• HOME
• AIR SHOWS
• BASE VISITS
• AVIATION PHOTOS
• OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY
• TOPGUN GEAR
• ABOUT

• LINKS
• CONTACT

This was my second year going to Oshkosh, this year Canadian smoke from the forest fires was playing havoc with arrivals. Visibility was so bad they could not have VFR flights into the airport. Only IFR flights with 2-mile gaps were permitted, if you broke the two-mile buffer ATC would shuffle them back to the starting point. I arrived Sunday morning, I caught some static arrivals by a Dover C-5M, an AH-64 Apache from Utah, SKIER from NY and a MH-65D from Detroit USCG Air station arrived.

Monday the smoke played havoc with the air show schedule, in the afternoon the smoke cleared to allow more arrivals. The arrival of the F-22 Demo team using 1 AK F-22 and one with no markings at all which they always used while I was there. After that the Red Bull P-38 Lightning and DC-6 arrived and made some passes. Next the F-16 Demo flown by Major Taylor “FEMA” Hiester went up using the painted Viper. After a short time, Happy Jack’s P-51 Mustang joined for the USAF Heritage Flight.

Former Raptor Demo pilot and now Thunderbird 8 pilot; Major Samuel "RaZZ" Larson arrived in the F-16D two-seater Thunderbird jet which he parked and supposedly camped under. Warbirds of America went up in their T-6’s followed by Ken Pietsch in his Jet Waco, followed by Ed Hamil in his Folds of Honor Biplane. Team Redline went next followed by two P-51’s, Plum Crazy and Cheryl Lynn. Jack Aces took to the skies in three P-51’s and then Monday ended with the F-22 Demo which never disappoints.

Tuesday opened with Wisconsin sending two of their F-35’s, one being the wing jet which was put into the Boeing Plaza. Five DC-3 took to the skies followed by P-51 Lady B and then Magic Moonlight, a Beech C18. Two F-22’s from Langley stopped in a made some nice passes. One of the Raptors was flown by Four-Star General Ken Wilsbach, he flew in to give a discussion on his aviation background on EAA’s The Green Dot Podcast. Skip Stewart in Prometheus then performed his demo. A B-1 Bomber made two high speed passes and then Jared Isaacman arrived in his MIG-29B. Paul Bennet went up in Sean D Tucker’s former Pitts S-2 but with a new paint job. The F-22 Raptor demo closed out the day for me.

Wednesday was the first of two evening shows, much to my disappointment there would be no jets unlike back in 24. The morning started out with more arrivals, Two A-10’s from Whiteman arrived followed by two T-6A Texans from Columbus. The Boeing Plaza made some shuffling, the Dolphin and Super Stallion departed making room for Southwest Independence One and two T-38’s and two F-15’s from LA. NASA sent their painted F-15D and F/A-18B while the IN ANG sent two of their F-16’s. Flying Bull’s P-38 went up to start the show followed by Michael Goulian.

Jack Ace’s P-51’s went up followed by another P-51 Cheryl Lynn. A P-47D named Bonnie went up next, followed by Skip Stewart in Promethius and Melissa Burns in Sports Gal. After their combined show they flew low over the runway and then a wall of fire was ignited as they finished their pass. I was lucky enough to be at the end where the wall lit off. Southwest sent their Freedom One 737-Max 8. The show for me ended with the arrival of the Red Arrows who were just across the lake at a prior show in Michigan.

Thursday was supposed to be the “Jet Day”, another rotation of statics were backed out of the Boeing Plaza. The LC-130 was first to depart followed by the C-5M. Then a B-52 and a NASA T-38 came in and were placed into the plaza for static display replacing Independence One which departed. MN F-16 departed after two Navy T-6A Texan’s arrived. American’s Medal of Honor airplane arrived carrying veterans. The F-35B Demo team arrived from Miramar, CA. I was hoping they were going to do a mini demo, I still haven’t seen a F-35B hover. Two T-45 Goshawks closed out the static arrivals allowing for the show to start.

The Golden Knights kicked off Thursday with a jump from 10,000 ft followed by Bill Stein and Matt Chapman. Vintage in Review came up next where they had a Wright Brother’s Flyer Model B replica. Next came some jets, three MIG-17’s, two CT-133’s, five L-39’s, an L-29 then took off. Once all of those landed, Jared Isaacman and his four ship of F-5E’s took off making several passes. The P-47 followed the jets and then a F-4U Corsair took the skies. The Red Bull helo and Extra 300 then took off, the helo climbing so two jumpers could depart and the helo preformed. Then the Extra took center stage for his act.

The WWII Airborne Demo Team in a C-47 came in next, after making an initial pass it came around again allowing jumpers to deplane. The F-4U and P-47 went up next for their demos, the show ended with Happy Jacks in the P-51, Viper Demo and F-22 Raptor departed for mini demo’s and then reformed for the Heritage Flight and made a few passes. Jared Isaacman then came in for a low approach and then landed finishing the Thursday show.

Friday I got on early for some static shots with less people around them, then walked to the warbird park. After that I went to the Seaplane base and caught some action at 96WI. After that it was time for me to drive to Chicago and catch my flight home. I’m already looking forward to next year; this time I want to stay for the full show on Friday in order to catch some of the other demos I’ve missed both times there.