NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia
September 16-18, 2005 Airshow report uploaded on December 19, 2005.
The 2005 airshow season for me unfortunately had to end a little early, which meant that my last airshow would be at NAS Oceana. Gas prices around the country had started to fall, but not quickly enough to warrant adding Rotorfest back to the schedule. Oceana had a jam-packed lineup for 2005, featuring three military parachute teams, the Blue Angels, a ton of aerobatic performers, and of course, a host of military aircraft. It was my fourth trip to Virginia for 2005, the first of which being in March to catch VF-143's final flight. The second trip was for Langley AFB's airshow, and also involved some spotting outside NAS Oceana (I was supposed to get on base on one day but plans fell through and it never happened). The third trip was essentially a spotting trip at both Langley AFB and NAS Oceana, with emphasis on getting F/A-22s and the Tomcats from VF-31 and VF-213, since I did not know for sure when they would leave for their final cruise, and that trip saw the best and worst of weather in August - the first day I sat outside Oceana in the pouring rain after figuring nothing would happen at Langley. The second day was spent on NAS Oceana all day, touring the Hornet side of the base (including VFA-106's main hangar and offices and such), hanging out at the terminal, checking out the Tomcat/Super Hornet side of the ramp, and inside a Super Hornet simulator. The third and final day was spent at Oceana and at Langley, finally getting to see some flying at Langley, including some F/A-22 Raptors! Then there was the September trip, which was primarily for the NAS Oceana airshow.
My original plans for that day were to go to my first two classes that
Thursday, skip my third class and the Friday class, and go down to Virginia on
Thursday afternoon, getting there around 8 pm that night. I had found out
the class I was going to skip on Thursday, that the professor gives out pop
quizzes at random, so that scared me away from leaving on Thursday (I had not
booked a hotel room at the time!). Less than a week before the airshow, I
hurriedly booked a room in Virginia Beach, getting it for $55/night - which, in
my opinion, was a great deal, especially for the timing AND the fact that it was
in Virginia Beach, where rooms are pretty expensive. The only problem was
that my hotel was close to Norfolk International Airport, which meant a
twenty-minute drive to the base and a thirty minute drive to the beachfront.
Any chances I had of taking a shower after the Saturday show were pretty much
voided, if I were to get to the beach in time for the Beach Blast. Oceana
2005 then became a typical Virginia trip - get up at 3:00 am on a weekday, leave
an hour after that, get to destination just after the morning rush. My mom
tells me every time I go to Virginia and leave at that hour, it's the worst
possible time. In a way, that's true, considering I only get like three or
four hours of sleep the night before, but I'm also traveling at the safest
possible time of the day. Interstate 95 southbound between I-495 and
Delaware Route 1 is incredibly congested at any other time except around 4:45
am, which is when I hit that area, and thus it's safe to cross over five lanes
of I-95 to reach Route 1. I have done Virginia trips where I hit I-95 in
the daytime and both times, I had about a dozen close calls just trying to get
over into the right lane. This trip, I had left fifteen minutes earlier
than planned (the first part of the trip was the trip from Rutgers to home,
which took almost two hours because of congestion on US Route 1), and had made
great timing down to Virginia Beach, pulling into the Oceana Blvd spotting area
in five hours and ten minutes.
The show was once again under a hurricane threat, this time with Hurricane
Ophelia, which was lingering off the coast of the Carolinas
and threatening to
bring bad weather for the weekend. Friday had a lot of low clouds for most
of the morning and early afternoon, preventing most of the performers from going
up very high for their show. Thousands of people had made the trip to
Virginia Beach that weekend with the anticipation of one final F-14 Tomcat
demonstration, which was in limbo for months - unconfirmed reports appeared
daily saying there will be a Tomcat demo, but then they were dismissed, until
the end of August, when it was reported there would be a demonstration, and a
practice demo schedule was published and several on-base photographers got
invited to watch the practices. Tomcat demo or no Tomcat demo, I had said
I would be there, even if gas prices skyrocketed to $2.2B/gallon.
The original plan was to be on base all day Friday, but things didn't quite go the way I had hoped they would. Last year, I was given passes for the Executive Squadron Chalet for all three days and the ability to park over by the Tomcat hangars for each of the days. I did not have any of those, so my luck at getting on base early on Friday went downhill quickly. Lt. Ian "Goon" Burgoon was able to get one of his fellow demonstration pilots out to get me on base, and I was able to get on base in time to catch the Super Hornet demonstration and the third to last F-14 Tomcat demonstration, which was flown in the retro aircraft from VF-101. At that time, the skies were still somewhat overcast with signs of clearing, but the demo was a low show. Any kind of Tomcat demo is always a great demo! The Blue Angels managed to get a high show in, and the weather started to look somewhat promising for the rest of the weekend, even with Hurricane Ophelia looming not too far away.
After the Blue Angels landed, I took a spot at show right, where I also took
up for Saturday's show, and got set up. I then had to take cover quickly
as a quick thundershower blew through NAS Oceana for a good five minutes, and as
quickly as that thundershower went through, the sky cleared up, and the Friday
evening show got underway. Immediately as soon as the gates opened at 5:00
pm, the first demonstration got underway. Judging by the demo profile
flown, I was confused whether or not it was a Super Hornet or a baby Hornet,
since the demonstration was not as intense as a regular Super Hornet
demonstration and did not follow the parameters of a Super Hornet demonstration. It was definitely a Super Hornet, with the demonstration
flown in a VFA-11 Red Rippers jet, flown by Knuckles and Didja, who
consist of one half of the Super Hornet demo pilot roster. Sadly, the last time I had seen
a Red Rippers aircraft at an airshow, it was an F-14 Tomcat. The Super
Hornet demonstration on Friday night was a pinpoint part of the show that was
used as a major complaint by many people, saying it was commenced well before
many people got on base, but it was done then because of a strict demonstration
profile was set, stating that the demo must conclude no less than two hours
before sunset.
