United States - Washington - McChord AFB Air Show 2008 - McChord AFB, Tacoma - 07/19/08

[dhfrat]

Over 375,000 attended the show.

I have heard only good things so far, so I guess aside from the traffic, all was good? Shall we do it again in 2010?

[David Atkinson]

I think David appreciated it too. 

I certainly did - thanks again! You gotta love an airshow where they serve Red Hook...

And dhfrat, the traffic wasn't so bad if you went for the north gate - although getting sent around the base perimiter and out onto Spanaway loop was different, to say the least! My one minor peeve for the whole weekend was getting hustled away from the north ramp two minutes after the Tbirds shut down. I was hoping to shoot the heavies when they weren't covered in grocks, but oh well.

And I echo Mark's sentiments, a good job very well done to the organizing team!

David

[Kevin Scott]

I was hoping to shoot the heavies when they weren't covered in grocks, but oh well.

You mean like this? 


Taken just before the cattle prods came out.

[dhfrat]

Sorry we had to hustle everyone out.  We had to fuel and launch the E-6B, KC-10, 2 F-16s, 2 A-10s, 2 F-18s, the CT-114, B-25, P-51, Yak-11, T-6, Pitts, C-150, Skyraider, Yak 18T, Yak55, a second T-6, H-65 and the RV6 all at/around 1800L  We had to break down the barriers and do multiple FOD sweeps before anything could move.  It was a nightmare for a while.  Even with all that, I managed to get a 15 minute flight in on the B-25. 

Monday morning was even worse.  Everything else wanted to leave between 0900 and 1200L.  Tora took off with 9 acft, the MiG, Fouga and A-26 all blasted off, 2 F-15s,  C-5, AWACS, RC-135, 2 F-22s, KC-135, TC-12, T-1, C-21, 1 F-15E, 2 Helos and a C-130J.  Whew

I had a great time though, learned alot about airshows, but sadly did not really watch much of the flying.

[shornet]

Great show

Nice to meet Mark and other FC folks.

T-birds

[Jason-Fight2FlyPhoto]

Friday was pretty fun too!  It was my first time really looking around the base and was a pretty exciting day!  It all started with this KC-10 landing


Then C-5

Then F-15E

Then the F-15 Demo

Then the Super Hornet

And finally some Thunderbirds

[Jason-Fight2FlyPhoto]

Raptors arriving:

[David Atkinson]

You mean like this? 

Aaaargh!! Yes - just like that!!!!

David

[mycole]

shornet:  that first tbird shot... outstanding... great perspective.

[Anthony Richards]

What an extraordinary show! I was smart enough to take my camera with me! Here are some of my shots!

[eaurougeflatout]

Great work everyone.  shornet -- stunning work as usual, great closeup work.  Nicely controlled highlights on the T-Birds!

[skyline]

What an extraordinary show! I was smart enough to take my camera with me, so here is my visual review:

Would you please make your pictures no wider than 800 pixels so that we can easily view them with smaller monitors. Sorry I don't use 20 inches 16:9 wide screen. 

[shornet]

shornet:  that first tbird shot... outstanding... great perspective.

Thanks a lot. mycole.

[shornet]

Great work everyone.  shornet -- stunning work as usual, great closeup work.  Nicely controlled highlights on the T-Birds!

Thanks a lot. Steven

Photoshop do help a lot to recover and control highlight details.

[Canadian Airshow Fan]

Here's a video compilation of photos I took during the 2008 Mchord Air Expo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEqwYlYZHxI

I'm by no means a good photographer, but I borrowed Chris Smallenberg's old camera and had some fun putting together the video. I hope to have all the video I took during the show up soon.

Enjoy.