somewhat cloudy and foggy over at
one end of the base while the other end was relatively clear.
After the first jumper landed, a second jumper exited 
the C-31 and loitered on parachute for quite some time
while the team exited from above. As the second jumper landed, it
became apparent that this was a tandem jump, with a member of the
local CBS news affiliate on the same parachute as the Golden
Knight himself. The rest of the team performed a showline spread
with several of the jumpers fixed on landing near show center.
After all of the Golden Knights
landed, the Red Tail P-51C Mustang and the P-38 Lightning Glacier
Girl taxied out to the runway and took off to set up for the
Heritage 
Flight, as well as the A-10 Thunderbolt II and Dale
Snodgrass taxiing out in the F-86 Sabre. The C-31 returned to
make a flat pass before landing, as two elements of two F-15C
Eagles from the 27th Fighter Squadron took off and departed, with
a fifth F-15, a D-model, taking off afterwards to do a photo
flight with the four F-15s. After the five F-15s departed the
area, it was time 
for the hometown F-15 Eagle East Coast Demo Team to take
the stage. I don't recall when it happened but it seems like the
demo pilot, Major Bret Anderson, received a nice promotion
sometime between August 2003 and May 2004. Because of the cloud
cover, Slam had to perform the low show, but it seemed like a
real good demonstration, until midway through where he had some
sort of problem and had to terminate the rest of the
demonstration. Something I also noticed was that Slam was not
using a demo jet, as the F-15 he was flying the demo in on Friday
had missile rails! All of the external stuff that isn't needed
during a demonstration 
is removed from the aircraft to make it cleaner.
Dale Snodgrass took off in the F-86
Sabre to set up for the Heritage Flight as Slam landed his F-15.
Snort departed the area to give the CF-18 Hornet the stage.
Captain Dave "Super Dave" Pletz flew the Canadian
Hornet through a spectacular display, easily beating how the Navy
flies the F/A-18C Hornet demonstration, but the CF-18 demo 
doesn't even come close to the Super Hornet
demonstration. The CF-18 demo jet came out of 3 Wing Bagotville
and is not painted up in a special paint scheme, as the Canadian
Hornets have been in the past several years. However, the tail of
the CF-18 demo jet is painted up to represent the 80th
Anniversary of the Canadian Air Force. The high speed pass
towards the end of the demonstration (after that vertical climb)
was delivered by announcer Frank Kingston Smith as a sneak pass.
After the CF-18 landed, the F-117 Nighthawk that took
off earlier (I didn't mention it since it was before I started
shooting video) came back to perform three passes before landing.
It seemed as if this F-117 pilot wanted to show off the aircraft
more as he was pulling some vapor in some of those turns! After
he taxied by my position, I was starting to worry that the
Heritage Flight wasn't going to happen, but
apparently it was a photo flight also. The Heritage
Flight flew two passes before performing a break from behind the
crowd. This was the finest Heritage Flight I had ever seen, as it
consisted of the A-10 being flown by Captain Matthew Kouchoukos,
the P-38 Lightning Glacier Girl with Steve Hinton at the
controls, Dale Snodgrass flying the F-86 Sabre, and Ed Shipley
flying the Red Tail P-51C Mustang. Prior to returning for the
Heritage Break, the formation of four F-15Cs plus the F-15D make
a high-altitude pass 
over Langley AFB. After the break, Ed Shipley performed
a low pass in the Mustang while Captain Kouchoukos landed the A-10,
with Steve Hinton making a low pass in Glacier Girl, overtaking
the A-10 as it was landing, and Dale Snodgrass landing the F-86,
followed by Ed Shipley landing the Red Tail P-51C and Steve
Hinton performing a dirty pass in the P-38 before landing.