The next demonstration was another military aircraft, this time an E-2C Hawkeye
from VAW-120 Greyhawks, based at Naval Station Norfolk, which is about a
ten to fifteen minute drive
from NAS Oceana, depending on traffic. The particular Hawkeye used in the show was the Hawkeye
2000 version, which features new eight-bladed propellers, among other
modifications. The demo profile is a lot different this year, consisting
of the Hawkeye coming in from Norfolk, but landing at NAS Oceana just prior to
its demonstration and starting the demo with a takeoff and a lot of high-G
turns, making for a more aggressive demonstration. There was still enough
moisture in the air so that the E-2C could manage to pull off some wingtip
vortices during most of the repositioning and the minimum radius turn.
After the Hawkeye departed, Allen Smith took off with his L-39 Albatross.
Allen had told me at McGuire that he had hoped he would have the "Super
Albatross" ready for Oceana, but unfortunately, he had fallen behind on the
schedule. I talked to Allen after the Beach Blast on Saturday night
regarding the project status and he gave me a rough estimate of a first flight
sometime before his 2006 airshow season commences. Allen also seems to
have gotten a new airshow waiver, since it seemed like he concluded his Cuban
Eight with a couple snap rolls on the down line, which I don't recall ever
seeing him do in the past.
As Allen landed on Runway 5L, the Skytypers took off on 5R and began their
performance. There was not going to be any skytyping that night mainly
because of the visibility (the conditions were becoming CAVU, which stands for
Clear And Visibility Unlimited, or the best possible conditions for an airshow)
and the time of day, but they did put on their normal performance. I tend
to memorize jet team demonstration profiles, but since the Skytypers aren't a
jet team, they somehow fall in that since I've seen them so many times over the
last two years, I have their performance memorized! All of the SNJs
proceeded to land on 5L, which seemed to be the designated landing runway,
mainly to keep the show running without any gaps whatsoever.
Three aircraft took off next, which included a formation takeoff of F-86 Sabres,
flown by
Dale Snodgrass and Ed Shipley, followed by a QF-4 Phantom II with
Lt.Col. Jerry Kerby at the controls. The three aircraft went out behind
the crowd to set up for the forthcoming Heritage Flight. That meant that a
TACDEMO was coming up, which was to be flown in an F-16C Fighting Falcon.
The F-16 demo was provided by the East Coast Demo Team out of Shaw AFB in
Sumter, South Carolina. This was the last show I would see Major Geoff
"Hak" Hickman fly and his demonstration has really improved significantly over
his two years as a demo pilot. Hak was able to pull off the typical Viper
vapor, which is evident with the F-16 looking like it is wearing a scarf, but
there was very little wingtip vapor, which I found to be very surprising.
Hak also flew a little closer to the crowd than Ed "Pinto" Casey flew his F-16
demo at Oceana in 2002 and Hak has been using more afterburner each airshow, but
he didn't use as much afterburner at Oceana as he did at Rhode Island!
Following
his performance, the two Sabres and the Phantom had joined up to make a pass
from the right, with Hak trailing behind the formation, joining up in front of
the crowd for the Heritage Flight. Going back to my new Heritage Flight
classifications, Oceana had a Modified Heritage Flight, because of the QF-4E
Phantom II in the formation. To my
knowledge, this was the first Heritage Flight flown at an airshow that featured
two F-86 Sabres in the same Heritage formation. Four passes were flown,
with the first being a head-on pass, the second pass coming from show right, the
third pass coming from the left, and the traditional Heritage Flight break from
behind the crowd. Following the break, each of the aircraft went down
Runway 5R as a salute, with Dale Snodgrass flying his F-86 Sabre barely a couple
feet off the ground at over 400 miles per hour. Behind Snort was Lt.Col.
Jerry Kerby in the QF-4E Phantom II, performing a high speed pass and leaving
the afterburners on for a decent portion of the flyby, with Hak making another
high speed pass and shutting off the afterburner after reaching my position, and
Ed Shipley making a low banana pass over the runway, a la Snort, before heading
behind the crowd to set up for the next performance.
The Phantom and Fighting Falcon landed on Runway 5R and as the Phantom passed my
position on the crowd line, Snort and Shipley came around from behind and to the
right to begin their debut performance in the Dual
Sabres routine. Now, I
just want to just say that the F-86 is a really nice airplane, but it really
doesn't make a whole lot of noise, but seeing two Sabres in formation was just
something else. Dale "Snort" Snodgrass flew the lead position with Ed
"Hollywood" Shipley occupying his right wing for most of the performance (he did
transition into trail position for another part of the demo) and seeing two
F-86s in formation was something I thought I would never get to see in my life.
I can't put words down to describe how much I enjoyed seeing the two aircraft in
flight and in formation, and announcer Rob Reider made a mention that it was the
first time in about forty years that a F-86 Sabre demonstration flight appeared
over the skies of a North American airshow. Interestingly enough, Dale was
not flying his F-86 because his Sabre had several mechanical failures at the
time, but he got to borrow Wyatt Fuller's magnificent F-86 to fly at Oceana's
airshow. The conclusion of the performance featured the two pilots
pitching up, with a closing pass performed by both, with Snort flying the first
closing pass, followed by Hollywood. Both pilots performed a traditional
banana pass as his preferred altitude, with Snort mowing the lawn as he usually
does on his banana passes.
