[MilCom] 2005 Airshow Chattanooga report
Joe Cobb
gunslinger37217 at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 16 23:51:28 EST 2005
Mike,
You were lucky to see the Fat Albert JATO demo. You
must have went on Saturday. I went Sunday, sorry
about not getting back to you on a meeting time, and
they couldn't get Fat Albert's number one engine
started hence nulling the demo. Not only that but
Blue Angel 5 had to land during the show and make a
quick swap into 7. That was cool. Luckily, i
didn't have much trouble getting out although we did
stand in line for awhile. We've been going to CHA for
a while since it's inception so i guess we had an
upper hand of what to expect but a lot of people don't
like the offsite parking and bus ride and i agree but
unfortunately they can't have any parking on the
airport since it is a commercial one. And your right
about all the help dissapearing. That's a big
problem. But it happens here a Smyrna too but here
you park on site and until you get to the main road
the parking attendants are usually gone in the
immediate area. They could do better. That was a
good report by the way.
Joe
Nashville, Tn
--- Mike Riffle <kc8mzm at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm a little late with this but the past couple of
> weeks have been rather
> busy, as you will see...
>
> Location: Lovell Field Airport (KCHA)
> Date: 29 October 2005
>
> [FREQUENCIES]
> 121.700 ground control
> 123.150 discrete common
> 126.500 air boss
> 136.575 Heritage flight discrete
> 139.8125 Blue Angels ground (FM)
> 142.6125 Blue Angels ground (FM)
> 149.800 NG security detail
> 237.800 Blue Angels solo
> 275.350 Blue Angels outside show box
> 284.250 Blue Angels inside show box
> 305.500 Blue Angels Fat Albert
> 346.500 Blue Angels engine start
> 384.550 F-16 discrete
>
> [STATIC]
> A-10 (#80-0214) 103FS
> AH-1W (#165287) HMLA-773
> AT-6A (N90629) "Paradise"
> AV-8B (#164153) HMM-162(Rein) LHD-3
> (#165593) VMA-231
> B727 (N241FE) Fed Ex
> F-15C (#78-0525) 110FS "Spiderman"
> (#81-0026) 110FS
> F-16C (#86-0218) 184FS "City of Booneville"
> (#86-0285) 184FS "City of Lavaca"
> (#91-0357) 20FW, East Coast Demo spare
> F/A-18A (#162398) VMFA-142 #214
> (#162469) VMFA-142 #212
> (#163166) VMFA-142 #211
> F/A-18B (#161746) Blue Angel #7, parked in the
> hot ramp area
> KC-135E (#57-1465) 134AW
> RC-45J (N145J)
> S-3B (#159753) VS-33 #700
> T-1A (#90-0405) 12FTW
> T-33 (NX99184) "The Red Knight"
> T-34C (#162252) TAW-5
> T-37B (#60-0105) 14FTW
> T-6A (#02-3654) 85FTS
> UH-1N (#158549) HMLA-773
>
> [AIRSHOW]
> A-26C (N6840D) "Spirit of N.C."
> B-25N (N333RW) painted as PBJ-1J "Special
> Delivery"
> C-130T (#164763) Blue Angels "Fat Albert"
> F-104D (N104RB) Starfighters
> F-16C (#94-0048) 20FW East Coast Demo
> Heritage Flight w/P-51
> F/A-18A (#161959) Blue Angel #5
> (#161960) Blue Angel #6
> (#161963) Blue Angel #4
> (#161967) Blue Angel #1
> (#161975) Blue Angel #2
> (#162897) Blue Angel #3
> Hughes 269C (N7505B) Otto the Helicopter
> MiG 17 (N217SH)
> P-47D (NX647D) "Wicked Wabbit"
> (NX9246B) "Hun Hunter XVI"
> P-51D (NL2151D) "Moonbeam McSwine"
> Heritage Flight w/F-16
> Pitts S-2S (N99MF) Jim "Bulldog" LeRoy
> PT-17 (N49739) John Mohr
> TBM-3E (N4170A) painted in colors of VMT-232
> Super Shockwave Les Shockley
>
>
> [NOTES]
> All of the warbirds that flew were also on static
> display.
>
> The Collings Foundation TA-4J Skyhawk was a no-show.
>
> Seeing the MiG 17 was a first for me. I love that
> flickering AB.
>
> Another first was seeing the aircraft-to-helicopter
> transfer by the United
> Team of John Mohr (Stearman), Roger Buis (Otto the
> helicopter), and stuntman
> Todd Green. No safety belts or lines that I could
> see, it was all hanging
> on for dear life, even when Roger performed a
> hammerhead in Otto.
>
> A Tribute to the Masters was performed by Jim LeRoy
> in the Pitts, John Mohr
> in the Stearman, and Les Shockley in the Super
> Shockwave. The tribute was an
> act very similar to the one which had been flown by
> the X-Team "Masters of
> Disaster".
>
> This may have been my last show seeing Fat Albert
> performing the JATO. Rumor
> is they no longer manufacture the JATO bottles and
> the remaining stock is
> limited.
>
> This was my first time to this show. Unfortunately,
> out of the 7 shows I
> had been to this year, this one would rank last. The
> flying & static
> displays were great but the infrastructure stunk. My
> troubles began after
> arriving in the offsite parking lot at 0845 (gates
> opened at 0900). As we
> pulled away from the lot our driver decided to pull
> off in a side lot and
> chat to some of her fellow drivers for 10 minutes.
> Meanwhile, other buses
> continued to drive by heading to the show! We
> finally arrived at the airport
> around 0920. Still early enough to get a front row
> seat I thought. Wrong!
> The general seating area only had a frontage of
> around 200 feet! The rest of
> the show line was taken up by box seats and VIP
> seating. In 26 years of
> attending airshows I have never seen such a small
> seating area. Evidentially
> the organizers tried something new this year - to
> get the crowds closer to
> the Blues they parked them on Runway 33 which took
> away a huge chunk of real
> estate where the crowds used to sit.
>
> And the problems continued after the show was over.
> Throughout the day there
> was a strong presence from the NG, CAP, and LE
> maintaining peace and order.
> However, when the show ended at 1550 they all seemed
> to disappear. There was
> mass confusion in the lines for the buses. After 1
> hour of standing in line
> I finally saw a LE presence, but that was only
> because they were responding
> to reports of fights breaking out (as heard on the
> Chattanooga TRS). At 1800
> I finally arrived back at my vehicle and so ended my
> Chattanooga adventure.
>
> The weather was perfect for photos, which are
> available at
> http://www.pbase.com/mriffle/2005_kcha
>
> Mike Riffle
> Cataula, GA
>
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