Snowbirds - 33rd Season, new show. Centenial Burst Manuver. Begins training in November, practices for six months. 431 Air Demonstration Squadron. 89 people in squadron, 22 on travel team. 4 bird strikes during Friday practice. Flys nine aircraft at one time. Based out of Moose Jaw, Sacakiwan. Five ship abreast Soft Roll, one of the more difficult manuvers. Four ship cross, about 20 to 25 feet apart at close to 260 knots. Opposing pass. CT-114 Tutors. Big Diamond Formation, approxamately 3 feet appart going into Canada Burst (separation of formation prior to show finale). Final nine plane line abreast formation... special dedication to two US military personal at the show who were injured during Op. Iraqi Freedom.
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Snowbirds - Photo (c) 2003 by Douglas F. Cali
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F-14 Tomcat - VF-101 Grim Reapers. 60,000 lbs of thrust. Varaible sweep wing is automatically deployed/retracted by computer, pilot manually controlled wings during show. Oceana NAS, Norfolk, VA, 936,9 miles to show. Flown by Andy Merstick (callsign "Stick"). Aircraft made a suprise night time fly-by during Saturday night concert. Cuban Eight. Missed approach demonstration: landing configuration to full power. Minimum radius turn, 360 degree turn within 1,500 feet (less than a quarter mile). Double Emmleman. High pressure causes mosture in air to vaporize. Must fly subsonic to avoid creating shockwave (ie. "sonic boom") which could cause thousands of dollars of damage to windows along the coast. 140 knot slow pass fly-by.
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F-14 Tomcat - Photo (c) 2003 by Douglas F. Cali
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F-14 Tomcat - Photo (c) 2003 by Douglas F. Cali
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Red Baron Squadron. - Restored 1941-3 Boeing A-75 Steerman bi-planes. Takeoff and land in formation. Break formation and then rejoin. Heart in the Sky. Four man team has a total of 50 years of formation flying experience. Came out of factory with 220 hp replaced with 450 hp engines and additional aerions for a total of four.
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Red Barons - Photo (c) 2003 by Douglas F. Cali
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A-10 Warthog - designed to withstand hits from up to 23mm rounds. Flies close air-to-ground support. Even when retracted, the main gear protrudes slightly in case of emergency landings.
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Fred Cabanas - Photo (c) 2003 by Douglas F. Cali
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Thunderbirds "Ambassadors in Blue" 50 years in exsistance.
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Thunderbirds - 30 minutes of some of the world's best flying. Transistion from trail formation to diamond formation... wing tips are from from 3 feet to 18 inches apart. 200 feet off the deck. Diamond Pass-In-Review. Slow roll is one of the more difficult manuevers. "Fly-by-wire" control stick is on right side and only moves about a quarter of an inch. Eight point roll. Four aeiron rolls in six seconds. Arrowhead loop. High show. Crossover Break. Speed pass. Half Cuban Eight and then rejoin formation. Oldest active duty F-16Cs in the fleet (built in 1984-86). First year with 5 card formation. Vertical aelron roll, three miles straight up. Nine G turn followed by Cuban Eight.
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Thunderbirds - Trademark solo inverted "Calypso Pass."
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Thunderbirds - Bomb Burst tops out at about 10,000 ft.
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Thunderbirds - Delta Closer
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Thunderbirds - Photo (c) 2003 by Douglas F. Cali
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Thunderbirds - Photo (c) 2003 by Douglas F. Cali
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2002 Ft. Lauderdale Air & Sea Show Photos
2001 Ft. Lauderdale Air & Sea Show Photos
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2003 Ft. Lauderdale Air and Sea Show Photos
Copyright © 2003 by Thomas R. Pasawicz. All rights reserved.
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