Jim LeRoy was up next and he was actually supposed to be one fourth of an
airshow act that was scheduled to appear at Oceana's airshow in 2005. Jim
flew his solo aerobatic performance that Friday night and it seems like the more
I see him fly, the more I appreciate his talent, especially since he does not
fly his Pitts to the show sites - he trailers it! As I was saying, Jim was
going to be part of one of the highlights of this year's show, which was to
include the likes of Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin in their respective
aircraft and Kent Shockley with the Shockwave, as part of the X-Team's Masters
of Disaster program, but sadly, Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin were killed in
a mid-air collision in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on July 10, 2005 while performing
the Masters of Disaster with Jim LeRoy and Kent Shockley. Neither Kent or
Jim were involved in the tragedy and both were able to shut down their
respective vehicle and aircraft. I took this airshow close to my heart
since Jimmy and Bobby were good friends of mine whom I respected and considered
both pilots as mentors, using the ideology that you can do practically anything
or come up with something interesting as long as you put your mind to it to make
it work. It is related to Jimmy's idea of strapping a jet engine
underneath his Waco and Bobby's idea of taking a Learjet 23 and putting it
through an aerobatic routine. Even when this airshow report was uploaded,
I still have a hard time understanding that I will never see these guys fly ever
again.
Following Jim were the Red Baron Squadron. This year, the Red Barons have
two full teams of four aircraft, with the "other" team flying at Oceana.
The team I know all too well consists of John Bowman, Todd Schaufenbuel, Bill
Stein, and John McMurray, who
make up the "classic" Red Baron Squadron.
The team at Oceana consists of Bryan Regan, Jayson Wilson, Matt Losacker, and
Travis Aukes, who make up the "new" Red Baron Squadron. Both teams fly the
same performance routine, but I actually prefer the "classic" squadron since I
know them well and I got to fly with them at Langley AFB earlier in the year!
After the Red Barons landed, the Showcopters had their Robinson R22 and R44
running, while a C-130 Hercules from the Michigan ANG in Selfridge ANGB took off
with members of the Red Devils and Black Daggers for their nighttime jump.
It was the second year in a row that the Michigan ANG provided a C-130 for the
jump teams at Oceana's airshow and these guys sure know how to fly a C-130,
since their takeoff consisted of a very low transition (for a C-130!) and a
forty-five degree climb before turning behind the crowd to get some altitude.
A short break in the action came as the national anthem was played, allowing the
C-130 to gain altitude for the jumps later on in the night. After the
national anthem was played, it was time for the Showcopters to show off.
The Showcopters typically fly with three helicopters - two R22s and an R44, but
at Oceana, only one of the R22s showed, while the R44 was also in attendance,
which meant that Jim Cheatham and Bob Bolton were at the show. I do like
the Showcopters'
performance, but the lack of a third helicopter in the show
didn't help it at all. Now if I had seen the two-ship performance before I
saw the three-ship performance, I could say the opposite. As the
Showcopters landed, the Blue Angels had the stage for their performance.
Although it would have been nice to see the entire team perform a twilight
display, that will never happen because of safety and airshow regulations that
have been in place for decades. However, Fat Albert can perform during the
night. Fat Albert performed one of the rare JATO demonstrations at a
twilight show, which will become rarer and rarer because of the declining number
of JATO bottles available (the majority of the JATO bottle inventory was
destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004). Seeing Fat Albert at night was a
treat for me, since I haven't seen him do a JATO performance since the first
time I was at Oceana for an airshow (and at that time, I was trying to get a
parking spot on base when he went up). It was a typical Fat Albert
performance, with a high speed pass and a short-field landing rounding out the
twilight show performance.
As the evening turned into nighttime, the other C-130 was already at altitude
and ready for
the first set of jumpers to exit the aircraft. The US Army
Special Ops Black Daggers exited the Hercules first, with each of the jumpers
wearing what amounted to a large Roman candle strapped to their foot, and
landing spot on with the target laid on the tarmac in front of the crowd.
Following the Black Daggers were the Red Devils, who took on a more traditional
approach to a nighttime jump. It's becoming an Oceana tradition to have
the Red Devils jump at the airshows, since each nighttime jump shows every
member of the Red Devils coming down covered in over a hundred glow sticks.
Strangely enough, one of my friends, who I persuaded to go to NAS Oceana last
year for the airshow, thought the scene on the beach last year was insane and
wanted to get a glow stick off a Red Devil jumper this year, and he managed to
do so that Friday night!
As the Red Devils were going down the crowd line handing out glow sticks, Kent
Shockley
had the Shockwave fired up for his nighttime performance. What I
absolutely love about the Shockwave is the burner pops, especially when it's at
night and it's a little cool out, it's such a good warm feeling to have a burst
of fire about 200 feet in front of you when you're starting to shiver (I wasn't
shivering as badly at Oceana as I was at Langley... that was brutal!).
Following Shockwave was a fireworks display to close out the twilight show.
NAS Oceana manages to have one of the better fireworks displays for an airshow
and this year's display was kept up to par. Gene Soucy was supposed to fly
his nighttime performance but he was not at the base that night, being weathered
in somewhere south of Virginia Beach - all due to Hurricane Ophelia.
Like last year, NAS Oceana opened up the Officer's Club to the public after
each airshow day. I took in the activities after Friday's show. It
was nice to meet up with a bunch of photographers who are contributing members
of Fence Check's Forums. I
even took in some of the O'Club's finest (drinks, that is!) and took full
advantage of that, which also made me stay there until one in the morning just
so I could get to my hotel safely (and I did get there safely, if you were going
to ask). Somehow I managed to get up and at Oceana early enough on
Saturday to tour the static displays and get the same spot I was at on
Friday,
which was at show right. I also used my new digital camera for the first
time, shooting all of the static displays with it instead of using the video
camera. Speaking of which, the statics were like a typical Oceana static
display - not that many. The Air Force cancelled all active duty
participation at airshows, leaving the Reserves and the Guard units the only
units to do static displays. The military side of the static displays
included a B-52H Stratofortress from Barksdale AFB, a C-5A Galaxy
from Westover ARB, a C-21A Learjet from Peterson AFB, a C-130H Hercules from
Keesler AFB, a Canadian CP-140A Aurora from CFB Greenwood, a CH-146 Griffon, an
F-14B Tomcat from VF-32 Swordsmen at NAS Oceana, an F/A-18E Super Hornet
from VFA-106 Gladiators at NAS Oceana, an HH-60H Seahawk from NAS
Norfolk, an HH-60J Jayhawk from CGAS Elizabeth City in North Carolina, an MH-60S
Knighthawk from Naval Station Norfolk, a T-1A Jayhawk from Vance AFB, an NU-1B,
a T-6A Texan II, and a T-38C Talon all from NAS Patuxent River, a T-34C Mentor
from NAS Oceana, a TH-57C JetRanger from NAS Whiting Field in Florida, and a
UC-12M Huron and a UH-3H Sea King from Naval Station Norfolk. I should
also mention that the F-14 and F/A-18E were parked closer to the crowd line, at
show center, and nose-to-nose. The civil sector of the static display
included a PBY Catalina from Fighter Factory (my friend Rich Kolasa actually
flew into Oceana on board this aircraft!), B-25J Mitchell Panchito, a
US-2B Tracker, a T-28 Trojan, a TBM Avenger owned by Fighter Factory, a Cessna
172S, a Cessna 172P from the Civil Air Patrol, a Lancair, and a Learjet 35 from
L3 Communications.
