[MilCom] Pensacola Beach airshow report

[Joe Cobb]

The week started off good and ended with a not so welcome bang.  Seems like the Blue's freqs are remaining kind of stable from show to show.  They used the same freqs this week as they did in Smyrna and Huntsville.

Wednesday Circle and Arrival (checkpoints) 7-9-08:

The Diamond flew first then the solos about an hour and half later.  
284.25--1, 2, 3, 4 up and down the beach (show ctr)
275.35--when they went off stage (behind the crowd)
305.5--3 and 4 a/a while 1 and 2 get their checkpoints and also checking the cloud decks
237.8--Solos behind the crowd
255.2--Solos show ctr (up and down the beach 

Thursday practice show (7-10-08):

284.25-----Show Center 
275.35-----Behind the Crowd (Diamond)
237.8------Behind the Crowd (Solos)
305.5------Fat Albert (C-130T)
139.8125---Comm Cart

Friday "dress rehearsal" (7-11-08)

Blues freqs remained unchanged.  
123.15-----Air Boss/Aeroshell T-6 Texan discrete
157.15-----US Coast Guard Ch 23A (CG-6551, HH-65C, reporting off for demo)
157.075----Us Coast Guard Ch 81A (Blue Angels command)

The US Coast Guard Cutter Cypress was again the center point (visual reference) for the show and was the command ship for all USCG assets working the show keeping vessels out of the show box.   One interesting thing that happened during the Blue Angels portion was that Merlin (#5) developed a "cut" in his canopy and returned to NAS Pensacola.  He told Corky (#6) that he was on his own so i thought Merlin was done for the day but he returned with an unnumbered jet and finished out the performance.  Merlin was too heavy for the high alpha pass so had to sit that one out.  When the group did their ops (fuel level) check, 1-4 checked in the usual 5.5-5.1 range, #6 (Corky) checked in @ 3.2 and #5 (Merlin) checked in at 7.4 and this was three quarters of the way thru.

Saturday main show  (7-12-08)

Oh man, what a terrible day for all spectators that were caught out in the elements when the storm hit.  I was lucky i had the hotel to huddle under.  Freqs stayed the same (what little was used air wise).  The second act was the USCG SAR demo with a HH-65C and right after he dropped the swimmer into the water all heck broke loose.  CG-6551 aborts @ 1235 and the diver is told to swim to shore.  The airshow was called off by the Blues @ 1350.  High winds, driving rain, and lightening engulfed the area.  In all several people were injured by flying debris (on the beach), and four people in boats were struck by lightening.  Luckily there were no fatalities.  I switched modes and went to public safety monitoring.

Ground Comms (i also have the tones (CT) to the radios for those that do that sort of thing):

460.2----Escambia Sheriff Beach sector Ch 5  (Tone: 203.5)
460.275--Escambia Sheriff talk around Ch 4 (Tone: 203.5) used for parking and traffic issues then used for rescue comms
461.3----Beach Life Guards (Tone: 107.2)
155.835--Escambia Fire Tac Ch 2 (Tone: 203.5)
158.775--Escambia Fire/EMS beach command for storm rescue (Tone: not sure)
157.075, 157.15, 157.1---Used very heavily by the Coast Guard as they assisted the local public safety and life guards for helping the injured off the boats

I understand the show actually got rescheduled for today (Sunday 7-13-08) but i had to depart and will try again in November at the Homecoming.

Joe
Nashville, Tn.