Southern California Airshow at March Field 2023

ZenKusa · Post by **ZenKusa** » Sun Apr 23, 2023 1:58 am

Tangoringo wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 1:31 am Arrived on Heacock St at 8 am and like many others parked up on the West side of the road facing South. Gates opened promptly at 8.30 and was parked by 9.10. Good that base staff were turning away queue jumpers from the line.
I can only speak as a UK visitor in that the show was great, if a little frustrating. Some real star items in the static like the P of F collection, the Metrea 135, the SoCal Fire contingent and some nice special scheme fighter metal. However the flying just seemed a little frustrating. There were some great acts and flying but to give the P-38 just a couple of flypasts, no AR demos, and no F-86/Mig 15 display was a real shame. I didn’t see the point of launching those beautiful T-34’s to give them one flypast. At least the P-51’s got a few beat ups with the P-63 but again a shame the razor back p-51 and Wee Willy couldn’t join in too.
All in all still a really good day but with a hint of ‘what could have been’ in MHO.
PS also, why did they park Skidoo and the B-25 so far away on the apron. Such a waste!!
PPS Any ideas what happened to the Patriots? Fair play to them for carrying in a ship down after the a/c landed safely.

Had a pretty good day up at the museum myself, was sad that the Korean war birds didn't fly, and I was really confused why the Chino birds were flying so high today!
I heard that the KC-46 was on its way down from Arizona but had to turn back, and the F-16 that had on the hot ramp didn't fly either, also apparently the B-1 was supposed to do two passes and was NOT supposed to land, but it has some sort of issues, seemed like there was a lot of technical issues today unfortunately!

GRNDP51 · Post by **GRNDP51** » Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:14 am

Echoing the other comments here - a great show with a VERY good static lineup, but "what could've been" would've made this show an A+. Actually glad to hear that some of the drops were mechanical, especially the B-1. I haven't got to see a B-1 hot pass before and was really bummed. Also wanted to see the color F-16 go up. POF's demo was a joke and I was nervous this was some sort of fallout from the Dallas accident and "parade style" routines, but Palm Springs' Mustang demo was nice and aggressive so I guess that wasn't the case.

On the positives, the Palm Springs Mustang and Kingcobra demo was pretty solid. 'Man O' War' whistlin' and dropping in over the crowd was a nice treat. The Super Hornet demo and sneak pass after the Bearcat flyby was unexpected. F-35's did a great job on their USAF demo, although more passes would've been appreciated. Lastly, Thunderbirds sneak passes were killer. The show line seems a little further out than a lot of shows I've been too, but the sneaks were more than close enough to the crowd line!

Worth it for the hour drive up from San Diego, just a little hot...

Tangoringo · Post by **Tangoringo** » Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:50 am

GRNDP51 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:14 am Echoing the other comments here - a great show with a VERY good static lineup, but "what could've been" would've made this show an A+. Actually glad to hear that some of the drops were mechanical, especially the B-1. I haven't got to see a B-1 hot pass before and was really bummed. Also wanted to see the color F-16 go up. POF's demo was a joke and I was nervous this was some sort of fallout from the Dallas accident and "parade style" routines, but Palm Springs' Mustang demo was nice and aggressive so I guess that wasn't the case.

On the positives, the Palm Springs Mustang and Kingcobra demo was pretty solid. 'Man O' War' whistlin' and dropping in over the crowd was a nice treat. The Super Hornet demo and sneak pass after the Bearcat flyby was unexpected. F-35's did a great job on their USAF demo, although more passes would've been appreciated. Lastly, Thunderbirds sneak passes were killer. The show line seems a little further out than a lot of shows I've been too, but the sneaks were more than close enough to the crowd line!

Worth it for the hour drive up from San Diego, just a little hot...

Thanks for the info @ZenKusa . Must head over to the museum as I’ve heard it’s really good.
@GRNDP51 I must have followed you down I-15 as I’ve just got back to SD. Had the same thoughts about Dallas and the POF segment. Wonder if the Air Boss’ have gone a bit too cautious but then it’s easy to say when it’s not your neck on the line I suppose.
Like you guys have said, that and the techy gremlins just took the edge of slightly what could have been, as you describe, an A+ show.

PS and like Skidoo, the wild ducks F-16 was another one parked on the far side of the hot ramp and not easily visible. Dang.

ZenKusa · Post by **ZenKusa** » Sun Apr 23, 2023 4:02 am

Tangoringo wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:50 am
GRNDP51 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:14 am Echoing the other comments here - a great show with a VERY good static lineup, but "what could've been" would've made this show an A+. Actually glad to hear that some of the drops were mechanical, especially the B-1. I haven't got to see a B-1 hot pass before and was really bummed. Also wanted to see the color F-16 go up. POF's demo was a joke and I was nervous this was some sort of fallout from the Dallas accident and "parade style" routines, but Palm Springs' Mustang demo was nice and aggressive so I guess that wasn't the case.

On the positives, the Palm Springs Mustang and Kingcobra demo was pretty solid. 'Man O' War' whistlin' and dropping in over the crowd was a nice treat. The Super Hornet demo and sneak pass after the Bearcat flyby was unexpected. F-35's did a great job on their USAF demo, although more passes would've been appreciated. Lastly, Thunderbirds sneak passes were killer. The show line seems a little further out than a lot of shows I've been too, but the sneaks were more than close enough to the crowd line!

