AirshowStuff Forums

Pikes Peak Regional Airshow 2022
September 24th - 25th
Colorado Springs Airport
Colorado Springs, Colorado
https://www.pprairshow.org/

Featuring
- USAFA Wings Of Blue
- USAF F-35A Lightning II Demo
- USAF Heritage Flight
- US Navy EA-18G Growler Demo
- US Navy Legacy Flight
- USAF C-130 Hercules Waterdrop Demo
- Kyle Franklin [Piper Cub]
- Bob Freeman [Extra 330SC]
- Tom Spratt [Vans RV-8]
- SBD Dauntless
- B-17 Flying Fortress
- F7F Tigercat
- F4U Corsair
- A-1 Skyraider
- B-25 Mitchell
- P-47 Thunderbolt

Website is up and running.
https://www.pprairshow.org/

https://www.pprairshow.org/performers/

I'm trying to decide on a fall photo trip and one of my options is to spend a day at this show before hopefully taking in some fall color in the rest of the state.

I didn't find a lot of feedback on this show from previous years, it has several aircraft I haven't seen before so I do like the lineup but if you've been to the show in the past what are your overall impressions? Worth a 1200 mile drive and planning a trip around? They have a photo pass option so I will likely get that if I do end up deciding to go.

Colorado Springs is in for a fun and gorgeous weekend. https://www.google.com/search?q=colorad ... e&ie=UTF-8

Made the trip out for the show and it was an enjoyable day - perfect weather aside from having a clear blue background all day! I only went on Saturday and I wish I could have gone on Sunday too - I think I had an off day on Saturday and would have liked a redo, and the hot ramp was only open for two hours after the gates opened which is where I was most interested in static shots so another couple hours Sunday would have been nice. It was open again at the end of the show but I had to get going to my next stop.

My highlights were the PBY (although the PBY and B-17 seemed to stay further away, had to max out my focal length for most of their passes), water drop demo, the P-47s, and the Apache static - I've never seen one in person before. The Chinook also had chaff and flares mounted, and I don't remember seeing that before. Not much down time between acts, I thought the pace was good.

The only disappointments for me were that the Super Guppy had to cancel - although that was announced well ahead of time so was not a surprise, and the P-38 didn't fly due to mechanical issues.

Couldn't find attendance numbers but despite "record breaking attendance" it never felt super crowded which was awesome (maybe because everybody was waiting in line all day to get in). In fact, it seemed like there were just enough people there that I always felt like I just had to wait for one more person to get out of the way to get a static shot...over and over (spent too long waiting for clean shots, which is one reason I didn't get many) vs. other shows where there were so many people you knew there was no chance so you work with what you've got and move along.

I got there right when parking opened, the check-in line for pre-purchased tickets was a bit long but moved quickly - had no issues with parking or getting in the gate, and getting out I would guess took me an hour or so. Based on Facebook comments though, it seems it was even more of a nightmare than you would expect for a show for those that arrived later in the morning and they ran out of parking before everyone could get in on Saturday.

The photo pass, for $100, was not worth it. Beverages and private bathrooms were nice but it was at show center and I think I could have got some better angles elsewhere. I had planned to stand along the fence anyway so having the bleachers in the photo pit didn't matter to me.

Overall it was a fun show and almost everything there was something that was new to me - I would consider going again if I could fit it in with a bigger trip and I would try to go both days next time.

Here are a few pictures, I'll add some more if there are any others that turn out once I get caught up from the summer.

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