Flying displays on both Saturday and Sunday got off to an
early start, with Allen Smith giving media rides in his L-39 Albatross, a Beech
D18 also giving media rides, as well as a Nanchang CJ-6A. This went on
until around 9:30 in the morning each day, letting an E-2C Hawkeye from VAW-120
Greyhawks make an overhead break and land on runway 5L for
its upcoming demonstration. The Hawkeye taxied almost all the way to the
end of 5L, letting the Skytypers take off on 23L to set up for their performance
later on. As the Hawkeye taxied past, the crew folded the wings on the
aircraft, just as Allen Smith was taking off on 5R. Allen still had the
original engine inside the L-39, and still continues to mention about upgrading
the airframe to accept an engine that delivers at least 25% more thrust.
It should be ready for 2006, and when it is ready, I can't wait to see it!
Meanwhile, the familiar and sad sounds of F110 engines could clearly be heard
from the distance, as the Tomcats had started their engines in preparation for
the upcoming tactical demonstrations.
Allen
landed on runway 5L as it was time for a newcomer to Oceana's airshow to show
off. What is becoming standard practice with NAS Oceana's airshows
nowadays is to take full advantage of the parallel runways - land the performer
on the left, launch the next performer on the right (that's if the 5s are in
use... it'd be vice versa for the 23s). That newcomer was Nancy Lynn, who
flew her first performance at Oceana in 2005. Nancy's flying a much more
aggressive performance nowadays over the performances I saw her fly at Dayton
back in 2003. Her son, Pete, does the narration for her show, and is a
very good friend of mine. In fact, both Pete and his mom are both real
good friends of mine considering I helped put together some footage for them for
the ICAS Convention in 2003. Nancy was a last-minute addition to Oceana's
lineup, and I actually had no idea she was going to be performing until I saw
her Extra in one of the Tomcat (well, now Super Hornet) hangars.
After
Nancy landed, it was time for the E-2C Hawkeye demonstration. The Hawkeye
in
question was the Hawkeye that had landed earlier. It was positioned on the
far end of 5R and took off to start one of the finest Hawkeye performances I had
ever seen. The E-2 performing was actually the Hawkeye 2000 variant, which
features new eight-bladed composite propellers as its major external feature.
The demonstration consisted of a takeoff, a high-G repositioning, high speed
pass, minimum radius turn, banana pass (well, not quite), a carrier break, and a
touch-and-go departure back to Naval Station Norfolk. It was at this time
the fleet aircraft started to taxi out to the parallel runways, setting up for
their takeoffs. Following the Hawkeye's departure was Dale "Snort"
Snodgrass taking off in his F-86 Sabre. Well, it really wasn't HIS
Sabre... the particular aircraft belongs to Wyatt Fuller and he lent it to Snort
for the weekend because the Skyblazers Sabre had some serious mechanical issues
at the time (it's back and flying now). Snort climbed up pretty high and
departed the immediate area, with the Skytypers skytyping at the same time.
Then, it was time for one of the highlights of NAS Oceana's
airshow - launching the fleet
aircraft. Launching off runway 5R were two
F-14B Tomcats from VF-32 Swordsmen, one of which being a special paint
job (the tail stripes for the Swordsmen Tomcats were yellow and the Alpha
Charlie font was more script-like). Taking off on 5R in formation were
AC-101 and AC-104, and on 5L was AC-115 and AD-160, which was the Grim Reaper's
retro bird, separately. Following the Tomcats were two F/A-18C Hornets
from VFA-136, the Knighthawks - AB-310 and AB-307. Following the
Knighthawks were a pair of F/A-18F Super Hornets from VFA-211 Checkmates,
with AB-100 leading (this is the squadron's CAG jet, which is very nicely
painted up) and AB-103 following closely behind. All eight aircraft went
out beyond the show area to join up and return a little later on in the show.
After
the Super Hornets left the immediate area, Dale Snodgrass came back around to
perform his aerobatic demonstration. I've waited practically all year for
Snort to fly his aerobatic performance and I finally got my wish at Oceana.
The only thing lacking from the solo performance at Oceana was a smoke system in
that particular F-86. It wasn't the
complete performance, but what Snort was
going to fly later on in the day more than made up for an abbreviated solo
aerobatic performance. Snort landed on 5L as the morning parachute jumpers
had just left their MH-53E Sea Dragon jump ship. Jumping out of the Sea
Dragon were members of the British Red Devils and the US Army SOC Black Daggers.
The Red Devils and the Black Daggers exited from 12,000 feet up and came down in
formations, before breaking off and releasing their canopies. A four-ship
of Red Devils had formed up a diamond (trailing the Union Jack), bringing it in
real close to the ground before breaking off for landing, while the Black
Daggers performed individual approaches to the target area, and one Red Devil
being circled by the Red Baron Squadron, carrying the Stars and Stripes to
earth, with a US flag drawn out in the sky by the Skytypers and the national
anthem being played.
