# 2015 Alliance Air Show



## Kevin (Sep 12, 2015)

This was taken yesterday as we arrived at the hotel beside the airport.




Also yesterday from a Kroger parking lot about 7 miles from the airport ... These guys must have been on the back leg of their track during the final practice before the show today.








A few pics from today's show. I didn't take many this year because I just wanted to take the show in. I did manage to take a picture of the B-52 and Mig 17 that Brink said wouldn't be there ....

Reactions: Way Cool 8


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## NYWoodturner (Sep 12, 2015)

Cool pics man! What is the 8th one from the top? I can't make out what those are...


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## Kevin (Sep 12, 2015)

NYWoodturner said:


> Cool pics man! What is the 8th one from the top? I can't make out what those are...



That's the finale maneuver of the Breightling team from France. This is their first American tour -- they were really impressive. Today was the best Alliance show I have ever seen. Well except Fat Albert didn't do a JATO but other than that. I've been to better and bigger air shows but Alliance doesn't claim to compete with them but they knocked it out of the park today and no kidding this was one of the tightest Blue Angel perfomances I' e ever seen. I think they didn't want the Frenchman to show them up lol.


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## Brink (Sep 13, 2015)

Wow, first I thought p-80/F-80, then realized it was a T-33.

Great pics. I like the Invader. Eight gun nose and all. There wasn't that many built, and used in combat from WWII and into Vietnam. Not bad for a late '30's, early '40's design.


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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)

We spent a lot of time at the Invader as usual. It's owned by the Commemorative Airforce and lives at Meecham field in Ft. Worth. Used to be the Confederate Airforce before the finally caved in to the PC Nazis a few years ago. The CAF didn't have a 17 their this year Becuase the one that has been coming in years past was just sold when the owner finally died and it now resides in WA state. Used to The Texas Raider from the Houston wing of the CAF would come but they didn't this year.

I wish I had time to join the CAF and earn some flight time but it's hard for me to get that kind of time right now. God knows most of the planes need all the help they can get. When I was standing in the wheelwell of the Invader I realised it had only been about 5 ywars since I had stood in it but it looked pretty bad even though it had only been restored to flying condition again recently. When I came out my wife was talkkng to the CAF volunteer that was representing the plane and I walked up and said "Geez she sure does need some TLC" and he said yes volunteers had dropped off significantly the past few years but that they had been reaping the fruit of a determined PR campaign lately and things were looking up again.

That didn't stop him from trying to recruit us thoguh. Everytime we talk to a CAF member at an air dislay and they find out where we live they try to recruit us. They are always looking for volunteers and I wish we had time. Just turning wrenches on one of those old birds would be a privelege even without earning any flight time. BTW the flight time is not official policy. I Had a friend that was a Nam vet (now dead) that was a volunteer for years and he told me how it really works once they see you're not going to be a drive-by volunteer .... you're going to get some flights in most of those old birds eventually if you put in the hours turning wrenches and doing enough wax on, wax off.

http://www.commemorativeairforce.org


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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)

Brink said:


> Great pics. I like the Invader. Eight gun nose and all. There wasn't that many built, and used in combat from WWII and into Vietnam.


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## woodtickgreg (Sep 13, 2015)

Very cool pics ! I love air shows, been watching them since I was a kid. I grew up very close to Miramar navel air base, ya know top gun school, lol. Now I live by Selfridge air national guard air base. So I still get to watch the shows and a weeks worth of practice before the shows.


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## TimR (Sep 13, 2015)

That kind of stuff just never gets old. I equate it to how every decent fireworks show always feel like the first, though my neck gets much sorer looking up constantly. Looks like a wonderful show!


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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)

woodtickgreg said:


> Very cool pics ! I love air shows, been watching them since I was a kid. I grew up very close to Miramar navel air base, ya know top gun school, lol. Now I live by Selfridge air national guard air base. So I still get to watch the shows and a weeks worth of practice before the shows.



Greg the current flight lead of the Blues is Capt. Thomas Frosch who hails from . . . . . Clinton Township, MI. 



 

How cool is that?!

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 1


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## woodtickgreg (Sep 13, 2015)

Man I have been watching the angels since I was a kid. They are amazing! So cool to watch. When I lived in Clinton Twp. I could watch the angels practicing at selfridge in my back yard. I would set up some lawn chairs, order a pizza, and sit and watch the free show. I loved it when they would fly by real slow and you could see the planes real good and the pilots in the cockpits. The jets made a very cool growling sound when they flew by real slow. I never tire of watching them.
The thunderbirds are pretty cool too. Selfridge by me flys eggbeater choppers, tankers, and warthogs, i see them all year long. Coast gaurd flys out of there too.


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## Brink (Sep 13, 2015)

Many years ago, probably around '95, I took Moma B to Scranton, PA to see the air show and Blues.
It was raining, hard, but we went anyway. There was virtually no security in terminal then. 
So, we slipped behind the ticket counter, down a hallway, to a door that led to the flight line. We stayed there, watching what little was going on and such.
Then a dozen brand new Buicks, all courtesy of what's their name Buick pull up, and there's the entire Blue Angels team. They look like they were poured into their flight suits. 
Well, Moma B is all google-eyed. They were genuinely friendly and talkative. As the team headed to a conference room for their briefing, I look over at Moma, who's looking disappointed.
She was upset that not one was as tall as her.

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)

It's true - leprechauns make the best pilots.


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## Brink (Sep 13, 2015)

Kevin said:


> It's true - leprechauns make the best pilots.



Bull crud they do!

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)



Reactions: Funny 2


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## Brink (Sep 13, 2015)

I want a pot 'O GOld away $$$$


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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)

NYWoodturner said:


> What is the 8th one from the top? I can't make out what those are...



Scott this is the sequence I took my still from at the airshow yesterday . I didn't film this but I can tell from the film I was within a stones throw of whoever did.

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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)

Brink the guy flying the Mig is Randy Ball, a 6th generation native Texan. He is Mr. MIG everywhere outside of the former Soviet Union and has more hours than many of those pilots did because of fuel rationing for training.





This is the only good shot I got of him yesterday because I didn't want to miss anything ....





But here's his FB page where you can see more . . .

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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)

These two ladies walked up while I was spinning slowly doing a pano of the 52 and one froze when she realized what I was doing but the other moved a little - just enough to give her a humongous ass and thigh (which she did not have) so my wife made me promise not to post the picture until I agreed to block out the distortion. Women. That's mine under engines 3 & 4 for scale .....

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Kevin (Sep 13, 2015)

This was the only the second time I had seen the Raptor. That thing is BAD. ASS. I didn't get any good pictures but I wanted to comment on it. And finally here's a few more static displays I wanted to share. I usually take hundreds of pictures at an airshow but this year I just wanted to take it in so I only took a few dozen. I didn't even get pics of just all the 51's that were there!

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 2


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