OC Airshow 2022

It’s Airshow weekend here in ocean city MD. This year Mary and I will be attending with our friends Mike and Kim.  Mike B is mentioned all throughout my blog posts over the years. We agreed to split the costs for Flight Line beach box seats with lunch included. 

Thursday Night

Mike and Kim joined us for dinner at Sello's Italian Oven and Bar on Thursday night. The food and service was excellent, and the company even better.  

Friday

Everyone had plans for Friday. Mary and Kim spent a good part of the day shopping in Berlin and the outlets. Mike played a round of golf at the Ocean Pines course, and I tried to video Airshow practice.  

L-R Kim, Bev, Mary, Me, Frank, Mike

When the plans to attend the show were made Mary set up dinner for six at The Hobbit. We very much enjoyed meeting up and sharing meal time with our aviation friends and spouses. My bride and I met up with Frank (AirDorrin.com) and his bride Bev along with Mike and Kim. The food was excellent and the conversations and laughter filled the evening, definitely good times. I woke up Saturday sounding like froggy from our gang as a result of all the laughter during dinner.

Saturday Airshow

While most sun worshipers would have liked more sunshine yours truly was happy with the partly cloudy and sea breeze we were given by mother nature. 

Mike and Kim

Mike and Kim arrived ahead of us via bus or uber and gave us the parking pass. We decided to leave a bit later and make a stop at the airport to pick up my lightweight directors chair. Yes, the beach box seats had chairs but they are hard on my hip and back, so I brought my own. Traffic was backing up on RT50 but moving along. When we got into OC most of the traffic was headed to the inlet parking, we headed north to 17th street. 

The 17th street parking was full, not happy, but we were directed to 20th street, not so bad. Indeed 20th street had open spots and we ended up parking just five spots from the boardwalk. I grabbed my chair and Mary her beach bag and off we went, three blocks south. After some issues with the ticket reader we were sent to another access point and finally entered the beach flight line box seat area.

We were right on show center, great seats! Mary fixed me a plate of food, included with the Flight Line Club seats, and the four of us enjoyed lunch and settled in for the show.

First up were the Green Knights with the POW flag and then the Stars and Stripes landing show center with the national anthem playing. Yep, goosebumps galore, heck I have them now while typing this. 

The Aero L39 Albatros was first up and I could not believe how quiet that jet was. The performance provided multiple passes including inverted and different maneuvers.

The coast guard did a SAR demo including swimmers jumping out of the helo and then being recovered with the powered sling. The Demo team was on duty today but took time to take part in the show.

B25 at KOXB

The North American B-25 Mitchell, Panchito, based just north of Oceans City at Delaware Coastal made an appearance. Those radial engines sure sound nice as she flew multiple passes along the beach. The B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell.

Next up was the F18 Hornet "Rhino" based at Oceana NAS in Virginia Beach. The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine, supersonic, all-weather, carrier-capable, multirole combat jet, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft. What a great demo! When the F18 passed overhead it was so loud you could feel it in vibrate in your chest. Of course I had no hearing protection even though it was handed out when you came in the gate. What?

Next up was the Dover AFB C17 "Moose". The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas.

Michael Goulian in his Extra 330SC put on one hell of a show. The straight vertical climb, hanging it on the prop then doing multiple tail flips was just insane. I was getting dizzy just trying to video his performance. 

The Navy legacy flight did not perform nor did the SOCOM Para-Commandoes. I did capture some of the A10 four ship flight on video.

The main attraction, The Thunderbirds, were up next to close the show. They did not disappoint. The F16's screamed overhead west to east coming right over the hotels towards the show center box. 

The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force. The Thunderbirds are assigned to the 57th Wing, and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft. 

The Thunderbirds performed multiple formations and maneuvers to keep your attention focused while the two solo aircraft would sneak in behind the crowd and blast your ears with thunder. It was a very well planned and executed flight demonstration. 

We cleaned up our area and headed the very short distance to the boardwalk, followed by a three block walk to the SUV. The four of us decided on a light dinner and ice cream at Dumser's to close out the day.