2024 Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach Park

[Ryan138811]

Practice was nice, thing I hate about bethpage is that if you don’t get to the end of the beach usually a haze on the photos, but definitely a nice practice the pavehawks landed right behind show center in the little landing pads, and a10 popped a lot probably 40ish flares.

Where would you suggest to be on the beach for the best pictures, the ends as you implied above? This is my first time at this airshow.

I would say if your willing to go on the beach go as far as you can roughly in the middle near show center, has to be amazing photos now some of the jets came a bit closer to the boardwalk but still would be good photos, if you don’t wanna go on the beach go anywhere on the boardwalk near show center.

[Ryan138811]

Helicopter landing is a bit weird navy and marines both landed at 10 so idk if more marines are coming in later?

[Redrock]

A10

[trueblue]

Hello,

I know the 2024 Bethpage air show (Sat/Sun) is 10 to 3 pm. Do they allow entry any time after the show starts? I can't get there before 1:30 pm. Is there no entry fee if I am not bringing car to the Parking fields? What entry point/ticket booth I should use for the remaining air show? I will be coming in via public transportation - LIRR & Bus etc.

Any help / insight is appreciated. Thanks!

[trueblue]

Question:
For the bethpage air show at Jones Beach (on Sunday), are people allowed to ENTER any time? I know the show timing is 10-3 pm. I can't get there before 1:30, so I am asking. Is it correct that there is no ticket for the air show, just the $10/- parking fee to park in the "Parking fields"? I will be taking LIRR / Bus to get to Jones Beach. Where should I try to sit to get a better view of the Blue Angels?

Any help / insight is very appreciated.

[Chris S]

Question:
For the bethpage air show at Jones Beach (on Sunday), are people allowed to ENTER any time? I know the show timing is 10-3 pm. I can't get there before 1:30, so I am asking. Is it correct that there is no ticket for the air show, just the $10/- parking fee to park in the "Parking fields"? I will be taking LIRR / Bus to get to Jones Beach. Where should I try to sit to get a better view of the Blue Angels?

Any help / insight is very appreciated.

FYI - all roads going down to Jones Beach were closed around 10:30 today cause they announced the parking Fields were already at capacity!!
I know the buses from Freepot were able to drop off and pick up people near the traffic circle by the Tower. Good luck, and get there EARLY!!!

[passedgas46]

Show number two for me is now in the books.

This was supposed to be a full-on weekend trip but it turned into just a day trip, going up and coming home Saturday. Looking at the hotels, I expected high prices, and I've said it time and time again that cost is usually never a factor for me, a mid-range priced place within a reasonable distance of Jones Beach just didn't exist. I know from growing up living within a 30-40 minute drive of NYC and many trips to NYC and Long Island that there's no such thing as a timely drive in the NYC metro area unless it's overnight during the week or early morning on the weekends. Weather also played a factor and I thought maybe Sunday would have low clouds just like last weekend in Dover. Turns out I was right... though it wasn't low clouds but fog.

At any rate, this turned into a day trip and I was solo on this one; my wife said no to waking up at 3:45 and leaving at 5 am. Got on the road, crossed into NY, and pulled off to grab a to-go breakfast and made it to Jones Beach before 8 am and instead of using Field 4, I used Field 5 which had to have been 15% full when I got there. Saw some familiar faces toting lens and video cameras from Dover and previous airshows (and the one who said he'd upload his stuff from McGuire last year still hadn't!).

The show was great, LOVED THE F-35C DEMO, and it ran smoothly up until after the P-51 aerobatic performance when there was what seemed like a 25 minute break in the action. I texted a friend who was there if he had a schedule; sure enough he did, and said there was a break built into the show. He didn't know why. Kept seeing Beasley and the A-10 circling behind us until the Heritage Flight started. The A-10 demo was great and all those flares just made the demo more dynamic. It'll be bittersweet when the A-10 demo leaves the circuit, and I hope I can convince my wife that we need to be at that last airshow. Goulian always puts on a great show but I always have to say that there's one airshow pilot who I believe airshows should be hiring more and more often and that's David Windmiller. He's got one really awesome performance that's up there with the likes of Rob Holland, Skip Stewart, and Kirby Chambliss.

The Blue Angels put on a great high show, too. The crowd around me really enjoyed their performance. All in all it was a good day at Jones Beach, minus that obnoxious break in the airshow flying.

Of note is that we (those around me close to the water and beyond their umbrella line) heard bits and pieces of the public address system so I got to hear Rob Reider call his final Jones Beach Airshow. I also kept hearing a woman on the mic, too, and my friend said that was Stephanie Stricklen, going on by saying "she's somewhat new to airshow announcing, TV anchor to airshow groupie to student pilot, airshow volunteer to producer to director and now was working her way to be an airshow announcer and will likely succeed Rob next year and she's fifty". Not sure where the age thing came into play, not that it mattered because I'm still older than her! I have mixed feelings about her because from what I did hear yesterday, she did sound like she had a television news tone in her voice which really doesn't translate well to airshows. There's three very good female airshow announcers out there, in my opinion this girl's not there yet.

I left Jones Beach around 4 and got back a little after 7:30. Should have been 6:30 but NYC traffic absolutely ducking sucks. Passed no less than five motor vehicle accidents between Jones Beach and Staten Island. If there's one thing I've learned yesterday, it's that these long days are really getting harder and harder to do the older I get. Hopefully next year the wife comes and we make a weekend out of it!