Jones Beach Air Show 2006

The U.S. Navy's Blue Angels

Special thanks to Fred from www.longislandwallpapers.com. He photographed the Air Show and the pre-show activity at Republic Airport giving us a close look at the performers and their birds.

This year on Memorial Day weekend I went to the Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach (Long Island, NY). I really wanted to go this year because I missed out on last year's show. On Memorial Day weekend last year, I heard all the military jets and vintage planes flying around on their way between the beach and Republic Airport in Farmingdale. I was kicking myself for not getting myself in gear to go see the air show. It wasn't a total loss though. I was in my front yard at just the right time to see two F-18s buzz my house about 60 feet in the air. I could have thrown a tennis ball up and hit the planes... they were that low!

Well, I got more than just a 3 second glimpse of some military jets this year. I went to see the show with my Brother and Sister-In-Law. We jumped in my car and headed out to the Beach early Saturday morning. It was really foggy... so much so that it was tough to see the water from the Robert Moses Causeway bridges. Visibility was poor and we were worried that this would effect the air show. Luckily, by the time the show started, conditions improved slightly. Still, the schedule got moved around and the vintage World War II segment of the air show was scratched... bummer!



The beach crowd


Early on in the show, we saw an old Marines helicopter and some Blackhawks did a fly-by. The army Golden Knights skydive/parachute team performed a coordinated landing on the beach. David Windmiller flew his tricked-out single engine prop plane in ways that I never thought possible. He made that thing dance! Other prop plane aerobats performing that day were Mike Mancuso in his Klein Tools sponsored plane and Ed Hamill in his AFR Dream Machine bi-plane. That thing had its wing frames covered with Dacron... I am surprised it didn't rip itself apart! These guys tumbled, performed controlled stall maneuvers, hesitation rolls and hung the planes from the propellers like helicopters. Cool stuff. I got nauseous just watching them.



Old Marines helocopter



Blackhawk... up!



David Windmiler's trick plane



The Golden Knights' transport



A member of the Golden Knights parachute team



Mike Mancuso in his Klein Tools sponsored plane



Ed Hamill's "Dream Machine"


There was a T-6 Texan training plane demo as well as a mock water rescue and refueling with a C-130 and Blackhawk helicopter. The Geico Sky Typers showed off their synchronized air maneuvers and dropped a lot of smoke during their routine. The Red Barons performed their coordinated routine in red (and white) bi-planes... of course.



A Texan (below) and modern trainer (above)



Mock water rescue



Refueling demo



Geico Sky Typers... I bet the gecko had VIP seating at the show



The Sky Typers at Republic Airport


OK, enough propellers. Let's move on to some jet aircraft. The first jet to demo was a Russian Mig 17 painted bright red with Red Bull logos on it. That was a bit ironic... Russian... Communist... red. Anyway, the plane was pretty cool looking. The pilot, had a habit of turning on the afterburner for a split second at certain points during his maneuvers to show off.


Check out the tail feather's on this Mig-17!



Another view of the Red Bull Mig



Mig fly-by with afterburner on


An F-16 Falcon (a.k.a. Viper) demoed as well. This was particularly impressive. Man... that thing was loud! He pulled very sharp turns with the afterburner engaged. I knew that F-16s were agile, but this was crazy! It crackled like a rocket. I don't know how these pilots get their bodies trained to deal with the G forces. The demonstration narrator stated that the plane was flying at a weight of 2,500 lbs. The maximum combat weight for the F-16 is 12,000 lbs. and its single engine puts out 25,000 lbs. of thrust. So lets do some math here... that means the engine was putting out 10 times the weight of the jet in thrust! This lets you do funny things like... say... seriously accelerate the jet while it is pointing straight up.



F-16... still some haze in the air


An F-15 Eagle made an appearance as well. It was not as agile as the F-16, as it is heavier and larger with a different thrust to weight ratio, but it was very impressive. And loud! This guys really like to show off. A lot of low fly-bys at high speed, rolling perpendicular with the ground when passing in front of the crowd, barrel rolls, dives and vertical climbs.



The F-15 Eagle


We got to see the A-10 Thunderbolt, the slowest of the modern military aircraft to perform. Some say it is an ugly piece of aviation... in fact, the guy standing behind me on the beach did. It has been affectionately dubbed the Warthog because of its homely appearance. It is a very unique aircraft though, and is good at what it does - ground support and tank killing. Too bad they couldn't run some tracers through that 30mm gatling gun mounted in the nose. That would have been a sight!



The A-10... a face only a mother could love



Clockwise from top left... F-16 Falcon, P-51 Mustang, F-15 Eagle, A-10 Thunderbolt


The grand finale routine was performed by Navy's Blue Angels. These guys are the top dogs in aerial coordinated maneuvers. They do the most unbelievable things given their speed and close proximity. I would think that flying in formation is difficult enough without performing tricks at the same time. If yoe don't already know, they fly slightly modified F-18 Hornets which are meticulously maintained. Certain things about these planes make them handle a bit differently than the Navy's combat Hornets. For example, the glossy blue paint on the planes makes them more aerodynamic and "slippery" when performing maneuvers. The six angels performed some tricks as a group and occasionally, two would split off from the pack to perform a trick. The remaining 4 jets would follow with their own maneuver while the duo was setting up for their next one. The Blue Angels are real pros at this stuff. One trick that made me and my brother say "no waaaaayy!" to each other was when one of the Angels flew through the middle of a four plane vertical diamond formation at high speed. I nearly jumped out of my skin when five of the Angels were performing a trick in front of us and the sixth jet came screaming past us from behind very low to the ground.


One of the "Angels" looking tough on the runway at Republic Airport



Just about to break formation



Trick maneuvering



High speed head to head fly-by... soooooo close!



This guy made me jump out of my skin!


The routine lasted about 40 minutes, but it went by so fast. They used the whole sky and kept it entertaining. I am amazed at the timing in their routines and how close they are to each other when performing. Not much room to recover from a mistake. And those jets are just beautiful. I have to take my Dad if they have an air show next year... even if we show up late just in time to see the Blue Angels.



Gears out... flying slow and close together



4 of the 6 Blue Angels circling around and setting up for a trick



Smokin!


I had a great day at the Jones Beach Memorial Day air show. If you live on the Island and get a change to go next time... do it!



I felt very patriotic that day too