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Hi ASB fans,
It's Spicoli here, waiting to fly my Demo and then Heritage flight with Nuke and Snort. What a great lineup this year! I sure wish we didn't have to stage from Hopkins airport because I'm not going to get to watch everyone fly. I was looking forward to seeing Nicolai Timofeev fly his SU-26.
The show has had a great support so far and it looks like the weather is much better than yesterday, so it is time to go brief now so I can tear up the sky.
I sure hope Nuke and Snort can keep up with me and not ditch me today. Ha Ha
Adios
Spicoli

Hello from Eagle West!

I'm hanging out in the FBO at Cleveland-Hopkins with Spicoli (Viper West). Just finished my demo and am catching a breath. In a few minutes we're going to take off for the Viper demo (read: weak sauce) and Heritage Flight with Snort Snodgrass in Excalibur. The crowd looks like it's getting pretty big & the weather is awesome. Spicoli is posting as well and talking a little smack. Hopefully he'll make it to the show in time to fly in the Heritage Flight today! (At practice yesterday, he had a minor issue which forced him to take off late. Unfortunately, Snort and I had already rejoined and were inbound for the first Heritage Flight pass when he called "Viper's inbound," but it was too late! Snort and I elected to press without the mighty Electric Jet.) I'm sure it will work as briefed today! It's awesome being at another show with Viper West - they are a great bunch of dudes & we always have fun.

Anyway, Eagle West is pumped to be here and we're looking forward to a good, safe show!!!

Cheers,

Nuke

Great show you guys! My brother and I caught your acts yesterday at practice and was wondering where the 16 was for the Heritage flight. I also wish you guys were staged at Burke to catch the take off and landings which is impressive in itself. Is that just an Air Force thing because of the Thunderbird incident? Anyway, my daughter and I watched you guys at Hopkins today and we both wished there was a base in Cleveland so we could watch that on a daily basis! Keep living your dreams...and mine!
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I will NEVER forget that takeoff! It will be etched in my mind FOREVER! I will dream about it! I will tell my grandkids about it! I was absolutely giddy. I felt like a kid again! Thank you Blues!!!!

Spicoli and Nuke...thanks for the great show today! Everyone put on a very professional and entertaining show. The weather was perfect and it looks like another great day for tomorrow. I took way to many pictures, so I doubt I'll get any up tonight. I'm heading out to the Winking Lizard downtown for some adult beverages and diner. See everyone tomorrow. We will be on the fence line on the Western edge of the box seats. You will see our section roped off by Tomcatboy.

Awesome show!!!!! I love the F-15 and F-16 Demo's, you guys did an awesome job! First time ever seeing the Blue Angels, wow is all i can say. I knew the sneak pass was coming sometime but once again it scared the crap out of me :-p I really enjoyed Fat Albert as well. I may be 20 years old but the little kid came out in me as i was standing in line for autographs from the Blue Angels and their crew. Didn't see any Airshowbuzz hats today so i have no idea if we were near any fellow airshowbuzzers. We sat in section 103 B. We took 515 pictures and went through 4 sets of batteries in the camera. It's gonna take us a while before they get posted. I give the air portion an A but the static a B, there were only 2 Fighters on the ground, both F/A-18C's, 1 Airforce plane other than the heavies. The reason i give it a B is any show with the C-5 gets high marks

P.S. Was quite surprised to see most of the Collaborators there, but i also thought the S-3 was supposed to fly? Also don't know if anyone else noticed but Blue #6 looked like he had a rough landing, kinda bounced the plane a little.

Phoenix6, those are great photos! That's exactly what I saw from the harbor on Friday. The photos only give a hint of how spectacular it is to see this in the flesh. A video with good sound would be great to see, as well. But there's just no way of matching the live experience!

Thanx! I still get chills thinking about it! Someone just posted a video, but like you said, being there was amazing!!!

Wow - what a show! The demos were great; kudos to you guys! As usual, the Blues put on a great show as well...the banana passes from the delta and Fat Albert were so close! I also got a big kick out of Andy and Jerry's dogfight, and I can't wait to see them again! The only thing I thought could be much better was the warbirds. Just having the two of them up was alright, but the pyro was lackluster (but that could be from years of seeing Rich's instead!). I also thought they could've made a few more passes.