As each of the pilots taxied by my
position on the ramp, the Shockwave jet truck was being towed out
to far show left to be prepared for its run later on in the
evening. Almost immediately after the Shockwave passed by, the B-25
Mitchell Panchito was inbound from the right in a flyby
with a nice, hot wall of fire lit in front of the crowd. After
the wall of fire cleared out somewhat, the F-15D Eagle photoship
made a flyby and break to landing as the other four F-15s came
back around in formation and broke the formation to land. The
first of the Eagles to come around was the F-15D and he 
performed a regular landing with a long rollout to the
end of the runway. The flight of four Eagles, now split up in
single elements, came around to the runway and performed a missed
approach. One by one, each F-15 approached the runway and with
less than 100 feet of altitude, tucked the gear up and put on
some power to go around. On the third go-around for the Eagles,
the third Eagle in formation didn't seem to have a lot of power
coming out of the missed approach, and extended the landing gear
and retracted it immediately. The four Eagles then gained
separation to form two formations of two Eagles, with the first
and second Eagles in formation and the third and fourth Eagles in
formation. The first two F-
15s performed a tactical formation break over the crowd
while the second two overflew the crowd in the same manner as the
first two, but without breaking to land. As the first two F-15s
landed, the second two F-15s came back from the right to perform
a tactical formation break over the crowd and landing.
As the final Eagle was rolling out on the runway, two
Nanchang CJ-6As came from the right to perform a low pass over
the runway, which included several more passes in their show as
they prepared for their race with Shockwave. The Shockwave got a
huge head start and won the race with a huge advantage, as it
clocked in at 222 miles an hour. As the two CJ-6As landed, Slam
taxied by in his F-15 and a Cessna 152 landed. The Cessna,
painted in an ugly yellow color, would be Manfred Radius' tow
platform. Another aircraft that arrived for the static display
was a nice blue Beechcraft Staggerwing.
After the Staggerwing landed, the
B-1B Lancer came around from the right to perform his first pass
of the demonstration. The first pass was at about 310 miles an
hour with the wings fully swept forward. This B-1B was from the 7th
Bomb Wing in Dyess AFB, Texas and performed a second pass was
from the right with the wings swept back and burners going for a
high speed pass. He didn't pull off any vapor cones as he did at
Dover but with the setting being around dusk, it was nice to see
vapor trails coming off the wingtips as well as clearly seeing
the burners. The B-1 came back around from the 
right to land at Langley AFB and eventually be towed
from the taxiway in front of the crowd and into the static
display. It was the conclusion of the evening flying display, as
it was time for the Aaron Tippin concert to begin.
I spent the time during the
concert talking to many of the pilots, touring the static
displays, and watching a little of the concert from a distance. I
wasn't there for the concert - I was there for the planes... and
the hotties that frequented the chalet area... but that's a
different story. I have to admit, there were some gorgeous young
ladies in the chalet area and if I had to guess their ages, I
would pin it between seventeen and twenty - pretty much my age
range, although I don't think I'd get out of the base if I 
hooked up with a seventeen year-old hottie without
getting in trouble.
After the concert, it was time for the airshow to resume. The Golden Knights had the airspace and performed another mass jump, but this time their target was not in front of the crowd, but behind the crowd. This pissed me off, but after remembering stories from Andrews AFB the previous week, they probably landed outside the Officer's Club at Langley AFB. I should also mention that the Golden Knights are the most difficult parachute team to shoot video of at night, since all they wear are blinking strobe lights underneath them.
After the Golden Knights' C-31 landed, it was time for
Manfred Radius to take the stage in his Salto sailplane. Manfred
puts on a very nice night show performance, but the only gripe I
have about it is that there isn't enough wingtip pyrotechnics,
especially for the altitude that he starts at. But he still puts
on a good nighttime performance, as does everyone who flies
nighttime airshows. After Manfred's glider was recovered, it was
time for Eric Beard to take the Russian Thunder Yak-54 into the
air for his nighttime display. Eric flies one of the best
nighttime acts in the airshow industry accompanied with theme
music from, I believe, The Right Stuff. After Eric landed, it was
time for Pyrotecnico to begin their fireworks display. It was a
good display but it didn't quite beat the fireworks display at
Millville in the beginning of the month.
