Steve's Airshow World - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Frequently Asked Questions - Airshow Related

Q: Are any of the foreign jet teams touring North America in 2008?

A: The Red Arrows have confirmed that they were be visiting a couple other show sites in June 2008 following the Quebec International Airshow. Those show sites have been announced and those show sites are listed on the 2008 Jet Team Schedules Page.

I have plans on attending all of the North American airshows that the Red Arrows will be headlining. It just so happens that they will be at two of my regular airshows.

Q: I heard there will not be any more F-15 Eagle demonstrations. Is that true?

A: Yes. The East Coast Demo Team will fly their last airshow at Nellis AFB in November 2006 and they are going to be disestablished for two reasons. Firstly, there will be a shortage of Eagles at Langley, considering that the 27th Fighter Squadron and the 94th Fighter Squadron are now F-22 Raptor squadrons. This leaves the 71st Fighter Squadron as the last of the F-15 Eagle squadrons at Langley, and unable to keep up to four aircraft assigned to fly demonstrations.

The 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, FL will continue to have the West Coast Demo Team for the 2008, and will disband following the conclusion of the 2008 airshow season. The final F-15C demonstration will be flown at NAS Pensacola in November, and as of right now, I am trying to arrange plans to attend that airshow.

There will still be Strike Eagle demonstrations from the 4th Fighter Wing. The 366th Wing at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho will stand up another Strike Eagle Demo Team in 2009.

Q: What happened to the Texan II demonstrations? You had them listed for the remainder of 2006 and yet, most of those show sites did not have a Texan II demonstration!

A: I usually don't update the schedule pages as the year progresses, since it's just one more thing I'd have to worry about. To answer the original question, the Air Force and AETC decided to disestablish both Texan II Demo Teams at various intervals in 2006 because of budget cuts. I believe the last demo for the Moody guys was in early June and the last demo for the Randolph guys was Labor Day weekend, but don't hold me to those dates. I don't think we'll see the Texan II perform any demonstrations at airshows this season or anytime in the short and long terms.

Q: Are A-10 and F-16 demonstrations affected? What Block are the F-16 demo team aircraft?

A: Because of BRAC, the A-10 East Coast Demo Team was disestablished at the end of June 2007. The 23rd Fighter Group's A-10s are set to move to Moody AFB, GA and the Demo Team will be reestablished for the 2009 airshow season. The A-10 West Coast Demo Team is unaffected. The F-16 East Coast and West Coast Demo Teams are unaffected. As long as there are plenty of airframes at both bases, you will see F-16 demonstrations for quite a while.

Viper East and Viper West fly the Block 50 F-16. You can easily tell what Block an F-16 is by the pitch of the engine, especially when idling. The Thunderbirds currently fly Block 32s and will transition to Block 52s in 2009, both of which are powered by the Pratt & Whitney PW F100-220 (or -225 or -229) while the demo teams' F-16s are powered by the General Electric GE-F110-332. The PW F100-200/-225/-229 series can also be found on the F-15/F-15E while the GE F110-332 can also be found on the F-14B/D Tomcat. All Blocks 30, 40, 50, and 60 F-16s have the GE engine while Blocks 25 and below, 32, 42, 52, and 62 have the Pratt & Whitney engine.

Q: Will the Phantoms fly Heritage Flights again this year?

A: Yes. QF-4 Phantom Heritage Flight participation will continue for the 2008 airshow season.

Q: What about the F-22 Raptor?

A: The F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team has stood up and is led by Major Paul "Max" Moga. Max took over duties from Lt.Col. Michael "Dozer" Shower, who flew an abbreviated performance at several airshows in 2006 - four of which I managed to catch him fly. Dozer was not permitted to fly any maneuvers in front of the crowd at any of his shows, and was putting on quite the demo at altitude behind the crowd at most shows. Max took over for the 2007-2008 seasons, and was only supposed to fly a six-pass routine in 2007, but that got changed days before the Langley AFB show, where he debuted the official demo profile. Keep in mind that those maneuvers are done with complete control of the aircraft, as opposed to the MiG-29 and Sukhoi demonstrations.

Word from locals around Langley AFB is that the 2008 demo profile, which might be the full-up permanent demo Raptor demo profile, will include a lot more maneuvers not seen in the 2007 profile - especially those featured on Steve's Airshow World. While there is a video of the 2008 profile already on YouTube, I will try my best to see if I can go out to Langley AFB before my airshow season begins, and if I'm lucky enough to be invited to a practice demonstration, I will bring the video camera. I may even do something special... if everything allows.

Q: What's the status on F-14 Tomcat operations?

A: All F-14 Tomcats have been retired. The last jet (164603, AJ-101) was flown to Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York on October 4, 2006. I have had the opportunity to go out to Republic Airport to witness and capture this historical event - only the landing is online, but the entire landing and much more appears on The Ultimate F-14 Tomcat.

Q: What song is played during the Heritage Flights and where can I download it?

A: The song is called "We Remember" by Dwayne O'Brien. Out of respect for the entire Heritage Flight Program, I am not going to upload the song on my site but I do recommend that you purchase the CD it is on because it contains an album full of great aviation songs written and performed by Mr. O'Brien. You can purchase it by clicking here.

Q: How many and which airshows will you be attending this season?

A: The answer to both questions can be found by clicking here.

Q: How will the high gas prices affect which shows you're going to attend?

A: I originally planned my 2008 airshow season with an average gas price of $3.75/gallon in mind, which as of the beginning of June 2008, is come and gone (on June 6, 2008, the place where I normally get gas has regular for $3.87). I have now changed my prospective expenses to reflect $4.25/gallon.

