"idiots at airshows" threads

[Tim Landers]

I’ve had several instances when that seemed to work against me. One time I was dang near arrested for not having the flight line credential in the right place on our courtesy car. A major point of contention was that I was in the “Air Force” and should know how to take orders.

Well, there’s the USAF and the CAF, me being in the latter. But I’m not in the habit of getting into arguments with LEOs!

Sounds like the Barney Fife of the airshow world

[Jack Frost]

Mid 50's at the Armed Forces Day display by our KC-97G at Lincoln AFB NE.

Civilian: Don't the wheels spin alot on takeoff from icy runways?

Me: Not when we put the chains on 'em.

Civilian: Oh, O K.

And then there's the opposite situation.

Years later I was sitting on the jumpseat of the Devil Dog PBJ at Milwaukee and answering questions as the paying tourers climbed up to look around. One middle aged fellow didn't want to sit in the pilot's seat but he just looked around and then stared at the entrance hatch hole. I told him that in flight if you pulled that red handle on the right side, the whole hatch would fall out and it became the bailout exit.

"Not very big, is it?" I said.

Quitely he replied "I went out that hole a couple times in the South Pacific and it's big enough." And then he crawled down the ladder and left.

[Cubs]

Years later I was sitting on the jumpseat of the Devil Dog PBJ at Milwaukee and answering questions as the paying tourers climbed up to look around. One middle aged fellow didn't want to sit in the pilot's seat but he just looked around and then stared at the entrance hatch hole. I told him that in flight if you pulled that red handle on the right side, the whole hatch would fall out and it became the bailout exit.

"Not very big, is it?" I said.

Quitely he replied "I went out that hole a couple times in the South Pacific and it's big enough." And then he crawled down the ladder and left.

I like airshow stories like that.

[Jack Cook]

I recall one time I flew with a friend in his P-51D to a show. We parked and were standing on the wing talking when a young lad of maybe 15 wearing a CAP uniform adorned with more ribbons than Audie Murphy directed us to get down from the a/c immediately. Somewhat intrigued by this we jumped down and faced off with our assialant who ordered us away from the aircraft and out of the area post haste. "Mustang Jim" just snickered at him then just started putting the plugs on the exhaust stacks. At this point our young Gestapo whatabee put hands on Jim and forcefully tried to move him. To this day I truly believe I stopped a killing
Only the airboss's well timed arrival withy a bag of cookies prevented our departure

[Jack Cook]

One show I was at I observed a older man and a young boy by a 4 engined Gary Austin maintained bomber type aircraft. I was a touching scene with the gentleman pointing out various aspects to the lad.
Until I got close enough to hear the older man say "That's right Joey, I have a lot of great memories flying the ol F1F1"

[EDowning]

Chico wrote:

You've completely missed the crowning question. The one that is asked at every airshow, big or small. Doesn't matter if the airshow is in New York City or Timbuktu. You will always hear:

"When are the Blue Angels going to get here?"

I've been to shows that have never had the Blue Angels. Been to shows that had the Thunderbirds the year before. They're almost like a curse. Once they do a show, people will ask about them for years to come. I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that every last person working thunder next year will hear that question a dozen times. I guess that just shows how popular they really are.

At the Matoon IL airshow this year, the weather was pretty overcast and crappy when we arrived. I parked the Skyraider next to an L-39 that some older guy, late 60s, from florida, had flown in. The L-39 has a paint job that looks like a Blue Angels plane. No sooner than I got the Spad shut down and got out, when some guy in bib overalls comes up and asks " are you two fellas the only Blue Angels that made it in"?

[CAPFlyer]

I recall one time I flew with a friend in his P-51D to a show. We parked and were standing on the wing talking when a young lad of maybe 15 wearing a CAP uniform adorned with more ribbons than Audie Murphy directed us to get down from the a/c immediately. Somewhat intrigued by this we jumped down and faced off with our assialant who ordered us away from the aircraft and out of the area post haste. "Mustang Jim" just snickered at him then just started putting the plugs on the exhaust stacks. At this point our young Gestapo whatabee put hands on Jim and forcefully tried to move him. To this day I truly believe I stopped a killing
Only the airboss's well timed arrival withy a bag of cookies prevented our departure

I do sincerely hope that the CAP member in question was summarily escorted from the airshow premises and shortly thereafter relieved of his chestful and membership.

I'm a member of CAP (4 years as a cadet and now 3 as a senior member), and one of the tenants of our orginization is - "To use no force or show of force in the execution of our duties." When that cadet laid hands on your friend, that was grounds for immediate expulsion from CAP. With us being mostly funded by the USAF, they're very strict on those kinds of things not only because of the liability issues, but because of the public relations disaster that would occur if it was a "normal" part of our duties to use force or a show of force when providing Flight Line security or Search and Rescue services.

I have worked multiple airshows with CAP as a cadet and been to several airshows where the CAP was a major part and I have seen both the good side and bad side of some of the Cadets and it's sad to see some of these promising kids end their involvement because they can't follow simple directions. What's worse? I'm currently having to see the bad reputation that CAP's gotten in North Texas because of several near misses at airshows and fly-ins where CAP was assigned marshalling duties where either the marshallers almost put planes together or where they didn't show up at all and others had to break from their duties to marshal aircraft.