On Saturday, I was able to get
onto Langley AFB about fifteen minutes before the public was able
to get on, and toured the static display - getting shots I
couldn't get the previous day and more shots of the same
viewpoints. The weather was much better than on Thursday and
Friday as there was ample amounts of blue sky and some scattered
cirrus clouds over different parts of the base. A CF-18B Hornet
from 3 Wing Bagotville had arrived at Langley as it was the
backup jet for the demo aircraft. The Saturday show started off
with the Airborne Red Horse Demonstration. It shows how ground
forces can secure an damaged airstrip (by enemy or coalition
forces), making 
the runways unusable by any aircraft. Air raid sirens
were included as four explosions across the field simulated the
battle-damaged runway at Langley AFB. Two aircraft brought in Red
Horse teams, with a team of eight members jumping out of a
Delaware ANG C-130 Hercules (64-0206), and a team of twelve
members jumping out of a Charleston-based C-17 Globemaster III (96-0005).
The teams on the ground secured the airfield by decimating enemy
forces before calling in the C-17 to perform a short-field
landing and offload equipment to fix the airfield. A mound of
dirt was placed on 
the taxiway to simulate runway damage, and the C-17
loitered around in the area before it was "safe" for
him to land. When it was time for the C-17 to land, he performed
a short-field landing, taxied to the taxiway in front of the
crowd and came around to the mound, backed up several feet,
before offloading what looked like a couple all-terrain vehicles
looking like golf carts, a backhoe, a dirt transporter, and a
front-end loader. Those vehicles prepared to move all of the dirt
from the taxiway and dumped it in a location that was out of the
way of anything. The C-17 then taxied out to its parking 
spot on the ramp - very quietly, might I add. As he was
taxiing, the Golden Knights' C-31 Friendship took off to position
for the team's jump a little later on in the morning. The Red
Horse demonstration is an interesting demonstration, but outside
of the aerial assets in the demonstration, everything else seemed
to take my attention elsewhere.
After the Red Horse Demonstration,
four F-15 Eagles from the 71st Fighter Squadron took to the skies
in two elements of two aircraft to set up for their flyby and 
demonstrations a little bit after the Golden Knights
were to jump. As soon as the F-15s departed the area, the F-117
Nighthawk took off in the opposite direction and departed for
Charleston AFB to do some flybys at their airshow. After the F-117
departed the area, the four F-15s returned from the right -
sooner than I expected, and did a formation break to land. The
four aircraft came back around from the right to perform
individual missed approaches. The fourth aircraft of the group
seemed to have some sort of gear problems, as the main gear doors
did not seem to go up. The first two aircraft came back around
for a second time, while the third F-15 joined up with the fourth
F-15 (the one with the gear problems) as the first two continued
to perform missed approaches. The first two F-15s ended up 
performing a total of eight missed approaches before
forming up in a two-ship formation while the third and fourth F-15s
came around, with the third F-15 performing a missed approach and
the fourth F-15 doing a nose-high landing.
The Golden Knights were now
inbound for their morning jump from 12,500 feet and the first
jumper came down carrying the Stars and Stripes on the way down,
with the National Anthem being played. As he landed on target,
the three remaining F-15 Eagles made a flyby in the delta
formation, with the third F-15 breaking away from the 
formation. The third F-15 landed as the Commander of the
1st Fighter Wing, as well as the first two F-15s, all landing in
a nose-high fashion. As soon as the last F-15 exited the
immediate area, the Golden Knights took the stage and performed a
mass jump and were to perform a showline spread. The Golden
Knights jumped with three different flags in their mass jump -
one carried the POW/MIA flag, another carried the team's flag (and
on Sunday, one member came down with the Thunderbirds flag), and
the other jumper coming down with the Virginia state flag. I have
more respect for the Golden Knights now for two reasons - the
first being that they have their C-31 Friendship doing a flyby to
close out their display, and 
the second reason being...well, I'll mention it a little
later on in the report.