After all the jumpers landed, it was time to bring back the
fighters. The four F-14 Tomcats had formed up in a diamond formation, with
the F/A-18C Hornets flying in echelon left formation off the left wing of the
Tomcat diamond and the F/A-18F Super Hornets flying in echelon right formation
off the right wing of the Tomcat diamond. The formation flew by without
afterburners, which happened to be one of the sweetest sounds in military
aviation. The Hornets and Super Hornets broke off of the formation as they
reached the base boundary, and strangely enough, there was no sneak pass by any
aircraft right after the fleet flyover. There was one on Sunday, and it
was flown by Goon and Ox in a VFA-106 Super Hornet. Usually the sneak pass
signals the start of the Air Power Demonstration, but with nothing to go by on
Saturday, the Air Power Demonstration started about three minutes after the
fleet flyby. The first two jets to come in to present their attacks were
the baby Hornets from VFA-136. The Knighthawks approached from show left
and performed straight-in attacks on the base, breaking to the right as they
passed show center. The Hornets followed up to reposition from the right
to perform pop-up attacks on Oceana, exiting the show area to the left to head
back to the carrier. Actually, they didn't exit just yet. The
Knighthawks still had some punch
left, as the two Hornets came in one-by-one,
popping up to deliver their munitions, only to be followed closely by the Super
Hornets from VFA-211 Checkmates came in from the
left, performing straight-in attacks in somewhat close formation and breaking
off to the right to reposition. I believe on Sunday's show when the
Checkmates came in for their first attack, one of the jets was able to pull
out a full cone of vapor
around the rear of the aircraft while the other one wasn't able to do so.
The Checkmates repositioned from the right, popping up for another attack, and
as they exited, the Skytypers were still up skytyping, and Rob Reider made it
quick to point out that Cdr. "Desi" Desimone's seventeenth anniversary was on
that Saturday! I do believe they spelled anniversary incorrectly, but I
couldn't tell since the letters were starting to fade away (by the way, Desi's
role for the airshow is being the air boss). The Super Hornets made one
final pop up attack on the base, coming in staggered, exiting to the right to
meet up with a tanker to return back to their carrier. Meanwhile, the
final set of aircraft came in from the left. This would be the final year
of the Tomcat's participation in the Air Power Demonstration. Two F-14B
Tomcats from VF-32, the Swordsmen, came in low and fast from the left for
their first attack. The Tomcats broke left to reposition for the second
attack - one aircraft coming in from the right and the other aircraft coming in
from the left. Both aircraft popped up for a strafing pass down the runway
before turning towards one another to rejoin. Coming in from the right,
the Swordsmen approached the target with a popup and a bomb delivery,
which resulted in a wall of fire of about 1,500 feet long being set off.
Strangely enough, Rob Reider did not make any mention of the Tomcats having to
hit up the tanker before heading back to the carrier, considering how the F-14
has a lot more range than the baby Hornet and the Super Hornet.
Immediately following the wall of fire, the Knighthawks
returned to Oceana for a high speed pass and overhead break to
land on the 5s. The timing of the formation breaking off was absolutely
perfect, as they timed it to break
with the black smoke from the wall of fire in
the background! One of the F/A-18Cs landed on Runway 5L while the other
landed on 5R. As they were touching down, the Super Hornets from the
Checkmates came overhead for their break, which consisted of one jet
breaking to the left and the other breaking to the right, which also determined
which runway they would be landing on. As the Super Hornets were landing,
the four Tomcats came overhead in a diamond formation, with the left and right
wings breaking away in their respective directions, and the lead and slot planes
then breaking left and right, respectively. Luckily, the VF-101 F-14 was
able to land on 5R, so we could get some close-up shots of it while landing as
opposed to getting it on the left. The Hornets taxied in real close
formation, followed a minute or two behind by the Super Hornets with their wings
folded. As the Super Hornets taxied in, two F/A-18E Super Hornets from
VFA-143 Pukin' Dogs departed and headed out to the USS John F. Kennedy
aircraft carrier to practice some carrier qualifications. The Tomcats were
a little more behind the Super Hornets and taxied in one by one, with the last
Tomcat, AC-101, taxiing closer to the crowd line than the other three.
After the last Tomcat taxied by show center, two more
Pukin' Dogs Super Hornets took
off, also heading to the JFK.
Immediately after the second departed, the Skytypers appeared over to begin
their performance. The Skytypers put on their usual performance but it
seemed like they put out a lot more smoke than in the past, even when they were
doing skytyping. As the Skytypers were closing out their performance,
another F/A-18E Super Hornet from the Pukin' Dogs departed for the
carrier, giving room for the Skytypers to do their break and land on runway 5L.
As the Skytypers were landing, Kent Shockley had the Shockwave Jet Truck fired
up for its dry run of the day. Kent had parked the Shockwave on a taxiway
towards show right between the main ramp and 5R for his burner pops, and
effectively gave all the photographers out there some smoke to inhale (before we
at the crowd line got it). Kent's run clocked in at about 325 miles an
hour on Saturday.
Following Shockwave was the F/A-18C Hornet demonstration.