Thanks Ryan for letting me use your camera; I miss shooting with a decent setup! Can't wait to see how some of those shots turned out.

Jared, I'm pulling the pictures off the camera now.

The Coast Guard SAR demo this morning sure was interesting. They elected to do it in the actual water, which made them too far away to see really anything. At least they gave us some good high speeds.

Spicoli, what was the routine you flew today? It was like a cross between the low and high shows (flat eight, knife edge earlier in the show, etc.) even though there weren't really any clouds that I remember.

Why, for the love of god, do they have a flag placed every twenty feet in front of the crowd? The only thing it accomplishes is getting in the way of just about every angle. I remember the same from a few years ago. They REALLY need to change that because it is infuriating.

While two warbirds did seem light, I was really glad they got the Corsair in formation with Yankee Lady. Unfortunately I expected pyro on each run so I never got any real great footage of the formation.

It was a good day in the ASB area, even though many people I had spots for never showed. Tomorrow we will be taking up a pretty good chunk of space so stop by the huge caution taped area at the west end of the box seats. Hopefully we can tie in with Commcarts taped area.

I guess I just rode the elevator up to the room with Jerry and Andy, but didn't realize it was them until I was already here! Kicking myself for sure.

Ryan

Just checked the new video posted of the harbor-blasting Blues #6. As impressive as the video may look, it captures only a tiny fraction of the live impact.

Great show. Here's one until tomorrow, the star of the show. East Coast Super Hornet!



Steven L

Steven L

Someone posted a pretty good clip on you tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnaT4ESKaOo

Here's a few shots from the now infamous Blues solo take off during Friday's practice.

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Here's a few from the first Super Hornet demo from Friday. I swear the pilot must've hit Mach1 for a second since my brother and I here a double crack which we've never heard before.

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Here are some more shots from Friday's practice.

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Sneak pass...

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Comin' home.

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More from Friday...

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Arrival of NASA's S-3 on Friday.

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Hard to believe she looked like this same time last year...

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super show, near perfect weather, good people (good to see Mr. Lewis and Mr. Yost, and Denise).
Here's a few...

3 more

and last three tonight.

Ryan,

Spicoli's demo is different this year, it is a mix between a high and a low show. His response was " I hate the double immulman, so I cut it out"... good enough answer for me.

That is the most fricken awesome BA Shots I've ever seen with that takeoff!

Some more from Friday.

F-16 doing his Santa impression...

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With an F-16 with a Santa impression, I think it's time to sing "Jingle Bombs" from Jeff Dunham.

That video captures the impact better than the first one. The additional photos posted here are also outstanding. What an amazing sight and sound to witness live! I'm headed back today to watch the whole show from the box seats.

If any of you have a longer lens (500+), try shooting from the top level of the Holiday Inn parking ramp. It has a great view of the airport with Lake Erie in the background.

Liza,
I Couldn't agree more.....someone please get up there, it is an awesome place and I will probably be 50 feet over your head when I come off the dedication pass. Someone should also be on top of the Key Bank building : )
As for the show profile.....this puts in the most bang for your buck on a staged show since it uses a little less gas and I can do every maneuver except the double immelman. The Double Immelman uses a TON of gas and I go so high up people often lose sight.
Well, I'm off to fly my demo, then I'll do a second for Heritage. If anyone has good Heritage pics from Saturday, please post them. We were pretty tight and I heard good things.
Off to "tear up the sky"!
Spicoli

I really do wish that the air show would at least reconsider the flags. I had the same problem last year, but when I mentioned them, I got ripped on As I recall, most of them said/say "Cleveland National Air Show" because, you know, you need to be reminded that you're there -- right?

Great photos everone! The pictures of the BA solo takeoff from Friday were awesome! I'm debating coming down tomorrow.. Is air show left a good place to sit? It seems a lot of the photos I like were taken there.