Worth it for the hour drive up from San Diego, just a little hot...
Thanks for the info @ZenKusa . Must head over to the museum as I’ve heard it’s really good.
@GRNDP51 I must have followed you down I-15 as I’ve just got back to SD. Had the same thoughts about Dallas and the POF segment. Wonder if the Air Boss’ have gone a bit too cautious but then it’s easy to say when it’s not your neck on the line I suppose.
Like you guys have said, that and the techy gremlins just took the edge of slightly what could have been, as you describe, an A+ show.

PS and like Skidoo, the wild ducks F-16 was another one parked on the far side of the hot ramp and not easily visible. Dang.

Its a little hard to photograph and the planes are usually pretty far away, but occasionally they go right over your head, and the lighting is fantastic!

GRNDP51 · Post by **GRNDP51** » Sun Apr 23, 2023 6:58 pm

Tangoringo wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:50 am Thanks for the info @ZenKusa . Must head over to the museum as I’ve heard it’s really good.
@GRNDP51 I must have followed you down I-15 as I’ve just got back to SD. Had the same thoughts about Dallas and the POF segment. Wonder if the Air Boss’ have gone a bit too cautious but then it’s easy to say when it’s not your neck on the line I suppose.
Like you guys have said, that and the techy gremlins just took the edge of slightly what could have been, as you describe, an A+ show.

PS and like Skidoo, the wild ducks F-16 was another one parked on the far side of the hot ramp and not easily visible. Dang.

Haha you were probably right with me on the freeway!

Barbara Jean just flew over my place in Mission Valley, tracking the flight it looks like Jim was doing some passes over La Jolla shores. First time I've seen him come West from Gillespie, wish I was at the beach!

Tangoringo · Post by **Tangoringo** » Thu Apr 27, 2023 9:12 am

When you arrive on base and the first a/c you see is one of the Metrea 135's you know its going to be a good day ( being from the UK....we dont get out much! ) and so it proved to be. After an absence of 5 years the March ARB hosted the Socal airshow last weekend with chance of being able to show off the vast majority of USAF/ANG assets as well as a good selection of the Chino Planes of Fame and Palm Springs Air Museum vintage fleets both on the ground and in the air. As a relative US airshow newbie the static display at March was one of the best I've attended with so many highlights its hard to pick a favourite. The special schemes of the 309FS Wild Ducks and 310FS Top Hats 80th anniversary F-16's based at nearby Luke AFB as well as the stunning 144th FW California ANG Stars and Stripes Eagle in the static ( the wild duck was supposed to be a flier but gremlins took away that opportunity and was parked at the far side of the hot ramp ) contrasted nicely with the largely grey home team heavies and similarly drab 'modern' fighter metal in the form of Alaskan F-22's, more F-35's than you can shake a stick at ( VMFAT 502 Flying Nightmares,VMFA 314 Black Nights and 308FS Emerald Knights ) and a Davis Monthan A-10. Other personal highlights included a selection of the SoCalFire fleet ( S-2T, OV-10A and S-60 ) an Edwards B-52, a stunning Chino based N3-N3 and of course the Planes of Fame P-38 Skidoo ( more on that later ). Pretty much the full range of US heavies were there considering the airlift/tanker roles of the local units with KC-10,135,46 as well as a flightline full of C-17's in addition to the aforementioned bombers.
As I said, the static could not be faulted albeit tricky to photograph when the heavies acted as particularly good sun shades on a day when the temps were in the 90's.
The flying display however ended up being....shall we say frustrating? On paper it was awesome with two AR demo's-KC-135 &C-17 and KC-46 with fighters, West Coast C-17 and Rhino teams, a fighter section ( old - Planes of Fame- and new - F-16,F-35x2 and A-10 ), a section called Mustang Mayhem as well as the more traditional acts such as the T-Birds, the Patriots, Vicky Benzings Stearman and aero's acts from Ed Hamill, John Collyer and Kent Pietsch ( Jelly Belly ).
While the flying was great, techy gremlins limited things somewhat with just a single flypast from the B-1 before landing, the Wild Ducks F-16 having a problem and not flying and one of the Patriots L-39's having to break off mid display for an unknown reason.
What was really confusing though was waste of some top items. The P Of F P-38 spent most of the old fighters section flying racetracks at 2000' and when it ( and its colleagues the P-40, razorback P-51A Mrs Virginia and bubble P-51D Wee Willy II ) did come down they did one flypast each at low level before breaking in to the circuit. A similar thing happened with the modern fighters with only the Marines F-35B getting a second go. If only each group had been allowed a formation flypast.....Maybe time was the issue but if that was the case don’t get me started on the T-birds prelim!!!
The only AR demo was in the form of a couple of flypasts by the local KC-135 with no other aircraft 'hooked up' or close by and the programmed F-86-Mig-15 demo stayed firmly earthbound in the static display for some reason too.
The mustang mayhem section, while good with the addition of the beautiful P-63 Kingcobra ‘Pretty Polly’, would have benefitted from the PofF duo joining them as it was just the duo of the Palm Springs Mustangs, Man o War and Bunny, along with the kingcobra.
That being said, I really am whingeing as the rest of the display was very good with the Rhino giving it the beans with Steve Hinton in the Bearcat and a very agile C-17 demo. One of my personal favourites though was a superb display by the Sky Sailing glider with the backdrop of the beautiful blue Californian sky.
Anyway, heres a selection of the ground based goodies for your delectation - nothing special just a record shot on a lowly iPhone....

SoCal Airshow ‘23 March ARB by Tangoringo, on Flickr