Oregon International Airshow - Sept 28-30, 2018
I'll post thoughts from the show later, but just got to watch the two Luke F-16s blast off from PDX while waiting for my flight out!
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Ryan Sundheimer
www.AirshowStuff.com
www.AirshowStuff.com
Somebody do an airshow review please!
I take that back, Friday weather looked perfect, the weekend appeared a little gloomy..
The Tigers, where did those come from?!
I take that back, Friday weather looked perfect, the weekend appeared a little gloomy..
The Tigers, where did those come from?!
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- LAXSPOTTER97
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Here are a few quick edits I've gotten to.
Beautiful spot for a show, perfect lighting and gorgeous trees for a back drop. Good lineup even without the CF-18 demo. I was pretty frustrated that the weather went from all sun to overcast all weekend. I would have shot a lot more on Friday if I had known! It was also neat to see some aircraft and acts I don't get very often. The NORAD flybys stole the show. Appreciated the chance to meet some of the West Coast crew, even if it wasn't for long.
Rant warning - Unfortunately my biggest impression from the show came from one particular asshole who I didn't recognize but who obviosuly works for the show in some capacity. On Saturday, the HFF crew decided they wanted to pull Grumpy up to the fence by their tent, where we were already sitting. This entailed moving the fence line back before blocking it with a hulking B-25 in your face. Unfortunately they decided to do this AFTER the gates had opened and the crowd area had filled in. We had already claimed our spot on that fence for over an hour. HFF was at least nice about it and made clear that this is was last minute idea. They weren't sure it was even going to happen so all we could do was gamble that it didn't.
All of a sudden this guy marches over and yells that everyone needs to move. Not in a 'hey sorry to move you but we're changing the plans' kind of way, in a 'fuck you for trying to sit here' way. Airshows treating customers like crap is a major hot button issue for me, plus this meant that I now had nowhere to shoot from. I protested while packing up that this was stupid. My dad said something about there needs to be a plan.
This asshole puffs his chest up and demands to know who told my dad the plan. He tells everyone within yelling distance that HE WROTE THE PLAN. He insists that moving the fence was his plan all along; clearly not true. Then he notices one of our media credentials and demands to know how we got it even though that's completely beside the point. He threatens to have our credentials revoked and says he will talk to the media director about us and where we sat. I explained to him that we had been sitting in the normal crowd area for over an hour and gladly would have sat somewhere else if any single person had made clear that a plane was going there. We even talked to airport ops, and they said it would be closed for the rest of the day. Since this was done so late, we now had nowhere to sit to shoot photos (AKA do our jobs). He didn't care of course, and threatened a second time to have my credentials revoked.
There's no excuse for treating customers (both paying and media) like this. The airshow organization already has a reputation for being rude and difficult to work with, and this does nothing but reinforce that. I will say that almost everyone else I dealt with was nice or at least helpful. It is extremely unfortunate that one person spoiled so much. I don't know who he is, but he has no business being part of a public event.
We eventually squeezed in to the second row somewhere, but any atmosphere of the show was ruined. Due to this, the weather, and the option to see new things I decided to skip the show on Sunday and instead went to the museums in McMinnville and Tillamook, and explored the coast.
All in all, it was a great trip and I can't wait to post a video of my flight with the Snowbirds!
Beautiful spot for a show, perfect lighting and gorgeous trees for a back drop. Good lineup even without the CF-18 demo. I was pretty frustrated that the weather went from all sun to overcast all weekend. I would have shot a lot more on Friday if I had known! It was also neat to see some aircraft and acts I don't get very often. The NORAD flybys stole the show. Appreciated the chance to meet some of the West Coast crew, even if it wasn't for long.
Rant warning - Unfortunately my biggest impression from the show came from one particular asshole who I didn't recognize but who obviosuly works for the show in some capacity. On Saturday, the HFF crew decided they wanted to pull Grumpy up to the fence by their tent, where we were already sitting. This entailed moving the fence line back before blocking it with a hulking B-25 in your face. Unfortunately they decided to do this AFTER the gates had opened and the crowd area had filled in. We had already claimed our spot on that fence for over an hour. HFF was at least nice about it and made clear that this is was last minute idea. They weren't sure it was even going to happen so all we could do was gamble that it didn't.