I won't say that the CAP's perfect by any means, but I will say that by-and-large CAP is liked by most orginizers as they are more skilled and knowledgeable in aviation-related matters than the Boy Scouts or other service orginizations and they tend to be a bit more mature as well. There will always be those who take such responsibility to the extreme, but I think it's part of any orginization, especially one as large as CAP.

[Chris]

Almost all of my airshow experiences have been positive ones. I was Flight Mech on Sentimental Journey one year at Fredrick when a young boy maybe eight years old walked up to the Betty Grable nose art, looked up and slowly uttered Genital Journey. His mother turned six shades of red and wisked the boy away. Another time, a young boy who managed to evade his parents was hanging all over anything he could reach. Climbing on the main gear , doing chin ups on the tail guns etc. We chased him off a few times but he always came back and started asking questions. He asked what the little black tube hanging out the bottom of the tail gun position was for? Our opportunity for revenge had now come upon us. I told him that the tail gunner used it to blow up his seat cushion before he got in the plane. We walked away and sure enough, not thirty seconds later, he was on his hands and knees blowing into the relief tube for all he was worth. He even had the gall to tell us that it wasn't working properly. Touche'

[CAPFlyer]

On topic, I think the oddest thing that's happened to me so far at an airshow was my friend and I being asked for autographs by about a dozen kids while I was a CAP Cadet working an airshow. We were maybe 5 or 6 years older than these kids and they insisted as a group that we give them autographs. When we finally relented, we made sure to put notes for them to join CAP when they got old enough. Sure enough, I found out that some of the kids joined CAP a couple of years ago (they told my former squadron commander that they'd gotten an autograph from a couple of cadets at the airshow in question when they joined), so I guess that's a "proud" moment for me.

I know I've asked quite a few "dumb" questions in my early years too at airshows. Lord knows that Guy Joe Smith and the other guys at the DFW Wing put up with a lot of them years ago. I guess I'm about ready for payback since I hope to be more involved in this airshow season.

Last edited by CAPFlyer on Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Airlift48]

One show I was at I observed a older man and a young boy by a 4 engined Gary Austin maintained bomber type aircraft. I was a touching scene with the gentleman pointing out various aspects to the lad.
Until I got close enough to hear the older man say "That's right Joey, I have a lot of great memories flying the ol F1F1"

Ha. So, there we were, evening after a local show. Some spectators were still ingering about looking at the planes. All is quiet on the ramp, just the occasional GA airplane coming or going.

Here's the scene...Picture a man in his 30's walking with his 7 or 8 year old son, the son looking up to Dad in only the way a son could. Every word of Dad's is Gospel, and this Dad knew everything!

Standing under the C-54, arm on the boys shoulder, Dad points into the starboard main gear wheelwell and says,

"Son, this is where the put the bombs!"

Dey don' call it da Candy Bomber fer nuttin!

...and we trailered it in and reassembled it Friday night for the show on Sat.


So we are an airport relatively local to us, sharing the ramp with a certain well-known warbird.

A younger guy comes along, tours the C-54 and enthusiastically lumbers down the stairs with a grin from ear to ear!

"Man, this is one beautiful airplane! You guys do a wonderful job! Did you know my Uncle flew these during the war! He's coming out here tomorrow, hes going to be so happy to see it!"

"I only have one question".......here it comes........

Where's the tailgunners position, my Uncle was a tailgunner on one of these.....this is a B-17, right?

No...(Pointing to Aluminum Overcast now taxiing back to parking after a ride).....that is.......

You just have to smile.....

At least they showed enough interest to come out and see!

[Matt Gunsch]

my favorite thing to do at a airshow is to find a good looking girl who is there with her BF. If he is trying to show off by telling her all he thinks he know about the plane, I would listen in, he would always wander off and leave her alone for a few minutes, I would move in and correct all his mistakes. More than once I would hear her start correcting him, I wonder how many breakups I caused over the years.

If I found a kid hanging or crawling on the plane I would run them off, but if they came up and asked if they could see inside, they always got their wish, even if it meant letting alot of kids look inside, as long as they behaved themselves.

[mgeorge51]

Lots more here

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... &start=150

[mustangdriver]

At the NMUSAF the signs were put up for the B-2, but it was still over in paint, so there was a big open space with a sign for the B-2. When people would ask where it was, we would say "It's right there" One guy asked where it was, and I said that it was in the shop getting worked on prior to it's move over. He said, what is getting done to it. I replied that we were taking the hyper-jets out of it. He then said, " I knew that we had that technology, and then ran off!"
Then I once saw a woman demand to see our boss because Strawberry Bitch the B-24 offended her, and she wanted us to change the name to Strawberry Gal. She was kicked out! Then I found a 12 year old, who crossed the bars and was pounding, closed fist on the hull of the PBY. I told him, that if he hit it one more time, I was going to pound on him. THe dad of course acted offended and walked off.

[mgeorge51]

Lots more here

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... &start=150

[Jack Cook]

Thank you Mike! I'd forgotten about these!!!
One year at Arlington we had a guy climb up ino the left seat of the 25 and start pulling levers and switches.
When told to get the h*ll out he flatley stated that he paid his admissision and had the right and to back off.
Threats of *ss kicking convinced him otherwise.
Another incident had our crew chief chasing a kid down the ramp. Mouthing off to Larry is not a good idea
On and at Arlingtom they use the west runway has the main taxiway.
I remember one mommmy having her son run next to our taxing aircraft to get him on camera