After the C-31 landed, a pair of
Nanchang CJ-6As took to the air to perform several low-altitude
and somewhat formation flybys as well as playing chase. One of
the CJ-6As was being flown by Sean Carroll, who was to have flown
a demo in the Yak-9 during the show, but he didn't fly it. Heck,
with him and the other guy (I'm not sure who flew the other CJ-6A)
flying those CJ-6As kind of made up for no Yak-9 display (there
was one on static though). I'm not in favor of the CJ-6A since it
tends to be a very quiet airplane, but Sean and his wingman put
on a very nice display.
The CJ-6As exited the area and Jimmy Franklin took to the stage in his highly modified Waco bi-plane. If you haven't seen Jimmy fly before, you have to see him because he flies one of the most unusual aircraft in the entire airshow industry. Jimmy has modified the Waco to include a J69 turbojet engine slung underneath the fuselage. It is an act that's hard to describe because if you haven't seen it, you should go see it. Jimmy can perform three separate acts with the Jet Waco - the first being a solo act, which was being performed in the morning/afternoon, a wingwalking act with his son Kyle Franklin, and with the X-Team, all of which were shown at Langley AFB.
After Jimmy Franklin landed and did some smoking
doughnuts on the taxiway, the CJ-6As were back inbound for
several more passes as they prepared for a race with Kent
Shockley and the Shockwave Jet Truck. It seems like the CJ-6As
got a huge advantage over the race, but the Shockwave's run was
up to 213 mph, which was impressive, but he can go faster. After
the Shockwave was towed off the runway, the Delaware ANG was
inbound to land the C-130 Hercules from earlier in the morning.
The C-130 came to a full stop on the runway, performed a 180 and
proceeded to taxi in front of the crowd to the hot ramp, with the
two CJ-6As following closely behind as Bobby Younkin proceeded to
take off in the Beech 18. Bobby kept it nice and low on takeoff
before performing a graceful roll after takeoff. I 
have seen Bobby fly the Lear 23 at the 2002 AirPower
Over Hampton Roads and it was an interesting performance and the
Beech 18 falls into the same category. Like the Lear 23, the
Beech 18 is an aircraft that really wasn't meant for aerobatic
flight, which makes the performance more enjoyable. It also makes
some noise, too.
After Bobby landed, it was time
for an F-16 Fighting Falcon flyby. Personally, I thought it would
be the two F-16As from the North Dakota ANG that would be
performing the flyby, as the Happy Hooligans (also referred to as
"ladies who tend to get with every guy they see" -
think of a four-letter word that begins with S and ends with T
and has an LU in the middle - an inside joke my best friend and I
came up with 
for that particular unit) had two F-16s arrive at
Langley on Friday but after they landed, they were nowhere to be
seen. The Virginia ANG, out of Richmond, had taken care of the
flyby, with four F-16Cs in tight formation made a single pass
from the right, slightly over the crowd line, before exiting the
area. I suppose this would make up for the no-show of the F/A-22
Raptor, which was supposed to perform a flyby or two, but was
cancelled due to software problems with the airshow-dedicated
aircraft. I was really bummed by this, but if Nellis is going to
have an F-22 in their flying display, I suppose its more of an
incentive to head out to Vegas for the show. I would only hope
that gas prices come down AND that air tickets to LAS are cheap!
Another F-16 was inbound - this
time it was a specially painted F-16D Fighting Falcon 
from Nellis AFB. The F-16D was actually coming from
Charleston AFB, SC and is part of the Thunderbirds. Captain Dave
Haworth, who is a real good friend of mine, made several passes (I
believe it was at least five passes since I was getting some
lunch at the time) to check out the airfield before landing.
After Dave landed, Doug Dodge took to the skies in the Yellow
Book Pitts. Doug was not on the official airshow schedule and I
believe he was a last-minute addition to the schedule. I suppose
there could be a few surprises thrown in here and there. It was
nice to finally get some good shots of the Pitts with the sun
somewhat behind you, as it was almost impossible to do so at
Millville and at Dover.
