[MilCom] Maxwell AFB airshow report - 5-6 Jun 2004

Mon Jun 7 13:20:27 EDT 2004

[Frequencies]

122.275  SWIG 1-4 air-air (F-16 flyby)
123.150  Team AeroShell air-air, Mary Dilda "live from the cockpit", F-16
         West Coast demo discrete
123.400  T-6A Texan II demo, designated as Victor Demo Standard, used for a
         "live from the cockpit" as he performed the 8-point hesitation
         roll (I have seen the east coast team perform at three airshows
         this season and this was the first time they did this - there was
         some confusion during pre-show comms as to what the frequency they
         should be using, the T-6A thought it was 138.4 so that might bear
         watching at future shows)
123.475  Golden Knights
127.150  Show Boss and Heritage Flight air-air (Maxwell ground freq)
141.850  Thunderbirds diamond
143.850  Thunderbirds diamond and pre-show comms
235.250  Thunderbirds solo and pre-show comms
283.700  T-6A Texan II demo discrete
322.950  used during Fridays practice, "push Uniform 2"
376.025  F-16 West Coast demo pre-show comms (time hack)
413.275  Thunderbirds ground (FM)

[Aerial Performers]

Dale Snodgrass     NX86FR F-86F
GOLDEN KNIGHT 608  #85-1608 C-31A
Heritage Flight    F-16, F-86, P-47
Mary Dilda         N73RR SNJ-6 "Two of Hearts"
POSSE 33           B-52H 2BW (flyby)
SWIG 1-4           F-16 160FS (flyby)
Team AeroShell     #1 N3267G SNJ-5, #2 N8044H T-6G, #3 N7462C AT-6,
                   #5 N991GM AT-6C
TOIL 39            #85-0039 C-130H 908AW
TEXAN II           #01-3628 and #01-3629 T-6A 479FTG
THUNDERBIRDS       F-16C
TORA TORA TORA     AI-111 N4447 Harvard Mk IV (aka Zero)
                   AI-112 NX9097 Harvard Mk IV (aka Zero)
                   AI-113 NX15799 Harvard Mk IV (aka Zero)
                   AI-114 N15797 Harvard Mk IV (aka Zero)
                   AII-356 N3725G SNJ-5 (aka Type 97 Kate)
                   BI-257 N67208 BT-13A (aka Type 99 Val)
                   VI-07 N7754 Harvard Mk IV (aka Zero)
                   310 N2047 Harvard Mk IV (aka Type 97 Kate)
VIPER 1            #88-0459 and #88-0419 F-16C 388FW
Warbirds           N33VW C-47 (painted as #320401)
                   #44-85718 N900RW B-17G "Thunderbird" (painted as #238050)
                   #44-86734 N333RW B-25 "Special Delivery"
                   #44-90368 N4747P P-47D "Tarheel Hal" (painted as #433240)
                   #42-19597 N6968 P-39Q "Miss Connie"
                   #94204 N4998V F6F-5
                   #121881 N43RW F4U-5N
                   #86280 NL86280 TBM-3E
                   #44-72339 NL51JC P-51D

[Static Displays]

A-10A   (#79-0186 74FS)
AH-64D  (#99-5131 Co A 1-14AVN) 31A painted in white underneath cockpit
B-727   (N466FE FedEx)
C-130H  (#85-0036 908AW)
C-17A   (#96-0007 437AW) "The Spirit of America's Veterans" above crew door
C-172G  (N4208L Montgomery traffic reporter)
C-182T  (N816CP Civil Air Patrol)
C-21A   (#84-0125 375AW)
C-5B    (#85-0001 436AW)
CH-47D  (#85-24341 Co F ?) 41F painted in white on side
F-15E   (#89-0471 4FW)
F-16C   (#86-0341 160FS) red tail with "In Honor of the Tuskegee Airmen" and
                         "City of Tuskegee"
KC-135R (#58-0030 117ARW)
L-23    (N367BA Civil Air Patrol)
L-5G    (#45-34962 N8829)
MT-7    (N129CP Civil Air Patrol)
SNJ-5   (N8223E)
T-1A    (#94-0137 14FTW)
T-37B   (#68-8042 14FTW)
T-38C   (#69-7079 479FTG) 49FTS "Black Knights" green banner on left side of
                          tail, 435FTS "Black Eagles" blue banner on right
                          side of tail

[Comments]

-the theme for the show was a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of D-Day
 hence the large number of warbirds
-the SWIG flight practiced some ACM in the Pine Hill MOA on both days prior
 to their flyby
-the B-52 flyby was Saturday only and included a "nuke" pyrotechnic display
-in honor of President Ronald Reagan, AeroShell flew the missing man and the
 Tora pyro team performed a 21 boom salute with the last boom especially
 powerful
-the T'Birds engine run at noon included passing of 5 waypoints used for
 the show box (school buses used as ground reference)
-the show center line was the assault strip with runway 33 used for takeoff
 and runway 15 for landing. This layout lead to a very impressive takeoff by
 the F-16 demo as he broke right at very low level to line up with the
 center line. I wish the T'Birds would have done the same ;-)
-try as I might I could not find a discrete for Tora Tora Tora
-the Air Force Reserve jet car raced Mary Dilda and Dale Snodgrass and won
 all races (talked about being fixed! Dale was flying extremely slow)
-weather played a big factor on Sunday as an approaching thunderstorm with
 lightning canceled the show late in the day. Affected acts were AeroShell
 and the T'Birds. First heard the storm mentioned on the T'Birds ground
 freq when it was 40 miles out. Heard the cancellation call on the show boss
 freq as "Base Ops has canceled the show". This was 15 mins prior to the PA
 announcement which allowed me to pack things up and almost make it to the
 entry/exit control point before everyone else found out!
-photos should be online within the next couple of days

Mike Riffle
Cataula, GA
milcom - http://www.qsl.net/kc8mzm/
photos - http://www.pbase.com/mriffle/aviation/