The 13th Indianapolis Air Show was a Blast - The Best in North America!

The 13th Indianapolis Air Show was a blast, featured the Blue Angels, and so far in 2009, it has been the best in North America!

Location: Indianapolis, Mt. Comfort Airport (KMQJ), Greenfield, Indiana

Admission: Only $5.00 on Friday (Media day) Saturday and Sunday from $17 in advance to $20 at the gate, Saturday and Sunday. Family pack $80 (2 adults + 2 kids) with reserved seating. Other seating upgrades were available.

Parking: Free on the airport grounds.

Value: Excellent

The Indy Air Show Organization, chaired by Roger N. Bishop and his very dedicated group of volunteers once again showed all, how to organize and make an air show happen with excellent results! The Indianapolis Air Show is an excellent value for the buck, when it comes not just to air shows, but to family entertainment that is fun, and educational too. The show had many family oriented activities as one could go up in a hot air balloon ride early in the morning or evening, or, watch Radio Controlled aircraft buzz above the runway before the air show started each day. For adults, the 2nd Annual Hoosier Park Racing and Monte Carlo Night provided fun activities on Friday evening. What truly makes this show so outstanding is their staff of volunteers who are extremely organized, helpful, and want you, the attendee, to have a great time!

Most air show organizers, judging from our experience, after attending numerous air shows in North America, miss these important factors; being organized, and having friendly volunteers who are helpful toward the attendees. While some have a great line up of performers, the organization of some of the actual shows are quite disorganized with conflicting or no information whatsoever, nor are they helpful toward the attendees or even to some of the media, unless they represent a TV network or a major print publication. These organizations also forget the importance and the impact of the Internet. Print media is going by way of the dodo bird; the internet is more and more relevant to anyone who wants information. These days, the internet can interface with not just potential local people, but world wide attendees and interested groups who in the future would want to visit their shows. There were several upgraded viewing and eating facilities and numerous food vendors. The sanitation facilities were plentiful and well dispersed. The weather was quite good if a bit chilly on Friday, warmer and sunny on Saturday, a bit humid and overcast on Sunday, but it did not rain which was a good thing, as parking was on grass on the airport grounds.

This year’s event included the return of the Blue Angels and perhaps the last “Jato” (Jet assisted take off) with Fat Albert. WOW! The Blue Angels can certainly put on an awesome performance, even if on Sunday they had some mechanical difficulty with #6, which was very quickly replaced by #7! And speaking of Fat Albert, what a show it put on Sunday. One could feel the extreme acceleration, tight turns and the stopping power of this large Hercules C-130 even from the flight line. Now, imagine being inside during all those maneuvers!

The other major attractions included: the U.S Army Golden Knights Parachute Team, from Fort Bragg, NC., of whom I met and watched as they jumped from their Fokker C-31A, at 12,500 feet. U.S. Air Force Air Command East Coast A-10 Demo Team, and on Sunday only, the U.S Air Force Heritage flight of a P-51D and an A-10. As a bonus two of the seldom seen V-22 Osprey Tilt Rotor Vertical take-off aircrafts were present too. There were several civilian acts and of course, what everyone wanted to see, the warbirds fly-by too. During the warbirds fly-by, there were simulated bombing runs and strafing by the A-10 30mm Gatling gun, courtesy of Rich’s Incredible Pyro. In addition there were several civilan aerobatic performers too. All these performances were spectacular. There were plenty of static aircraft on display too, some were open to the public. In closing, I want to say thank you to all who made this year’s air show such a fantastic event to attend, and very special thank you to Roger N. Bishop, Air Show Chairman; Dave Rothenanger, Assistant Air Boss; Guy Eoff, Angie Clover, Denny Smith, Doug Cross, and Mynde Goble. All of you are the BEST!

Some of the participants were:

The Blue Angels
The Golden Knights Parachute Team
A-10 East Demo Team
F/A-18F Super Hornet aka Rhino
(2) V-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft
B-52 fly-by
KC-135 Tanker fly-by
F-16 of the Indiana ANG fly-by
P-47D Thunderbolt, "Hun Hunter XVI"
Yakolev Yak-9
B-25 Mitchell "Axis Nightmare"
Hawker Sea Fury Mk X
Nanchung CJ-6
(4) LC-39 Albatros
USAF Heritage flight
and the list just goes on and on! WOW!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Laszlo Nyary
www.airshowsreview.com
www.designbylaszlo.com

Any spelling and grammatical errors found in this e-mail body are intentional to enhance the content, as the writer is an organic product far from genetic manipulation to produce perfection.

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