After Doug landed, the 7th Bomb
Wing from Dyess AFB brought in a B-1B Lancer to 
perform a couple flybys. The B-1 came in from the right
for all three passes, with the first pass being a slow speed pass
at about 310 mph with the wings swept forward. The second pass
was from the right, as stated before, at about 520 mph, with the
wings swept back. He made some noise, but nothing that would fit
the "thundering" category that the B-1 is capable of
producing. The third and final pass was similar to the second
pass, but producing a little more noise than before, pulling
slightly into the vertical to create some vapor, but nothing very
impressive. I was a little disappointed, since the crew could
have thrown it in afterburner for the entire third pass and
really beat the place up, and they could have arranged to have a
tanker rendezvous somewhere. I suppose I could say that I miss
the Georgia ANG and the Kansas ANG's Bone demos since those crews
really loved to show off their aircraft. Dyess crews are
conservative, for the most part.
Ed Shipley took the Red Tail P-51C
Mustang up next for several low altitude flybys, including a
photo pass to conclude the performance. This was a great addition
to the schedule because of the rarity of the aircraft, as there
are so few early model P-51s in airworthy condition. After Ed
taxied the Red Tail back to the hot ramp, Jimmy Franklin cranked
the Jet Waco up once again and took to the air with his son Kyle
as well. To have a wingwalker on the wings of the biplane is just
amazing and even though Kyle doesn't do too much "wingwalking",
it's still one of the best wingwalking acts only because of the
aircraft used! After Jimmy and Kyle Franklin taxied by, it was
time for the A-10 East Coast Demo Team to take to the stage.
Flying the A-10 was Captain Matthew Kouchoukos, and he flew a
great demonstration that actually featured pyro! As I stated
somewhere earlier, the A-10 demo seems to have been lengthened
and Matt 
seems to have flown the demo a lot better than at
Andrews AFB the previous week.
As Matt Kouchoukos taxied the A-10
past my position, Manfred Radius took to the sky under tow from
the ugly, yellow Cessna 152 as Bobby Younkin took Samson into the
air for his performance. It seems as if all three of Younkin's
aircraft are painted in a similar paint job. As far as the
performance is concerned, I had never seen Samson fly before and
I really like it. He even does a really low inverted ribbon cut
with the biplane! As Bobby Younkin landed and taxied Samson to
the hot ramp, Larry Kelly took the B-25J Mitchell Panchito
into the air for a short demonstration. He performed three passes
before coming around from the right for a fourth pass, which
consisted of the bomb 
bay doors open and a wall of fire, which did absolutely
no help for anyone at the show since it was at least 90º. Larry
took the B-25 around for several more passes, including two photo
passes before landing. It was about this time that Frank
announced that the F-117 would not be coming back to do a couple
flybys. When I got home, I heard that the F-117 did make a flyby
or two at Charleston, but had to make an emergency landing at the
base, and was met up with fire and emergency vehicles at one end
of the runway. He was to have returned to do flybys at Langley on
Sunday, but it wasn't going to happen. Another F-117 was at
Langley on Sunday, but he was relegated to static display, parked
next to the E-3 (which sucked because I toured the E-3 and when I
got 
out, there was a sign that said no pictures of the
Stealth from the platform). I still don't understand why you
can't take pictures of the F-117 from certain vantage points -
its been flying for over twenty years from now, what's the
problem of taking a topside photo of it if we've seen it for
quite some time?
Manfred Radius had the airspace
next. He flew the quietest act in the entire airshow and is one
of the finest glider pilots in the world. His signature maneuver
in the show is the attempt at an inverted ribbon cut, which he
successfully accomplished on Saturday, but
didn't accomplish on Sunday because of the high winds.
After Manfred's glider was towed off the runway, Steve Hinton and
Ed Shipley took off in formation with the P-38 and P-51C,
respectively, as the hometown F-15 Eagle East Coast Demo Team
took the stage. Major Bret "Slam" Anderson put on a
great demonstration, but he seemed to fly it a little further
from the crowd line than the A-10 demo. After Slam performed a
pitch-up, Dale Snodgrass took to the skies in his F-86 to set up
for the Heritage Flight.
