Singapore Airshow 2018

[Adam]

Everything's been re-jigged after the Black Eagles left. As far as I know some of the performers only fly a set number of times, so the Gripen going twice on Saturday (and goodness knows why it is) may exclude it from going up again on Sunday. Having seen all the performers at this year's show in the past two years at other events I can safely say you're missing less with the Gripen than you would have been with the Sukhoi.

Saturday AM: RSAF F-16 & F-15, RTAF Gripen, USAF/PACAF F-16, RMAF Su-30
Saturday PM: RSAF F-16 & F-15, Jupiter Aerobatic Team, RTAF Gripen, USAF B-25 flypast

Sunday AM: RSAF F-16 & F-15, Jupiter Aerobatic Team, RMAF Su-30
Sunday PM: RSAF F-16 & F-15, USAF/PACAF F-16

It currently looks like Saturday will have about 50% more flying than Sunday. Completely unfair given ticket prices are the same. All I can say is... yeah, that's the Singapore Airshow for you.

[jm1g]

Thanks for all your input Adam.
What are the top 3 world military airshows in your opinion?

[Adam]

I'm really not the best person to ask about that, I've only been to four or five! From my experiences and from what I've seen online, RIAT and Radom are consistently very good. The rare events at Payerne are epic. The Belgian AF Days, Luchtmachtdagen, SIAF and the other European big shows are often up there but vary hugely between years. MAKS is probably deserving of a mention although I know very little about it. LIMA is probably the best of the Asia/Pacific shows. The most comparable events in the US (Miramar & Nellis) are very different in style from what I can gather, although I've never been. You'd probably be better off putting that question to the rest of the guys on here on here in a separate forum topic. It's a shameless self-promotion but head over to the Features section of thisisflight.net and you'll see some show reviews from myself and my team which may help you.

[jm1g]

Just going to chip in with my experience for the day for anybody doing searches about this show in the future.

Thanks to Adam for actually making my day bearable with invaluable advice. If you are going to go to this show, the bus is definitely not the way to go.

Anyway. This show seems like a trade convention where they let the public in at the end to look at the mess they all left behind. Its hugely crowded, there are very long queues to everything, including toilets and drinks and food venders. There seems to be bottlenecks everywhere to access different areas of the show, where people crowd. There is little to no shade anywhere. The shade there was seemed to be sectioned off and protected by security for no real reason. The arial display on the Sunday was cut short to only 2 displays each session, SU-30, Gripen and black eagles all cancelled. Entering the show was fairly straightforward as i arrived in a taxi, but there was huge queues to enter for those entering by bus. Leaving was just as difficult. I queued for an hour to get a taxi, shuttle bus queue was probably 10x longer, but there was lots of buses coming and going.

Few good parts. The static display was good. You could get very close to a lot of planes and helicopters and touch them. Most of the planes you could sit inside, or walk into the bigger ones, but most had a very large queue. The indoor traders that had stayed for the last 2 public days were very cool and didn't mind explaining their products and seemed happy to talk to everybody. The arial display, altho lacking in quantity, was not lacking in quality. It was very good while it lasted, and the crowds are close to the action.

Overall I had a good day, got sunburnt, saw lots of cool stuff indoors and out, and got a lot of nice weapons brochures should I find myself as a goverment anti protest advisor, but will not go back soon!

[Adam]

Glad you had a decent day and my advice was somewhat useful. Good to hear your thoughts!