I'd go on top of the buildings if I had a longer lens, sadly I tap out at 400mm

It's awesome to see Viper West this far east!

Hope everyone is having a BLAST, keep the photos comin!

I'm with you 100% on that call. *off to find a video of it.*

Great photos!
Please post more of ACCs West Coast Demo guys Eagle and Fighting Falcon.
I stayed home for this one but it seems that I missed a good one to be on. Any chance to hang out with any ACC Demo Teams is always very cool. Nuke and Spicoli are the best at twisting the metal on those jets. Now only if we could talk them into doing a water low pass like the BA.

Pedro

GREAT SHOW!!!! Well worth the 7 hour drive. Joe O.

Can't forget the NASA part of the show. Joe O.

Done!
Craig

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Nice shots, Joe (and everyone). Here's some more of mine from Saturday (only day I was there).
This was a pretty scary (and rare) triple-bounce by number 6. Seeing an FA-18 imitating a wheel-barrow was a bit scary.



I was hoping to go over and see a taping of "Win Bill Stein's Money" after he flew. Love the paint (it changes color big time with the changing light in case you haven't seen this).

and sometimes you wish your 200-500mm were a 190-500mm!

And some more (I don't know any of you West-Coast demo people, but it was nice to see your demos and aircraft, I never got such shots of Hill birds before. Woo hoo.)

I was up there all Friday and there were only a few good chances at photos, partly due to the weather too I'm sure.


Can't argue with that. I'll take the flat eight over the double immelman every time! I will have video from Saturday and pictures from today for you guys in a couple weeks.

Ryan

And more...

And here's a bunch of static-type shots. Cleveland is famous for it's "city-backdrop" static shots and good lighting, I think these may show why to some extent.






Every airshow should have a 1/100th scale Saturn V!!! (pssst, don't tell Homeland security it flies!)


And it was a great honor and pleasure to chat (and be taught!) about the Tuskeegee Airmen BOMBER squadron by 1st Lt. Arthur Saunders...

I wasn't at the show being as I live out of state but my sisters went and gave me play by play on their phone. It was pretty awesome talking to Andy ( the Dragon ) and Jerry ( Red Star ) on the phone as my sister gave them her cell phone to say hello. True class by both of you and one of the best moments I've ever had on a phone, thank you both.
Secondly, my sisters had one of the best experiences of their lives compliments of Sean D. Tucker. He let them come over the fence and took a picture with both of them. He is probably my favorite aerobatic pilot because I respect what he can do in the air but now I respect him even more so for the great man and family he has. Oh yeah, and if you are reading this thread Mr. Tucker, if you make it somewhere around the eastern half of Missouri you owe me a picture.
Thirdly, to everyone who said the spot at the harbor wasn't very good for arrivals and practice.... NA NA NA NA NA NA!!!! Thanks to everyone that did go and took video and pictures. I was the only one who seen that back in '99 or 2000 and it was too amazing of an experience not to tell the others on here who love aviation, probably not as much as I do, but love it all the same. No video or picture can actually capture what that is like seeing it in person. The mind actually has to take a few seconds to comprehend exactly what it just registered like waking up from a dream, at least that's how it felt after I seen it. I haven't seen anything in the past eight or nine years that has come close to that experience - I don't know if anything ever will.
Good shots guys, keep them coming. My sister is supposed to sign up here and she said she's going to post her photos after she sends them to me, hopefully that will be soon.

nice shots rich, good to see you posting shots again.

Thanks, I'm exhausted, so came home to NJ rather than do a second day at Cleveland. Loved your F-100 shots, I'm major jealous of that! Keep shooting and posting yourself.

Rich

I love this shot, awesome stuff!

Two from today, best show this year, from my perspective. These are large files, for detail:

Nice shooting Rich. Sure beats shooting the back lighting in Toronto. Makes me really think about heading there next year.

Eric

We got a few of our pics. loaded and fixed up a bit, my brother made the Heritage flight pics. top priority seeing as how the pilots wanted to see them, this is the best one of how close you guys actually were.

Here's a bunch more before heading out to EAT. I hope you all have a safe, happy Holiday.