When you arrive on base and the first a/c you see is one of the Metrea 135's you know its going to be a good day ( being from the UK....we dont get out much! ) and so it proved to be. After an absence of 5 years the March ARB hosted the Socal airshow last weekend with chance of being able to show off the vast majority of USAF/ANG assets as well as a good selection of the Chino Planes of Fame and Palm Springs Air Museum vintage fleets both on the ground and in the air. As a relative US airshow newbie the static display at March was one of the best I've attended with so many highlights its hard to pick a favourite. The special schemes of the 309FS Wild Ducks and 310FS Top Hats 80th anniversary F-16's based at nearby Luke AFB as well as the stunning 144th FW California ANG Stars and Stripes Eagle in the static ( the wild duck was supposed to be a flier but gremlins took away that opportunity and was parked at the far side of the hot ramp ) contrasted nicely with the largely grey home team heavies and similarly drab 'modern' fighter metal in the form of Alaskan F-22's, more F-35's than you can shake a stick at ( VMFAT 502 Flying Nightmares,VMFA 314 Black Nights and 308FS Emerald Knights ) and a Davis Monthan A-10. Other personal highlights included a selection of the SoCalFire fleet ( S-2T, OV-10A and S-60 ) an Edwards B-52, a stunning Chino based N3-N3 and of course the Planes of Fame P-38 Skidoo ( more on that later ). Pretty much the full range of US heavies were there considering the airlift/tanker roles of the local units with KC-10,135,46 as well as a flightline full of C-17's in addition to the aforementioned bombers.
As I said, the static could not be faulted albeit tricky to photograph when the heavies acted as particularly good sun shades on a day when the temps were in the 90's.
The flying display however ended up being....shall we say frustrating? On paper it was awesome with two AR demo's-KC-135 &C-17 and KC-46 with fighters, West Coast C-17 and Rhino teams, a fighter section ( old - Planes of Fame- and new - F-16,F-35x2 and A-10 ), a section called Mustang Mayhem as well as the more traditional acts such as the T-Birds, the Patriots, Vicky Benzings Stearman and aero's acts from Ed Hamill, John Collyer and Kent Pietsch ( Jelly Belly ).
While the flying was great, techy gremlins limited things somewhat with just a single flypast from the B-1 before landing, the Wild Ducks F-16 having a problem and not flying and one of the Patriots L-39's having to break off mid display for an unknown reason.
What was really confusing though was waste of some top items. The P Of F P-38 spent most of the old fighters section flying racetracks at 2000' and when it ( and its colleagues the P-40, razorback P-51A Mrs Virginia and bubble P-51D Wee Willy II ) did come down they did one flypast each at low level before breaking in to the circuit. A similar thing happened with the modern fighters with only the Marines F-35B getting a second go. If only each group had been allowed a formation flypast.....Maybe time was the issue but if that was the case don’t get me started on the T-birds prelim!!!
The only AR demo was in the form of a couple of flypasts by the local KC-135 with no other aircraft 'hooked up' or close by and the programmed F-86-Mig-15 demo stayed firmly earthbound in the static display for some reason too.
The mustang mayhem section, while good with the addition of the beautiful P-63 Kingcobra ‘Pretty Polly’, would have benefitted from the PofF duo joining them as it was just the duo of the Palm Springs Mustangs, Man o War and Bunny, along with the kingcobra.
That being said, I really am whingeing as the rest of the display was very good with the Rhino giving it the beans with Steve Hinton in the Bearcat and a very agile C-17 demo. One of my personal favourites though was a superb display by the Sky Sailing glider with the backdrop of the beautiful blue Californian sky.
Anyway, heres a selection of the ground based goodies for your delectation - nothing special just a record shot on a lowly iPhone....
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
Untitled by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
Untitled by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
Untitled by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
Untitled by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
Untitled by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
Untitled by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
Untitled by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
Untitled by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow 23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr
SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by
Tangoringo, on Flickr