The Blues
Grand Finale in Pensacola
The Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show, the season’s finale for the U.S. Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron, occurred under beautiful sunlit skies on the Florida panhandle. Pensacola’s weather was forecasted to be cold and gray for all but the final hours of the day-night-day air show, but the reality was that a pair of minutes-long rain showers gave way to brilliant blue skies and comfortable temperatures for most of the event. Blue skies for the Blue Angels and their numerous co-stars gave a wonderful opportunity for thousands of spectators to enjoy the performers’ final routines of the 2008 air show season in a rare Friday and Saturday format.
Naval Air Station Pensacola is home to a large number of aviation students from the U. S. armed forces, as well as many foreign countries. The static display included a pair of German Air Force Tornado jets, based in New Mexico. Capitalizing on the good southwestern U.S.’s weather, the GAF stations a small number of these jets there to serve as trainers for students that graduate from Pensacola. Other static displays included numerous aircraft from the nearby Naval Aviation Museum; one was the actual S-3B Viking known as “NAVY1”, in which President Bush landed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003.
The daily five and a half hour-long flying display included many of the country’s top civilian performers. Dazzling the crowd were: John Mohr (Stearman), Frank Ryder (Cyclone), Skip Stewart (Pitts Special), Joe Fagundes (SNJ), David Martin (CAP232), Bob Carlton (Jet Salto Sailplane), Julie Clark (T-34), Jan Collmer (EXTRA 300) and Mike Goulian (EXTRA 300SHP). Other top air show acts included Otto (Schweitzer 300 helo) and Todd Green doing an air-to-air transfer from the Mohr’s Stearman to Otto, Super Shockwave jet truck, Rich’s Incredible Pyro, and a pair of parachute teams from Blackwater USA/USO parachute team and Emerald Coast Skydiving Center. From the military side of things, aircraft on flying display included the Navy’s E-2C Hawkeye, and F/A-18F Super Hornet, the Air Force’s F-15 and F-16 demo teams, and a parade of trainers based at NAS Pensacola. A pair of Heritage flights caught everyone’s attention: The Navy’s with Dan McCue in the Collings F4U Corsair leading the Super Hornet, and the Air Force’s version with Dale “Snort” Snodgrass in a P-51 Mustang leading the F-15 and F-16 demo teams’ jets.
The Friday evening air show included lots of lights and fire, from a Fat Albert JATO C-130 launch, the F/A-18F Super Hornet demo complete with its incredible 30 foot long afterburner plumes, Julie Clark in her T-34, and the Blackwater USA/USO parachute team trailing cascading flares as they descended to the airfield. After a 20-minute fireworks display, Rich’s Incredible Pyro lit up the field with its famous “Wall of Fire” to complete the two-hour-long spectacle.
The finale for both days was, of course, the Blue Angels in their F-18 Hornets. The team was flying with only five jets, as the team’s slot pilot was suspended for the last 3 weeks of the season pending an administrative action stemming from alleged “inappropriate behavior” with another officer on the team. This may have left the diamond formation with only three jets, but the team’s formations were still tight, their movements both crisp and graceful, and the excitement they generated still “over-the-top.” The team’s C-130 performed a pair of rare JATO takeoffs during the weekend; this previously routine part of the show was stopped last year due to a shortage of the rocket canisters. Observers noted that alongside many of the team’s blue and black-uniformed flight and maintenance crews were many brown uniformed men and women; these were next year’s new members who had begun to studying their new jobs!
The 2008 Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show presented a great parting gift for the Blue Angels and the other show performers as they finished their flying seasons. The large crowds were enthusiastic; the possible weather issues were in the end, a non-event. The season’s finale always seems bittersweet; sadly one season ended, but happily it signals the beginning of preparations for next year’s exciting season. The transition this year in Pensacola was grand.
Photos and article by: Ken Kula