I have removed Rotorfest 2008 from my schedule as a result of high gas prices. If gas around here happens to drop below $3.00/gallon, I will go to Rotorfest.

Q: You're always going to the same airshows every year. Why not change it up a bit?

A: I would, if I actually moved to a different part of the country. Seriously though, I don't mind going to the same shows every year but when possible, I do try to include at least one different show site. For those of you who are wondering, I live in New Jersey, so that explains why I hit certain shows every year.

Q: What if it rains?

A: A rainy day doesn't mean that there won't be an airshow... if it's pouring out, then yeah - probably nobody will fly, but if it's a drizzle, there will still be airplanes in the air (of course, ceiling and visibility permitted). Regardless of location, I will be at the show site if it rains.

Q: How come for certain show sites you attend just one day and others you attend both days?

A: There's some shows that I can only afford to attend just one day and there's others where it's not even worth going both days - either because of the venue or because of the type of show.

Q: How are you able to get in on media day? Can I get in too?

A: Steve's Airshow World, for the most part, is considered not just a fan-based site, but also a media site. This allows me to apply for media day access to show sites, and thus, allows for the opportunity for more video and more text for the airshow reports.

For the second question, if you're just an ordinary airshow fan, no.

Q: What are the frequencies that the airboss, the jet teams, the demonstration pilots, and the ground control use?

A: I will NEVER post ANY frequencies on Steve's Airshow World, regardless of who it is for, who uses the frequencies, and anything and everything in between. This is because of safety - if for some reason those frequencies got into the wrong hands, someone could easily transmit on that frequency and jeopardize not only the pilots' safety but also the safety of everyone on the ground.

Q: What do you use to shoot video?

A: Starting in 2006, I have been using a Sony Handycam TRV480 Digital8 camera. It's smaller than the Hitachi and despite the fact that I'm spending more money on tapes than I did with the Hitachi, the quality of the video is much better. The only downside is that I cannot shoot video and wear sunglasses at the same time, but I have worked around that. The solution may look weird but at the same time, it works.

Q: Is shooting video of aircraft as difficult as it sounds?

A: It is and I have made a page detailing some of the tips and secrets I have learned over the last five years. Click here to go to that page.

Q: How soon will you have the videos up from an airshow you just attended?

A: It all depends on outside projects that I need to get done before getting any videos uploaded. With the start of the 2007 airshow season, you have seen something I hadn't been able to do in YEARS - uploading videos after a week or more (but less than a month) after the show took place. It all boils down to any projects (site and non-site related) that I currently have in progress that would affect uploading videos.

And yes, I will be posting videos on YouTube (see below).

Q: Why are you putting more and more videos on YouTube? Also, why are some on Metacafe?

A: I am trying to "spread the wealth" of the videos by splitting them on the site and on YouTube. Only those videos that I think will be the most popular videos watched will appear on YouTube. It will also draw the YouTube crowd onto Steve's Airshow World, so the idea pretty much goes hand-in-hand.

There is a slight drawback with YouTube, where the actual video is blown up to fit their viewer. The audio is still the way it was encoded, but if you clicked the button to the right of the audio level, it will revert the video to the size it was uploaded in. Older videos that are uploaded to YouTube also suffer from video quality, but that stems from reducing the quality of the video so that it will be sized (megabyte-wise) nicely for uploading.

Also, those of you who have a YouTube account are able to comment on each video and subscribe to my videos. By subscribing, you will get a notice on your "My Subscriptions" page that I have uploaded new videos, and when I do upload videos, I tend to upload a lot of them at one time.

You will also see ALL of my videos on YouTube because of copyright problems and infringement. IF YOU SEE ANY VIDEOS on YouTube that are mine and were not uploaded by me, please send that user a message to take down the video. Even a "cease and desist" message should do the trick.

Those videos that appear on Metacafe are those I have uploaded that could possibly be very popular and hence, make money.

Q: Can you provide me with driving directions to (name of military installation, airport, or show site)?

A: I would refer you to Mapquest, Yahoo! Maps or Google Maps.

Q: I see you're going to the same show I'm going to. Are you going to offer any advice as to what to do for that show?

A: If I made a preview page for that show, I will try my best to include some advice for that particular show. Remember, there might be some shows I am attending for the first time and I will try to use my best assumptions for that particular show site, based on what other people have told me about past shows.

Q: Where will the jet teams, parachute teams, single ship demos, and aerobatic performers be appearing this year?

A: Click here. If you would like to view the schedules for all of the single ship demo teams, please visit David Schultz Airshows. For aerobatic performers and warbirds, please visit their respective websites for their schedules.

Q: Are you affiliated with any airshows or in the airshow industry?

A: No.

Q: I am the airshow coordinator of the (name of airshow and location) and I see you will be attending this very show.

A: E-mail me. I'm interested in anything (media passes, VIP parking and seating, invitations, etc.). I can definitely put together something for you in return as well.

Q: Why all the buzz on AirShowBuzz.com on YOUR site?

A: It's not like me to promote another site over mine, but to be honest, I spend A LOT more time on ASB (specifically the forums) than I do working on my own site. I am very good friends with the founder as well as several of the co-founders of the site and I feel that Ed Shipley (that name sounds familiar, doesn't it?) has created something magnificent for the airshow industry as well as for airshow fans and I feel the word should be spread about ASB.

Q: What if my question isn't on here?

A: E-mail me!