just got back from Va Beach Airshow. Another great event, it was 360˚ of living history. That includes overhead, as the museum's large collection of aircraft took off, buzzed overhead, and landed close enough to the camp that you could see the pilots face. (and to get a great picture) The motor noise buzzed and rumbled throughout the show. Its a noise that you can really feel in your chest and makes you wonder how intense the takeoff experience had to be for the deck crews on carriers. The museum even has a flying PBY, a elgantly beautiful aircraft which does not ever look as though it should stay aloft due to the slow speeds it seems to cruise at. Of course this ability is what made it a great ocean rescue and recon plane... but wow, its just unreal to watch.
Not all of the excitement was in the air. Our Allied War correspodent group was oddly placed in sort of a "battle of the Bulge" formation, surrounded on three sides by Axis reenactors. Upon discovering our perimeter, the German forces advanced upon us, armed with exotic and surprisingly tasty mixtures of Booze which caused heavy casualties the next morning.
The crowds were great and enthusiastic and the weather was good until the last afternoon when rains grounded the planes. We stayed a bit late to watch a german unit fire a few blank shells from the museum's '88 gun. Luckily for us, about that time the skies cleared up enough that a few planes went up again and we got sort of a "private show" when a Dauntless, and a P-51 each buzzed the airfield as we eagerly watched and soaked up the experience in the hopes that we could take it home with us.
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