Hancock County: Indy Air Show Main Event
On the heels of our Friday night adventure seeing the hot air balloons, we set off early Saturday morning to return for the major portion of the airshow.
We arrived around 10AM, parked, and made a fairly lengthy journey to the main gate. Our tickets were upgraded admission to the Suntable seating area, which meant instead of finding a place to sit and bringing your own chairs we had a roped off area, in prime viewing location, with preassigned tables and chairs to sit at. The price difference for the upgraded tickets was negligible in my opinion, and the viewing location made it worth it.
We had a few hours to walk around and sightsee prior to the aerial portion of the show. There was plenty to see and do. Obviously there were a lot of planes on display, including military relics, helicopters, and cargo planes. Unfortunately I didn’t take a lot of pictures of this part of the show as I was carrying a sleeping kid while Annie returned to the car to get the stroller.
There was also a large section of just other fun things to do, much like a county fair, including a big interactive tent from Lockheed Martin, a walkthrough trailer from Sony’s Playstation 3 experience, lots of local vendors with booths, a massive kid play area, etc. There was definitely plenty to keep families entertained.
The aerial portion of the show started at noon, and it did not disappoint. While the headlining act and finale was the Blue Angels, the acts leading up to it were mighty impressive. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to capture the amazing feats in static pictures because the depth of the picture and speed of flight is lost amongst the haze of the sky, so I’ll have to do my best to explain in words.
There were a few early on demonstrations of ultralight planes and RC planes/helicopters. Some of the stunts these guys achieved were just downright amazing.
Instead of a traditional airshow opening of a parachutist dropping in with a flag, this show opened with a crop duster plane flying down and picking up a flag and towing it as a banner.
We were very quickly greeted by the opening act, an F16 launching past the crowd from behind at low altitude, afterburner on. The noise was startling, unexpected, and started Isaac crying pretty quickly. It got my heart pumping. There were only a handful of loud occurrences from that point on, and mom just helped to cover his ears. I don’t think he cried again.
There were aerial tricks galore at this point. It was a great way to open up the show.
The acts that followed included some biplane stunt pilots doing tricks, a woman pilot doing a number of tricks in her stunt plane, and then a number of old military planes doing formation flights.
During the formation flight time, there was a brief interruption when an “intruder” entered our airspace. At first we thought it may be part of the show, but it turns out a poor pilot actually got caught on radar flying into the airshow and they had to stop the show for a few minutes to make sure they could get him out without an issue. I can only imagine the FAA may want to have a few words with the guy.
There was a stunt involving a hang gliding guy who turns out was a paraplegic. There was a stunt involving a biplane flying over the runway very close, and a motorcyclist going about 120mph “touching” the wing with his hand. And there was a stunt involving a wing walker, who basically stood on the top of the airplane, held in only by wrapping his feet around some metal bracing, while the pilot did loops, rolls, etc.
There was also a jet team, consisting of L-39 Albatross jets doing some stunts. Very impressive in itself, though these jets are used as military trainers because they’re economical and thus, not as highly performant.
Then of course there were the Blue Angels. Their portion of the show was definitely impressive, though I was quite impressed with what I had seen all day long, so it wasn’t overwhelming. But there were a few highlights.
The show started with their C-130 cargo plane, known as Fat Albert, which is the big 4 prop military cargo plane they use to transport around their crew and parts.
The plane took off in relatively short runway distance and did a high performance, 45 degree climb, which was amazing to see. It did a couple of low passes, then demonstrated what I would describe as one of the most impressive landings I’ve ever seen. It was relatively high for landing, and flying flat instead of descending as you would expect.
Then in what I can only think was a maneuver that would take years to master, the pilot nose dives the plane at a drastic oh-my-god-he’s-going-to-crash-it-into-the-ground angle and at the very last second noses up right as the wheels hit the runway. All four props go into reverse and the plane stops rather quickly, and even taxis backwards (just to demonstrate it can do so). The purpose was to demonstrate that the plane can land in very short runway distances if needed.
The guy at the controls definitely showed he is the master of controlling something that weights almost 80,000 pounds.
The six FA/18 jet team of the Blue Angels consists of a 4 jet formation group and a 2 jet solo/partner demo group. I imagine they do this so that they can demonstrate different manuevers and also to do a demonstration while the other group is setting up for their next one, to help with pacing. Towards the end, the group joins up to a delta formation where all 6 perform the final few demonstrations together.
The meticulous nature of their formation flying is so good, you almost take for granted that it’s easy. At one point, they were described as being about 18 inches apart from each other. That’s downright insane. They do make it look easy, and I can’t begin to think how long they have to train to do what they do.
The highlight of this portion of the show, for me, was the sneak attack demonstration. Before each of their maneuvers, the announcer would set up the stage for what we were about to see. However, on one particular trick they did not pre-announce. Instead, one of the jets overflew the runway, probably 20-30 feet off the ground, at a very fast speed (a few hundred mph), with afterburner. We didn’t know it was coming, until you hear the jet noise boom, after which he was already about 3/4 of the way down the runway. It was loud, startling, and amazing. Just a second or two later, the other one flew directly overhead past the crowd perpendicular to the runway, doing the same demonstration but from another direction. Our hearts were beating fast after that sneak attack.
To me, most amazing, I think, is that that is the last sound that some people ever hear since these things are designed for killing. The demonstration proved that the performance and ability of someone flying one of these machines is second to none. The nature of what they demonstrate is obviously designed to appease to crowds, and our show was somewhat limited due to low clouds. These fighters can go above Mach 1, which also isn’t exactly something that can be demonstrated at an airshow.
A few drops of rain hit our heads as the show was summing up, but we lucked out. All in all, the two days of events were amazing and worth the price of admission. Even if you aren’t an aviation enthusiast, there was so much to do and see during the show I would recommend it to anyone.