Westmoreland County Airshow May 25-26

Discussion relating to 2019 airshows/fly-ins/exercises/other events. Post news before the event and post your photos afterwards! Please create only one thread per event.
EricP
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Post by EricP » Fri May 24, 2019 5:46 pm

Sp00ks102 wrote: Fri May 24, 2019 12:10 pm
EricP wrote: Thu May 23, 2019 7:43 pm Not Matt, but I was at the Andrews show. The B-52 was parked on the southern end of the static ramp around where That’s All Brother and other warbirds were parked. South end is towards where the tower and Presidential hangar are.
Ah, thanks Eric. I didn't walk down that far this year, I assumed they would have had it front and center where the BONE was last time and since I didn't see it I didn't think it was worth walking that far with a 4 yo. Hope to catch it again sometime.

I got to see 2 of the harriers flying a route over Altoona yesterday afternoon, looking forward to practice today and the show sat...sunday does not look good :-/
Yeah I don’t blame you. It was a hike without having my little one with me. Hopefully you get some good weather for the show this weekend!
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RyanS
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Post by RyanS » Sat May 25, 2019 2:22 am

Watched a very tame practice from the end of the runway today. Show center is apparently further to the left so the action was further away than I had hoped. Only the F-16, Harrier, and Snowbirds practiced and the only arrivals were Tora and a CJ-6, plus business jet traffic. Would have liked to see the EC-130 in the air. As soon as the TFR ended, we packed up and went to explore Pittsburgh for the rest of the day so I'm not aware of anything that came in after the Snowbirds landed.

The Snowbirds only flew with 8 jets, which has been common in photos I've seen of them in practice. I wonder if one of the pilots isn't up to it yet? Not sure how many they had at Barksdale but an imbalanced formation always looks weird.
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RyanS
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Post by RyanS » Sat May 25, 2019 2:54 pm

Holy show line batman. It's a looooonnnng walk to the hill!

The speakers yet again stand to ruin the show. Way too loud.

Clearish skies so far which probably means more energetic storms later. Plenty warm out here but the breeze is nice.
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Ryan Sundheimer
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redjay
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Post by redjay » Sat May 25, 2019 4:21 pm

RyanS wrote: Sat May 25, 2019 2:22 am The Snowbirds only flew with 8 jets, which has been common in photos I've seen of them in practice. I wonder if one of the pilots isn't up to it yet? Not sure how many they had at Barksdale but an imbalanced formation always looks weird.
They flew with 9 at Barksdale.
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jaosciak
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Post by jaosciak » Sat May 25, 2019 11:25 pm

Some (there wasn't many) arrivals from Friday and practice. Nice meeting you in person Ryan.
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USAF Viper practice.
USAF Viper practice.
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USMC AV-8 Harrier practice.
USMC AV-8 Harrier practice.
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RyanS
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Post by RyanS » Sun May 26, 2019 12:01 am

Well the day went about as well as it could have. We only got the barest clip of rain from much nastier storms to the south. A few miles would have really ruined the day. There were some gaps in the flying but that was fine, at least the F-16 demo went twice and Toro did a really good job. The Mustang buzzed us on the corner of the show grounds on takeoff which was the best photo op of the day. I really hope I caught it.

Forecast for tomorrow looks very blah, 1,500 foot broken until show time then thunderstorms in the vicinity. I'll go but I will probably find a seat closer to the car since we'll likely have to run for it at some point. Hopefully the crowds are thinner and it's easier to find a spot. Even though they said gates opened at 9, they let all of us in around 8:30 today and the front row was almost all filled. People here seem to love the show!
jaosciak wrote: Sat May 25, 2019 11:25 pm Some (there wasn't many) arrivals from Friday and practice. Nice meeting you in person Ryan.
You too!
redjay wrote: Sat May 25, 2019 4:21 pm
RyanS wrote: Sat May 25, 2019 2:22 am The Snowbirds only flew with 8 jets, which has been common in photos I've seen of them in practice. I wonder if one of the pilots isn't up to it yet? Not sure how many they had at Barksdale but an imbalanced formation always looks weird.
They flew with 9 at Barksdale.
Thanks, they had nine today as well so my worries were unfounded.
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RyanS
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Post by RyanS » Sun May 26, 2019 6:03 pm

I didn't think the show would happen with the line of storms bearing down on us this morning so decided to visit the Flight 93 Memorial and come back at 1 in case there was any flying. Turns out the rain had passed so here we are about fifth row on the flightline. The B-52 flybys were super tame (3 flat passes). Hoping it will hold out through the end of the flying!
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Ryan Sundheimer
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ssims45
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Post by ssims45 » Mon May 27, 2019 3:09 am

I went Saturday and hiked up on the hill with my kids. It was a good show but the 40 minute "mid-show break" that ended right as the rain moved in was frustrating. They seem to add little breaks and repeat acts to stretch the show. The small area they have for statics was full this year which was exciting. It's a shame they didn't get the Pittsburgh ANG to bring over one of their brand new (to them?) C-17s.

My kids and I hunkered down under the Harrier for the first band of rain and then moved to an unoccupied vendor tent. We were glad to see the Snowbirds fly after it passed through and I think the rain did an excellent job clearing out the bulk of the attendees which meant little to no traffic to exit after the show officially concluded.

I'm still editing Warbirds Over the Beach photos but took a quick pass through this show's photos and came up with some keepers.
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Mike Wiskus and the Lucas Oil Pitts
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USAF F-16 Demo Pilot "Toro" and Jim Beasley in "Bald Eagle" for the Heritage Flight after Toro's first public demo!
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Harrier Demo from VMA-231 "Ace of Spades"
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Canadian Snowbirds
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MattEv14
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Post by MattEv14 » Mon May 27, 2019 11:49 am

RyanS wrote: Sun May 26, 2019 6:03 pm I didn't think the show would happen with the line of storms bearing down on us this morning so decided to visit the Flight 93 Memorial and come back at 1 in case there was any flying. Turns out the rain had passed so here we are about fifth row on the flightline. The B-52 flybys were super tame (3 flat passes). Hoping it will hold out through the end of the flying!
I was wondering if the same B-52 that flew over Miami was the one that hit up Latrobe. After seeing your comments I am certain it was not. The B-52 absolutely stole the show in Miami. 4 passes that were all completely different. Over the crowd from behind to start, flat pass, low approach with gear down, then a high speed pass and max performance climb. All passes (except the first one) were flown super low, very close to the show line, and the reposition turns were aggressive. It was a truly awesome sight you don’t often see at shows.
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Sp00ks102
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Post by Sp00ks102 » Tue May 28, 2019 1:20 pm

Ended up going to the show Friday for practice and both show days. We all got pretty lucky with the weather! Special thanks to the guys from VMA-231, they hooked me and my family up with a great tour on Friday and flew some flags for us.

I think the delay on Sunday was due to a criminal jumping the fence to the airport and thusly getting arrested, I can't make this stuff up. What a horribly wrong decision/time to attempt that, with all of the cops that were there.
https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland ... y-airshow/

I agree on the B-52, pretty lame passes but the weather was not looking too great at that particular time, so maybe that was the reason. Otherwise a good show, but I think they cut the Huey for some reason and some of the static displays that were supposed to be there seemed to be missing.
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