The good old days of airshows...

[Neal Nurmi]

Watching the muttering around the new Covid format airshows on the Thunder over Michigan thread got me thinking about how it once was. This is how it used to be done -- the audience got to be a bit closer...

click on image for larger version

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[Neal Nurmi]

Real original PSP, too...

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[Neal Nurmi]

Here's a young Steve Hinton (many years before there was a Junior), a mile and a half from downtown Fresno, California. This was Chandler Field -- a great place for an intimate warbird show. This was my introduction to Warbirds -- in 1974 and 1975.

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[C VEICH]

You could post photos like these all day long as far as I am concerned Neal! Fantastic stuff, thank you for sharing.

[Hooligan2]

You could post photos like these all day long as far as I am concerned Neal! Fantastic stuff, thank you for sharing.

Plus one for that!

[Neal Nurmi]

Thank you, Chad. I have a lot of this kind of stuff I've been scanning to digital, that I at least find quite fascinating to look at -- everything from planes and people no longer with us to the way spectators were dressed back in the 1970s (all those bellbottoms!). I thought there'd be some interest here, but have been discouraged by the lack of response. Is this stuff interesting and does anybody in the Covid era care about it?

So thanks for the comments, Chad

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[tulsaboy]

Neat! Don't be discouraged by the lack of comments! Most of us are just silently enjoying your photos. They provide a bright spot during what can regularly be not-so-bright days.
kevin

[MKD1966]

Thank you Neal and please keep posting the pictures Sir - I love it !!! Really like that color photo when the B-25 "Pacific Princess" was still in the tri-color navy scheme...
Mike

[Neal Nurmi]

I'll have to see what I have of that old color scheme. I remember being hugely disappointed years later when it turned up looking generically B-25. We're not the only ones who missed the tricolor scheme -- I talked to Carl Scholl years later and he complained that people were still whining about how much they preferred the blue bomber...

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[kalamazookid]

Awesome photos! My airshow experience doesn't go that far back but I do miss the environment of even 20 years ago. I can remember watching someone get blown over the propwash of a Bearcat, standing close enough to bombers that the wingtips passed over my head when they taxied by, feeling the power of R-2800s in my gut, and all of those other things that can only be experienced by close access to warbirds. At most shows now, the aircraft are sterilized on a hot ramp away from the crowd or they're towed out far enough that you don't get that experience. The shows that have maintained the close encounters are the ones most worth investing the time and effort to attend.

[phil65]

"The shows that have maintained the close encounters are the ones most worth investing the time and effort to attend."

Not many of those left, at Reno this year they wouldn't let us come out to the aircraft after the races like they've done in the past.

Phil

[Pogo]

Another vote for MORE, Neal! There's no such thing as too many airplane pix, and especially not airplane pix of this type ... even if I do cringe a little at the thought of myself in bell bottoms back in those days...

[Neal Nurmi]

This reminds me of a bunch of threads a few years ago on the general topic of "is this too low??".

This was Reno 1976 -- my first time ever.

For reference, that pylon with the people at the base is about 45 feet tall...

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[BigGrey]

Thank you and keep them coming Neal.
First airshow I ever went to was at Rialto Airport in CA and watched Bob Hoover and Art Scholl among other performers in about 1979. Started going to Chino in about 1980 and loved the shows at Minter Field in the 90's. One of my favorites was at Norton AFB where I got to see an SR-71 up close or I should say up to the rope around it near the Airmen with M-16's guarding it. Only chance I ever had to see it fly and see the shock diamonds as it took off.

[Neal Nurmi]

California had a number of great Warbird shows over those years. For me they started with two years at Chandler. That show moved to Madera for several years. There was a great show at Chino in 1979 (I think) called "The Gathering of Eagles". The Air Museum started their Chino shows shortly after that. Later came some excellent shows at Minter field north of Bakersfield.

At the same time the Air Force had great shows though with less flying all over Northern California. I remember attending shows at Hamilton AFB, Travis, McClellan, Beal, etc.

Then there was the racing -- Reno of course, but also Mojave twice, Miami, Moose Jaw up in Canada.

Most of all, it just seemed more like fun back then, rather than a big precious deal with million dollar exhibits that we can't even touch any more.

Lots of good times for a young airplane picture taker...


And don't forget that you get a better looking version by clicking on the image.

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