Saturday, August 25, 2012

Winston Salem Airshow - 2012

Well this year's W-S Airshow was a mixed bag. The weather for watching was spectacular. It was in the low 80's with a cool breeze. It made it one of the most pleasant afternoons ever for an air show. However, the wind was blowing 13 knots gusting to 20 knots about 70 degrees off the show line. As a result, most of the acrobatic parts of the performers routines were cut. So the afternoon was full of primarily flybys.
This year seemed to be notable by who wasn't here. The Aeroshell  Team, Team RV, and Honda Jet were absent.

The military did bring an EA6B Prowler, a C-130, and a P3C Orion as static displays, but there were no flying B-1's B-2's, F15's as in past years. It also seemed that the fly-in population was pretty light. Perhaps 20 planes at the outside.

The best part of going to the show was spending time with my daughter Madison, who loves encouraging my airplane geekness. She also loves the frozen lemonade!

One cool thing was that I had flown into Smith-Reynolds (KINT) on Thursday. I was able to see the grounds from the air. It gave me a better appreciation for the layout of the show.

I guess I was a little disappointed with the show overall this year. But it was still an airshow, and airshows are always worth seeing!