The Heritage Flight was another spectacular formation,
with Slam flying the F-15 in the lead, Ed Shipley flying the Red
Tail P-51 on the right wing, Dale Snodgrass flying the left wing
in the F-86, and Steve Hinton flying Glacier Girl in the
slot position. The Heritage Flight flew two passes before
performing a break from behind the crowd. Ed Shipley flew a low
pass over the runway prior to the F-15 and P-38 landing, as Dale
set up for his performance. Speak of Snort, he was up next and he
flew a spectacular performance in the Sabre. In fact, Dale has
one of the prettiest F-86s in the airshow circuit. After Snort
landed the Sabre, Chuck Lischer took to the air to fly and
Chuck's performance is very good, but considering the acts that
were lined up at Langley, he should have flown a little earlier
than when he went up on
Saturday, mainly because his is a little toned down
than Younkin or Franklin, and because of the sun. I still need to
get a good shot of the F-260 in the Newgold paint scheme!
After Chuck landed, it was time
for the Golden Knights to take the stage once again. As I stated
earlier, I now have newfound respect for the Golden Knights
because they 
actually performed their full show, which I haven't seen
for quite some time now. Their full show consists of the
narrator's jump with the POW/MIA flag, a freefall baton pass, a
cutaway pass - where the jumper demonstrates what happens if the
main parachute fails and he needs to deploy the reserve, the
diamond-track - where two jumpers trace a diamond in the sky
before deploying their parachutes, and the diamond formation.
During the cutaway maneuver, I actually thought he had deployed
the first parachute way too low, but I imagine he did that for
the sake of time. After all of the 
jumpers got on the ground and were being introduced to
the crowd, Allen Smith took to the skies in his L-39C Albatross
and the Golden Knights' C-31 Friendship performed a flyby and
landed right as the Golden Knights' gave the stage back to the
airshow.
Eric Beard took the Russian
Thunder Yak-54 to the skies next. Eric's got one of the 
rarest of the Russian aircraft, as there are only seven
Yak-54s flying in the world and he flies one great performance in
a rare airplane. He is also getting a great deal of cross-country
trips this year, as he performed at Millville in the beginning of
May, at Langley, at Binghamton, NY in July, and in NAS Oceana in
September, just to name a few. After Eric landed, Allen Smith
took the stage with his nice performance in the L-39. Allen was
another one of those performers that was probably a really late
addition to the lineup and I remember Allen telling me the story
that he "donated" his performance to the show, which
was very nice of him. It seems that his L-39 just gets 
quieter and quieter every time I see him perform. Kinda
weird, if you ask me.
Captain Dave "Super Dave"
Pletz was up right after Allen Smith landed. Super Dave put the
CF-18 Hornet in another great demonstration and it still beats
the Navy's regular Hornet demonstration. The CF-18 demo jet is
not painted up in a special paint scheme, as the Canadian Hornets
have been in the past several years. However, the tail of the CF-18
is painted up to represent the 80th Anniversary of the Canadian
Air Force. The 
change of pace from the special paint schemes is
welcome, as the ACC and Navy single-ship demonstration teams fly
with aircraft in the markings as you would see when the plane is
"in the wild". Frank Kingston Smith delivered the
second to last pass of the performance as a sneak pass, which
wasn't very sneaky for those who were keeping a close eye on the
Hornet!
The Masters of Disaster closed out
the Saturday show, with Bobby Younkin flying 
Samson, Jimmy Franklin being unable to fly because he
and Kyle couldn't get the jet engine started, and Kent Shockley
in the Shockwave Jet Truck. I was a little disappointed in it,
simply because of the fact that Jimmy Franklin wasn't flying, but
when Sunday came around the X-Team was up in full force and let
me say this is an act to behold. Jimmy and Bobby, both flying
biplanes, performing opposing maneuvers at ground level and in
the air, and when you add the Shockwave to the mix, you throw
controlled chaos into everything.
The Thunderbirds arrived late but when they arrived,
only five of the six demonstration aircraft were on hand to check
out the area, make notes of "landmarks" that could be
used for reference points during the show, and flying a short
practice. Even though the slot plane was not in the group because
it was broken, the Thunderbirds' practice looked top-notch and it
gave me renewed optomism that Sunday's performance by the team
would be spectacular.