Lt. Dustin Lee flew the CAG jet from VFA-131 Wildcats in one of the
better baby Hornet demonstrations I had seen in a few years. We were even
treated to an extra carrier break after the touch-and-go portion of the
demonstration, and the vapor was there, but not in the abundance that I've
seen in past Hornet demonstrations. It seems that Hornet demonstrations
have become rarer and rarer as the years go by, as I've seen fewer and fewer
Hornet demonstrations in the last two years. As the Hornet landed on 5L,
Jim LeRoy was set to go on 23L to begin his performance. It had been just
a little over a year since I last saw Jim LeRoy flying and I have to admit - I
missed seeing his performance! I actually had a chance to talk to Jim
after the airshow on Sunday and he mentioned that he is looking to regroup the
remaining members of the X-Team and add new members for 2006. Oceana was
scheduled to have the X-Team perform, but sadly, two of the performers that were
scheduled to fly - Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin, lost their lives in a
tragic accident in Moose Jaw, SK in July while performing an X-Team performance
with Jim LeRoy and Scott Shockley. Jim landed safely and Scott was not
involved. If I wasn't in a rush on Sunday, I would have given Jim some
help with dismantling his biplane, considering the last time I saw him fly, I
gave him a hand in towing the plane back to the hangar (this was at Sussex).
After Jim landed, the Showcopters had the aerobatic box.
Once again it was only Jim Cheatham and Bob Bolton flying, and I could tell that
something was missing without that third helicopter. One of these days I
would love to see their performance at either a much
smaller show site, or
better yet, Rotorfest. In my opinion, helicopter demonstrations are best
experienced at the smaller shows because of the smaller aerobatic box and
everything seems a lot closer. After they concluded their performance, it
was time to launch the jump aircraft. The Canadian Sky Hawks used a
DeHavilland CC-115 Buffalo as their jump ship, and it was the first of two
aircraft to take off. The Buffalo demonstrated its short takeoff
capability and following closely behind was a C-130H Hercules from the Michigan
ANG. The Michigan ANG guys have been kind enough to supply a plane for the
second year in a row at Oceana and like last year, performed a very low
transition, keeping the plane a mere ten feet or less off the ground before
pulling up and banking to the right to gain altitude.
Three
more aircraft were to depart to set up for later performances. The first
two aircraft
were a pair of F-86 Sabres, flown by Dale Snodgrass and Ed Shipley. Snort
and Shipley took off in a very nice tight formation before breaking off to the
right. The third aircraft was a QF-4 Phantom II flown by Lt.Col. Jerry
Kerby. The particular Phantom is painted up in a Vietnam camouflage scheme
with a light grey bottom. After he departed, it was time for the F-16
demonstration. Major Geoff "Hak" Hickman's demonstrations have been
getting better and better all throughout 2005. Hak did something on
Saturday that confused me - he "reversed" his performance about halfway through
the demonstration. I had never seen the slow speed pass and the knife edge
pass flown from the right and left, respectively up until now. It made for
some interesting photo ops for the Fence Checkers out there and I have to say
that I liked that change! Hak did fly the dedication pass from show right,
giving him the chance to join up with the Heritage Flight aircraft after they
passed from the right following the Viper demo.
That
Heritage Flight formation featured the F-4 Phantom leading both F-86 Sabres,
with
Geoff Hickman and the F-16 flying the slot position. Four passes were
flown, with the first being a head-on pass, the second pass coming from show
right, the third pass coming from the left, and the traditional Heritage Flight
break from behind the crowd. Following the break, each of the aircraft
went down Runway 5R as a salute, with Dale Snodgrass flying his F-86 Sabre about
fifteen feet off the ground at over 400 miles per hour. Behind Snort was
Lt.Col. Jerry Kerby in the QF-4E Phantom II, performing a high speed pass and
leaving the afterburners on for a decent portion of the flyby, with Hak making
another high speed pass and shutting off the afterburner after reaching my
position, and Ed Shipley making a low banana pass over the runway, a la Snort,
before heading behind the crowd to set up for the next performance. I want
to make a note that Rob Reider was kind enough to let us hear what the Phantom
sounds like when he made his high speed pass!
The
Phantom and Fighting Falcon were recovered on Runway 5L as Dale Snodgrass and
Ed Shipley came back around with their F-86 Sabres. NAS Oceana played host
to the debut airshow performance of the Duel Sabres flown by those two pilots
and in my opinion, that is one of the best F-86 Sabre performances I have ever
seen in my entire life. It ranks up there with the Horseman Mustang
performance in terms of warbird formation aerobatics. The Sabre doesn't
make a ton of noise as compared to a Phantom or Super Sabre but it is very
graceful, and having the second Sabre in the air makes it even more graceful.
Snort and Shipley concluded their performance with a break, followed by a very
low pass by each pilot, with Snort coming by at about ten feet off the ground
and Shipley about thirty feet off the ground.
Both Snort and Shipley went on to land on Runway 5L, and while
rolling out, the B-2 Spirit came in for its flybys. The Spirit made a
total of two passes, showing off the underside of the massive flying wing,
before heading off to another show site to do more flybys. Typically B-2
crews fly one aircraft to a number of show sites one weekend day of each month
and cover up to five airshows while taking off and returning from
Whiteman AFB,
Missouri. After the B-2 left the Virginia Beach area, the CC-115 Buffalo
was inbound at 10,000 feet, with the Canadian Sky Hawks exiting the aircraft.
A total of fifteen jumpers exited the Buffalo, formed up in freefall, and split
to open their canopies. Several members of the Sky Hawks managed to
perform some canopy relative work, and one jumper even spiraled down with a
candy cane smoke system hanging off his right heel. After all of the Sky
Hawks landed, the C-130 came in at 10,000 feet and the British Army Red Devils
and the US Army SOC Black Daggers exited the Hercules. Both teams flew
some formations in freefall before breaking off and the Black Daggers flew
individual approaches into the jump area, spreading out their landings.
The Red Devils pulled off some canopy relative work, with one jumper bring in
the Union Jack and another jumper bringing in the Stars and Stripes. They
also performed a showline spread, and I even had two jumpers come in practically
right on top of me! As they were all coming in, I could hear the sound of
a pair of General Electric F110 turbofan engines idling, as it was an F-14
Tomcat getting ready to fly.
