2006 Charlotte Airshow

Every year, there's a major airshow at the Charlotte County Airport. Charlotte County just to the north of Lee County (where we live), and the show is the largest in southwest Florida.

To get a good spot for my chair, I had to get there early. The published schedule says it starts at noon, so I got there at 11:00 AM, only to find that they had already started, and lots of people were already there. Anyhow, it was a perfect day, lots of sun and not a cloud in the sky. So, armed with lots of water, a high SPF sun block, and a beach chair, I was ready for 5 hours of aerial acrobatics.

You get pretty close to the planes at this show. Here you see one of the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team's AT-6 Texan planes taxiing by, and an Army F-18 taking off.

Every airshow has to have lots of smoke and formation flying...

... a daredevil wing-walker, who climbed from the biplane to a passing helicopter...
... and a simulated bombing run ...

... by a P-51 Mustang and an A-10 Warthog.

For the main attraction... the US Air Force's Thunderbirds.

After the show I walked around and looked at the static displays of historic (e.g. a C-54 cargo plane used in the Berlin Airlift) and modern aircraft. All in all it was an exciting day.