I spent Sunday watching the show
and touring the static display one last time, getting the chance
of a lifetime to tour the E-3B Sentry and getting some great
interior shots of the aircraft, which I'm probably not allowed to
show you but I'm going to anyway. The 94th Fighter Squadron
provided the four ship formation to open the show, with the
aircraft departing in two elements of two aircraft during the Red
Horse Demonstration. The skies were very hazy, as the
temperatures were expected to be near or just slightly above 90º.
The F-15s broke formation and performed a single individual 
missed approach before reforming, making a formation
pass with the Stars and Stripes, and landing towards the
beginning of the Golden Knights' full show.
I feel bad for Allen Smith's
performance on Sunday because he happened to be flying during the
Thunderbirds' engine run. As quiet as the L-39 is, you really
can't hear it over the sounds of six F-16 engines. At around the
same time, Manfred Radius got a bike, a 
clown suit, and a giant fan put together and biked down
the flight line in the "Fan Man" act. I must say,
Manfred looks silly! Another act that I would mention is the F-15
demo flown by Major Bret "Slam" Anderson. Slam flew
another great demonstration, but it seemed on Sunday it was a
little tame than Saturday's demonstration. He formed up with Ed
Shipley in the P-51C Red Tail, Steve Hinton in the P-38 Glacier
Girl, and Dale "Snort" Snodgrass in the F-86 to
fly the Heritage Flight. The Heritage Flight was 
formed up differently, with the P-51C flying lead, the F-15
flying left wing, the P-38 flying right wing, and Snort flying
the Sabre in the slot position and with smoke on.
The Thunderbirds were the
headliners for Sunday and had set up an enlistment ceremony just
prior to their performance. What was unique was that family
members of those taking the oath of enlistment were allowed to
"crowd up" with their sons or daughters or brothers or
sisters or nieces or nephews or granddaughters or grandsons or,
well, you get the idea. After the ceremony, the six Thunderbird
pilots took their 
positions in their jets for their ground show and taxied
out to the runway. I should mention something about the music.
The piece the team uses right before switching to the Legend of
the Thunderbird sounds like something you'd hear in church. The
team would be taking off from the right, which I haven't seen in
years. Usually all of the demonstration pilots take off from the
left, but this was a nice change of pace. Thunderbird #4 reported
problems on the runway and he taxied to the hot ramp to switch to
the #8 jet. Despite the haze, the Thunderbirds flew a high show
and this ranks among the best Thunderbird displays I've seen this
year. Captain Dave Haworth, Thunderbird #8, told me that they
still need work on some of 
the maneuvers. That's true, but in my opinion, the team
looked supurb.
After the Thunderbirds, I spent a
few minutes hanging out with a couple of the 
Thunderbirds as they were signing autographs. I then
took the time to exit Langley AFB and out of Virginia for the
trip home, which, in some ways I wasn't looking forward to
because of the amount of driving and the fact that the Flyers
aren't going to be in the Stanley Cup finals. Under the new
rating system, consisting of either Excellent, Very Good, Good,
Okay, Eh, or Poor, with a Plus and/or Minus when necessary, the
2004 AirPower Over Hampton Roads at Langley AFB falls under the
Excellent category because the no-shows of the F/A-22 and the F-117
emergency and the surprise appearances of Allen Smith, Dale
"Snort" Snodgrass, and the Yellow Book Aerobatic Team
balance each other out. I will be back for the next AirPower Over
Hampton Roads!
Military Teams
Tentative Military Demonstrations
Civillian Demonstrations
Participating Organizations
Announcer: Frank Kingston Smith
Gates Open: 5:00 PM Friday, 9:00 AM
Saturday & Sunday
Showtime: 5:00 PM Friday, Tanker Tug @
10 AM and show starts 11:00 AM Saturday, 10:00 AM Sunday
2004 AirPower Over Hampton Roads Homepage
© 2004 Steven Holzinger