The
Buffalo and the Hercules landed out of sight of the crow
d,
meaning they landed on either Runway 32L or 32R and while they taxied back to
their parking spots, the Red Baron Squadron had just taken off. For 2005
and onward, the Red Barons have two teams of four aircraft, with the "other"
team flying at Oceana. The team I know all too well consists of John
Bowman, Todd Schaufenbuel, Bill Stein, and John McMurray, who make up the
"classic" Red Baron Squadron. The team at Oceana consisted of Bryan Regan,
Jayson Wilson, Matt Losacker, and Travis Aukes, who make up the "new" Red Baron
Squadron. While the Red Barons were performing, the F-14 Tomcat taxied by
and headed out to Runway 23L to await its time to fly. In my opinion, I
think that the Red Barons' show seemed to have gotten a little longer than in
past years, considering when the team is flying three different "shows" in their
performance.
Following
the Red Barons' landing on 23R was the reason why a large percentage of the NAS
Oceana airshow crowd came to the airshow - to see the F-14 Tomcat fly for one
final time. There had been a lot of speculation on whether or not there
would be Tomcats flying in the 2005 show up until about three weeks before
showtime, when it was confirmed that there would be a flight of Tomcats in the
fleet flyby and one final Tomcat demonstration. Then the next question
that popped up was regarding which aircraft would be flying the demonstrations.
VF-101 and VF-32 each had one Tomcat painted up in a retro paint scheme (AD-160
and AC-112, respectively) symbolizing the respective squadron's
markings on the Tomcat from the 1970s. The plan was to fly the Grim
Reapers retro jet on Friday and Sunday, and the Swordsmen retro jet on Saturday.
It didn't quite work out that way, though, which I will explain a little later.
The available demo team pilots from 2004, Lt. Jack "Rocco" Tangredi and Lt.
Joseph "Smokin' Joe" Ruzicka were quickly requalified to
fly the demonstration about two weeks before airshow weekend. The demo jet
on Saturday was not the Swordsmen retro jet, but rather a normal Swordsmen jet -
AC-104. Rocco and Smokin' Joe put the Tomcat through one of the best F-14
demonstrations I have ever seen, and at the same time, one of the saddest
demonstrations, since Saturday's was the second to last Tomcat tactical
demonstration. In typical Oceana Tomcat demonstration style, the first
high speed pass was accompanied by
a
1,500 foot wall of fire from Rich's Incredible Pyro. The weekend's Tomcat
demos had a lot of meaning considering the aircraft is in retirement, with the
last of the Tomcats flying off into the sunset in September of 2006.
Traditionally, a member of VF-101 narrates the F-14 demonstrations, but for the
final demonstration, Rob Reider had the honor to narrate the very last F-14
Tomcat demonstration, and Rob did an incredible job of building up the suspense
in the beginning portion of the script and throughout the entire demonstration.
In my opinion, it was very appropriate that Rob got to announce the final
demonstration. I did not shoot video of Sunday's demonstration but rather
shot pictures of the aircraft, which happened to be VF-101's retro jet.
The crew had parked the jet at show right on Saturday for the X-Team to perform
and on Sunday for the Subway Hummer giveaway. Sunday's taxi back had a lot
more meaning to it, as Rocco and Smokin' Joe brought the Tomcat to show center,
bowed to the crowd, and shut down the engines. They both exited the
aircraft, shook hands, and were met on the ground with champagne showered all
over each other and the plane. Members of the Tomcat Demo Team, the
Commanding Officer of NAS Oceana, and several Blue Angel pilots came over to
congratulate Rocco and Smokin' Joe for the demonstrations. The maintenance
crew towed AD-160 off to the hot ramp as a symbolic sign that the Tomcat
demonstrations have ended.
Following the Tomcat demonstration on Saturday, Jim LeRoy took
to the air once again, not to fly his solo aerobatic performance, but to fly the
X-Team's performance (I should also mention that an F/A-18 Hornet from the
Knighthawks taxied out to 23L during the Tomcat demonstration, but I felt
that the last paragraph should only include the F-14 in it and no other
airplanes). Kent Shockley also had the Shockwave Jet Truck fired up, and
this was one of the remaining X-Team performances of 2005. Two other
performers were set to appear at Oceana, namely Jimmy Franklin and Bobby
Younkin, but unfortunately, they were involved in a mid-air collision at an
airshow nine weeks before Oceana's show and were killed. Gene Soucy was
scheduled to perform with Jim LeRoy, but Gene was weathered in because of
Hurricane Ophelia and he didn't make it to Oceana until Sunday. The X-Team
has retired the Masters of Disaster name and will be regrouping in 2006 under
the title of Masters of Xtreme. Jim LeRoy flew what he called the "Tribute
to the Masters" at NAS Oceana and it was a very fitting tribute, although no
mention of Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin were made at all over the entire
weekend.
Jim
landed on 5L and following his landing, the F/A-18C Hornet that was parked at
the end of 23L took off to set up for the upcoming Legacy Flight.
Meanwhile, Rocco and Smokin' Joe brought in the F-14 Tomcat, taxiing by and
flying the American flag out of the cockpit of the aircraft as the F/A-18F Super
Hornet demonstration was about to begin. Lt. Ian
"Goon" Burgoon and Lt. Chuck "Ox" Shamonsky flew Saturday's performance, which
was somewhat dismal because of the atmospheric conditions. As amazing as
the Super Hornet demonstration is, it's even more amazing when it's somewhat
humid out and the pilots can pull the vapor out of the air, but there wasn't
enough humidity in the air to do just that. Following
their performance, Goon and Ox joined up with Dale Snodgrass in an F4U Corsair
and the F/A-18C Hornet for the Legacy Flight. I wasn't expecting to see
the Tomcat in the Legacy Flight considering I don't think there would have been
time to get Rocco and Smokin' Joe requalified for the Legacy Flight as soon as
they had gotten the demo requalification. The Legacy Flight consisted of
two passes, plus the final pass from behind the crowd for a break.
