Chattanooga Air Show
I took some time off from my moving yesterday to visit the Chattanooga Air Show. I saw some beautiful airplanes and fantastic flying demonstrations by the Air Force Thunderbirds and Patty Wagstaff. Good Lord, can that girl fly! I couldn’t get any decent still photos of Patty’s flying that would show what she does. I’ll just say that if you ever get the opportunity to see her fly, go. She makes an airplane do things that I would never imagine could be done.
The photo to the left is of the Thunderbirds doing their precision flying. The four F-16s in the diamond were making a fairly highspeed pass from one direction while the loan F-16 met them head on in a highspeed pass from the other direction. As you can see they were passing very, very close to one another in their pass.
General | Larry Burton | 20 May 2002 |
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By Rick Cord, 10/30/2005 @ 8:15 pm
I know that the proceeds for the air show at the Chattanooga Municipal Airport were supposedly going for a good cause. Actually it should have been advertised as a private viewing. I was highly disappointed with the setup of the viewing area of the flight line.
Our AFROTC classes came from Cherokee County Georgia. After seeing the aircraft on display, we bought lunch at the various vendors’ booths. As the show began, we realized quickly that we were not going to be able to see a great bit of the show. The cadets had paid good money to be at the air show, but they sat in groups playing cards. The VIP tents were so high that only the VIPs and a fraction of the people who paid to get into the air show could see the flight line. When we tried to get photos of the aircraft as they passed by, we had to snap the photo as the aircraft passed between the high peaks of the tents.
Whoever set up the plans to view the show had found the perfect way to have tens of thousands of people pay for a ticket and not know that they have been deceived until it was too late. The Cadets paid their money to get in and they paid for the food. For this, they could have at least gotten more than a show that they could have seen from any surrounding neighborhood.
The pilots did a fabulous job with their aircraft, from what we could see. I’m sure that they would be disappointed to know that the majority of the people who came to admire their work could not see a major part of it. I believe that others will disregard any future plans to see an air show in Chattanooga, as we will. The day definitely was not worth fourteen dollars, even if we would not have had to wait in the one and a half hour line to leave the airport.