All of a sudden this guy marches over and yells that everyone needs to move. Not in a 'hey sorry to move you but we're changing the plans' kind of way, in a 'fuck you for trying to sit here' way. Airshows treating customers like crap is a major hot button issue for me, plus this meant that I now had nowhere to shoot from. I protested while packing up that this was stupid. My dad said something about there needs to be a plan.
This asshole puffs his chest up and demands to know who told my dad the plan. He tells everyone within yelling distance that HE WROTE THE PLAN. He insists that moving the fence was his plan all along; clearly not true. Then he notices one of our media credentials and demands to know how we got it even though that's completely beside the point. He threatens to have our credentials revoked and says he will talk to the media director about us and where we sat. I explained to him that we had been sitting in the normal crowd area for over an hour and gladly would have sat somewhere else if any single person had made clear that a plane was going there. We even talked to airport ops, and they said it would be closed for the rest of the day. Since this was done so late, we now had nowhere to sit to shoot photos (AKA do our jobs). He didn't care of course, and threatened a second time to have my credentials revoked.
There's no excuse for treating customers (both paying and media) like this. The airshow organization already has a reputation for being rude and difficult to work with, and this does nothing but reinforce that. I will say that almost everyone else I dealt with was nice or at least helpful. It is extremely unfortunate that one person spoiled so much. I don't know who he is, but he has no business being part of a public event.
We eventually squeezed in to the second row somewhere, but any atmosphere of the show was ruined. Due to this, the weather, and the option to see new things I decided to skip the show on Sunday and instead went to the museums in McMinnville and Tillamook, and explored the coast.
All in all, it was a great trip and I can't wait to post a video of my flight with the Snowbirds!
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Last edited by RyanS on Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ryan Sundheimer
www.AirshowStuff.com
www.AirshowStuff.com
The F-22 was at Hillsboro last year in 2017 for a demo and a Heritage flight with a P-51D.Bokimon wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:07 pm Oregon does have some civil action too in the form of a D8-Q400 and a 737 from Alaska which is pretty nice to see!
No insider scoops sadly, just hopeful speculation. HIO will be combined with an overall Portland trip to do regular spotting and some tax free shopping ontop of this airshow. Facility itself, the lighting is perfect as the sun will be behind you in the peak afternoon/early eve and viewing is quite close at 150m to the rwy centerline and only 35m to the taxiway where the hot items always taxi by. You can feel the heat from their exhausts, especially when they spool it up..
Also you get to play with an F-15 minigun as the crew demonstrate how to quickly eat thru an entire belt full of ammo in mere seconds.
Commuting wise, it is the only airshow in the world where I can take the metro and walk 5mins from the stop to the main gates, no need for a car!
Therefore I have decided to pass on Cold Lake, F22 is nice but it no longer attracts that must visit pull on me anymore..
But if it comes to Oregon, I will book my tickets at once rather than waiting on a bit more like currently..
I got to post up some past airshow pics of this now that I found a proper forum to share this!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 434547783/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 434547783/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 434547783/
Last edited by rdenham on Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:43 am, edited 3 times in total.
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The weather on Saturday was not great at least we got some Hog vapor.
https://flic.kr/p/Pr3d4Y
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 637217742/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 637217742/
The whole reason I went to "Gowen Thunder" last year was the A-10, A-1 formations so having more opportunities to see these two birds together is wonderful.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 057905164/
https://flic.kr/p/Pr3d4Y
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 637217742/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 637217742/
The whole reason I went to "Gowen Thunder" last year was the A-10, A-1 formations so having more opportunities to see these two birds together is wonderful.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37153026@ ... 057905164/
Last edited by rdenham on Fri Oct 12, 2018 12:06 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Ryan Sundheimer
www.AirshowStuff.com
www.AirshowStuff.com
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Wow! What a great experience that must of been! Definitely a day to remember. Nice video of what all goes into their performances.
David
David
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