Strangely enough, Friday's Legacy Flight along with Sunday's did not have a
Corsair flying but had Dale flying the F-86. It sounds kind of weird, but
when you think about it, the Navy flew a modified version of the Sabre known as
the FJ-2 Fury.
After
all of the Legacy Flight aircraft were recovered, it was time for the Blue
Angels to
take the stage. As is typical with a Blue Angels display, Fat Albert was
the first of the Blue Angels aircraft to go up. For some reason it
seemed the JATO takeoff wasn't nearly as loud as in previous performances.
Fat Albert went on to perform a low pass and the short field landing before
turning the show over to the Hornets. I was a bit skeptical that the Blues
would not fly the high show on Saturday because of the clouds around their
aerobatic box, but I was proven wrong, since they ended up flying their high
show. In fact, it was one of the best Blue Angels performances I had seen
in a couple years! The timing on everything seemed spot-on, and I suppose
it made up for their absence from last year's show because of Hurricane Ivan.
After
the Blues landed, I spent a good amount
of time on NAS Oceana talking with
some Fence Checkers and Rob Reider, who was going to be at
the Beach Blast later on in the day. I stayed on base for about half an
hour before heading to the beach. For some reason, the flow of traffic was
taken out of the London Bridge Road gate and onto London Bridge Road (the
western edge of Oceana... Tomcat Boulevard and Oceana Boulevard is on the
eastern side of the base), so I had to go a little out of my way to reach the
beach, where a couple of my friends let me use their hotel bathroom to freshen
up (well, take a shower...). Then it was time to hit up Virginia Beach!
The third part of the NAS Oceana airshow weekend is the Beach
Blast, which coincided with the Neptune Festival, which the airshow is no longer
a part of. The 2005 Beach Blast's flying activities included an F/A-18F
Super Hornet making some burner passes and the parachute teams. Rob Reider
did make it over to the beach and even did some announcing for the event, in
particular during the Super Hornet's flybys. The one thing I've hated
about the Beach Blast is that there are never any speakers over by the beach,
which made it nearly impossible to hear what Rob was talking about. The
first aircraft to
make an appearance over the beach was the Michigan ANG C-130
Hercules, making a low pass over the water and climbing for altitude. The
Michigan guys did the same thing in 2004, but that year they flew even lower
than the crew in 2005. After he left the show area (this was a span of
about ten to fifteen minutes), the Super Hornet came in from the west and made a
pass over the beach and out to the ocean, lighting the afterburners as he
reached the shore line. I'm not sure which squadron was flying but I'm
pretty certain it was VFA-106. The Super Hornet made a long turn out over
the ocean to make one more pass from the north to the south, down the shore
line, with the afterburners on, and headed back to Oceana. I was really
disappointed that the Super Hornet only made two burner passes as opposed to the
Tomcat making eight passes in 2004, but I was told that the airshow director was
only given approval for two passes. I made a joke about it saying the
Super Hornet didn't have enough fuel remaining for any more burner passes!
After
about another ten or so minutes, the C-130 appeared over the beachfront with
what
appeared to be roman candles out the back of the aircraft. The Black
Daggers and the Canadian Sky Hawks had made an exit from the Hercules from about
6,000 feet. Each of the Black Daggers came down with what looked
like roman candles strapped to one of their boots while in the descent.
Following the Black Daggers down were members of the Canadian Sky Hawks, who
didn't have any sort of nighttime special effects on the canopies or on the
jumpers. They did manage to pull off some canopy relative work! All
of the jumpers from both parachute teams came down under lots of cheering from
everyone around the jump zone and on the beach and boardwalk.
As the night grew on and it got darker and darker, the C-130
came back one more time for one more jump run. This time the British Army
Red Devils made their jump, and these were the guys everyone was waiting to see
come down. Each of the Red Devils jumpers came down covered in about two
hundred glow sticks each. About ten jumpers came in, with the last four
jumpers forming a diamond formation, splitting the formation seconds before each
jumper reached the beach, closing out the flying portion of the Beach Blast.
What surprised me was how long it took all the kids around me to break past the
roped off jump zone to make a bee-line for the jumpers to get a glow stick or
two!
I had spent the rest of that night hanging out with performers
and Fence Checkers alike until things drew a close at around 10:00 pm. I
then headed over to hang out with my friends from the Willow Grove area, which
took us onto the beach at around 12:45 in the morning, when the wind started to
pick up and the rain started to come down. It started to rain like a
Florida downpour around 1:00 in the morning, and I still had to get back to my
hotel, which was near Route 13 and Route 60! I did get back to the hotel
safely, got some rest, and got to Oceana bright and early on Sunday, spending
the entire day taking pictures instead of shooting video, with varying results,
since it was my first airshow with my new digital camera. The late night
storm brought in wind gusts of over 60 miles an hour, ripping down tents and
sending things
flying everywhere on Oceana, but by the time I got on base at 7:30 that morning,
it seemed like nothing happened! Two of the Skytypers' SNJs were damaged,
and they were unable to fly that day. Low clouds on Sunday did prevent
some vertical maneuvers in the Air Power Demonstration, but the rest of the show
went on without any problems with the weather, and the Blue Angels got to fly
their high show once again. The thought of seeing the last F-14 Tomcat
demonstration didn't sink into my mind until I got on the road and in the middle
of the Eastern Shore of Virginia (on Route 13 heading north). NAS Oceana
put on the best airshow out of all my airshows that I attended in 2005, and at
the same time, was also the saddest, considering it would be the last time I
would see a Tomcat in the air at an airshow. With VF-31 slated to have
their last flights about two weeks after the 2006 airshow, it is possible that
there could be some F-14s flying in the 2006 show, but at this point in time, it
is way too early to say anything. I would imagine there will be no Tomcats
flying at the 2006 show, and even with that statement, I will be down there for
the 2006 airshow.
Military Demonstration Teams
Tentative Military Demonstrations
Civillian Demonstrations
Participating Organizations
Announcer: Rob Reider