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Bullethead

OT - Cajun Air Festival 2011

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FINALLY, a decent airshow rolled through Lousy Anna and, even more amazing, I had the time to go see it. This was the Sertoma Cajun Air Festival in Lafayette, LA, from which I've just returned.

 

It was an amazing show. I took well over 100 pics but have uploaded the best of them to a gallery here at Combat Ace, which you can find at the link below. It includes most of the acts and static displays. There's even a pic of a now-rare Piper "Traumahawk" in which I somehow managed to learn to fly without kiling myself. Most of these planes have, thankfully, gone on to a better life as beer cans :lol: . Anyway, here's the link:

 

http://combatace.com...-festival-2011/

 

There was all sorts of things here, military and civilian. The military side included demonstrations by an F/A-18F and A-10, a fly-by by a B-52, and a performance by the Thunderbirds. The civilian side had 3 of those little modern stuntplanes all flown by award-winning pilots, some sort of homebuilt flown by the guy who flew the BD-5J through the hangar in "Octopussy", the Aeroshell team, and quite a few others including a helicopter. One guy (who also flew a stuntplane) landed a Piper Cub on top of a pickup truck while it was rolling down the runway. And there was a jet-powered dragster that could get over 300mph in 5 seconds. All in all, a very cool show.

 

I have to show off a few pics here to whet your appetites :good: .

 

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One good thing about Lousy Anna's humidity.... It makes G-streamers and shockwave clouds highly visible. This F/A-18F was doing about 5 knots less than Mach 1 when it went by here :cool:

 

 

 

 

 

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This is the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team, flying T6s. They were every bit as good and, due to having way less power, even more impressives than the guys below:

 

 

 

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The Thunderbirds, however, were still very impressive. My only real gripe with the show as that they had the PA system blaring music so friggin' loud you couldn't even hear their engines, which was very disappointing.

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Nice pictures, Bullethead! Glad you were able to get to an air show near your Bayou hideaway. You should begin planning to come up to Yankee land to the Dayton 100th anniversary WW1 Fly-In scheduled for September of 2014. We can promise you plenty of booze if you decide to attend! :drinks:

 

The Thunderbirds, however, were still very impressive. My only real gripe with the show as that they had the PA system blaring music so friggin' loud you couldn't even hear their engines, which was very disappointing.

I hate it when they do that. Almost as annoying as the blaring music they often play at the 4th of July fireworks displays.

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Nice pictures, Bullethead! Glad you were able to get to an air show near your Bayou hideaway. You should begin planning to come up to Yankee land to the Dayton 100th anniversary WW1 Fly-In scheduled for September of 2014. We can promise you plenty of booze if you decide to attend! :drinks:

 

Hell, I don't know if I'll be alive in 2014. After all, the world's supposed to end in 2012 :rofl::grin: . But it does sound awful tempting. The one main thing the show yesterday lacked was biplanes. Not even a Pitts doing stunts, only a PT-17 on static display (although, for enough cash, you CAN take a ride in it).

 

I suppose if I'm going to go, I need to make reservations at least 6 months ahead of time. So I guess if we make it through 2012, I'll start seriously considering it :cool:

 

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Hell, I don't know if I'll be alive in 2014. After all, the world's supposed to end in 2012 :rofl::grin: . But it does sound awful tempting. The one main thing the show yesterday lacked was biplanes. Not even a Pitts doing stunts, only a PT-17 on static display (although, for enough cash, you CAN take a ride in it).

 

I suppose if I'm going to go, I need to make reservations at least 6 months ahead of time.

Dayton is a pretty quiet town, nestled between the bustling metropoli of Cincinnatti and Columbus. This means that it shouldn't be too crowded, even for the Centennial Air Show. OTOH, being a small city also means that there are not a whole lot of hotel rooms. I'm sure we can find you a decent place for your kit--if all else fails we can dig you a foxhole!

So I guess if we make it through 2012, I'll start seriously considering it :cool:

The way things look now, this could be a dicey situation. I wonder if they'll have the Airshow if the rapture occurs?

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