Wednesday, September 11, 2019

The Cleveland Air Show - 2019


In what has become a bit of a tradition for me and my dad, we headed to Cleveland to catch the air show.  When we went for the first time, we were on the air show grounds and then we discovered some spots where we could get decent views for free.


 One of those spots is pretty close to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I wish I had brought a chair or something with me as this would have been a pretty decent spot.
 We arrived in time to see a C-130 from the Ohio National Guard go through its paces.
 Considering the design is over 60 years old, it's amazing that these planes are still flying.
 I mean this plane isn't 60 years old but even this version is pretty old.
 It still does it's job though.
 And the plane coming in for a landing.
 This exhibit was pretty cool.
 I love watching biplanes go through their paces.
 The next group was the Geico Skytypers.  I presume if the weather were better, they would have wrote in the sky.
 They fly AT-6 Texans which was an advanced trainer during and after World War II.
 they were going through some pretty cool paces.
 A sort of bomb burst formation.
 One of the slot planes.
 And they break out again.
 An A-10 getting ready for a later sequence.
 Next up, we got to watch the F-35 go through its paces.
 Even though I'm not terribly fond of the aircraft, it was pretty cool to watch.
 Although I think the F-22 was more impressive to watch.  It's a shame they killed the F-22 before they got more of them.
 Kicking on the afterburners.
 A shot as it passes by.
 Another shot with afterburners.  Sadly, I missed what would have been a cool shot as it came in with a shock wave.
 It pulls up.
 The A-10 comes back.
 They did a heritage flight with an A-10.  I hate to call this a heritage flight as the A-10 is still flying.  I suspect there was supposed to be another aircraft with this but the weather was a little iffy.
 I kind of like this angle.
 This would have looked better with another fighter, I think.
 The F-35 pulls away.
 The Golden Knights preparing to go up.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent shot of them.
This is a Cessna 208 coming in for a landing.  It was kind of neat seeing a float plane.
 Next up was the Yankee Warrior.
 Visitors to this blog know that the Yankee Warrior is from the author's current town.  She ended up doing a simulated bomb run.
 and she comes in for a landing.
 The main attraction was the Thunderbirds.  At this point we headed back to the parking garage because it looked like we were going to get rained on.  As a result of the weather, the Thunderbirds were flying the three ship formation and had one solo plane.
 They didn't do any high speed passes.
 And it was unusual seeing just a three ship formation.
 Usually, there would be four in the famous diamond.
 One of them flying towards us.
 The leader flying off.
The solo plane joined the rest for the diamond and this formation.  This would be the second show I saw this summer that had to be modified because of weather.

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