Do you like the combined drone and fireworks shows?

Do you like the combined drone and fireworks shows?

  • Total voters
    22
AV8R_87

AV8R_87

En-Route
Joined
Feb 1, 2024
Messages
3,628
Location
NE USA
Display Name
OC
Watching the night show at OSH made me realize that I find the drones pretty underwhelming, especially when mixed with the fireworks.
They could be a good show opener, before handing it over to the planes with fireworks and the big fireworks show.
The way they did it, it felt like watching a race with big block V8s and electric golf carts on the track at the same time.

So, what's the opinion of the community on this one? Yay or Nay?
 
“Because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you should.”

I guess gratuitous drones are probably more appropriate than gratuitous nudity for that venue.
 
They did the drone show at last years 4th of July celebration, a real snooze fest, I tell ya whut.

Lighted drones.?? Not for me. I need the bright flashes and window rattling booms.
 
wasn't at Airventure this year so can't comment about that one.
I thought the show I saw at the 2024 sun-n-fun was pretty awesome.
Since then I saw another drone/fireworks show without the airplanes... I thik it might have been at Downtown Disney...can't remember for sure. It was cool, but not awesome
I think that partially it was the newness of my first time seeing one that made it awesome.
Kinda like night airshows in general
 
I haven't seen one in person yet. But it seems to me that it is cool that they can do that and is interesting to watch for a short bit
But the actual entertainment value is low once once the newness wears off.
There probably are a few really creative artists that will figure out how to make it actually entertaining vs a cool technological display.

Mixing it with fireworks and/or aircraft has a bit of potential to enhance the fireworks/aircraft display, but the drones are more supporting that the actual show.

Brian
 
Wednesday was the first drone show I saw IRL, I liked it a lot. I thought it was tastefully combined with good pyro.
At that point in the show (the last 20ish mins or so when drones kicked off) planes have been shooting fireworks out and doing loops for an hour.
Cool, no doubt, but the drones and ground fireworks add a little something different. Good closer IMHO. I was there with 3 others who had never seen the night show and they loved it as well.

Plus I thought the prop "drawing" was pretty legit. Cool how they orchestrate the movement.
1753809590408.png
 
When I growing up, a fireworks show consisted of a shell going off about once a minute. Now, it's more like once a second. Those things are darned expensive. We are used to a non stop stream of shells going off. They have to do something to lengthen the show at a reduced cost. I think the drones are interesting, perhaps because they are for now, novel.
 
LesGawlik said:
When I growing up, a fireworks show consisted of a shell going off about once a minute. Now, it's more like once a second. Those things are darned expensive. We are used to a non stop stream of shells going off. They have to do something to lengthen the show at a reduced cost. I think the drones are interesting, perhaps because they are for now, novel.
Click to expand...
Reduced cost? 500 drones will buy you more than a few more bangs.
 
I like them. It adds a little something different after the looping planes/fireworks.
The drones look really good from the N40. I think it looked better from the N40 vs. watching it online Saturday night. Wondered how good it looked inside the gate but I doubt I'll ever know. I don't like people THAT much!
 
I think the drones can add a little bit to it, but they shouldn't be the main focus. The entire point is to replicate the explosions/sound of artillery. Hard to do that with a bunch of drone propellers spinning at mach-Jesus.
 
Salty said:
Reduced cost? 500 drones will buy you more than a few more bangs.
Click to expand...
The drones ought to be reusable, saving money over several shows. Unless one uses the fireworks as AAA on the drones (that might be interesting to see). The Chinese have some incredible drone displays. This one looks lame in comparison.
 
IMO last year's OSH show was much better than this year. I think perhaps the drone portion was reprogrammed at the last minute for the Rob Holland tribute. Those routines probably take time to design.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
The drones ought to be reusable, saving money over several shows. Unless one uses the fireworks as AAA on the drones (that might be interesting to see). The Chinese have some incredible drone displays. This one looks lame in comparison.
Click to expand...
They probably charged 100k for the drone part of the show. I'd argue that would probably buy enough ordinance to extend the show longer than the drones did. I think some people like the drones.
 
I saw it live on Wednesday night from show-center (my first attendance at OSH). This was the first time I saw a big drone show, and I thought it was well done and well integrated into the show. That being said, it was a novelty for me, so I imagine repeated viewing would lose the uniqueness of the experience. I thought the opening few aerial acts of the night show were not that interesting. The jet powered glider was impressive.

We also got incredibly lucky the Wed. night show even happened. The winds were pretty high until about 30 minutes before the show, and we just missed getting nailed by a big storm cell to the north.
 
I forgot about another fun part of real fireworks.

We were at a race one night and they had a fireworks show. The 3rd or 4th shell misfired and plopped into their box full of fireworks. The whole show went up in flames and the shells were flying everywhere, which most went outward, not up. Which also set the infield grass on fire, which caught the water truck on fire because it would not start.

The VFD would not get close because of the flying shells. The fireworks only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, and once the shells quit it took 20 or so minutes to get the water truck and grass out.

There were no injuries and no beer was spilled during the show.

And everyone had a good time. Well, except for the track owner, he did not have insurance on the water truck...
 
Ed Haywood said:
I always enjoy the Titans night show. Flying night formation aerobatics in a T-6 must be intense.
Click to expand...
The opening few acts were really during dusk - it wasn't that dark for the beginning of the show. I think that just wasn't what I was expecting for the "night" show at the start. I don't recall exactly when the Titans started.

I don't mean to diminish any of the acts. Aerobatics is intense, I've done just a tiny bit of aerobatics and formation (separately) myself to appreciate how hard it is. The guys and gals who do it truly "in the dark" are next-level.
 
In general, I think the drones are a good addition. Last year's show was absolutely incredible, and the drones were a big part of that. This year I thought lost a step. The ground fireworks to create smoke for the lasers was a waste IMO. I don't feel like the lasers added anything. Also, the dinosaurs seemed really out of place. I understand it's hard to come up with something novel, but Jurassic Park? OTOH, the Rob Holland tribute was really great.
 
Zeldman said:
I forgot about another fun part of real fireworks.

We were at a race one night and they had a fireworks show. The 3rd or 4th shell misfired and plopped into their box full of fireworks. The whole show went up in flames and the shells were flying everywhere, which most went outward, not up. Which also set the infield grass on fire, which caught the water truck on fire because it would not start.
Click to expand...
Some companies allow reloading mortar tubes during a show, but the fire codes are pretty strict about the shells waiting to be loaded being kept in a steel magazine to prevent exactly the scenario you describe.

The company I shot for (I was a crew chief for Pyrotechnico, my very cool one-day-a-year part-time job for 20 years) didn't like reloading. Neither do the pyrotecnicians. We were a one shell-one tube operation, no fireworks exposed to sparks once the show started. That's the best practice.
 
the last show I saw (the one at disney) I kept thinking about what it could be like in a few years.... throw enough drones up in the air and they'll be able to dispaly a really huge high definition movie. Imagine that...instead of Theater in the Woods, it's KOSH fly-in movie for everyone on the grounds!
 
My 6yo son loved it so I'd consider it successful if for no other reason.

I thought the drones were neat, I haven't seen anything like that before. A lot of the content definitely seemed geared towards kids IMO but again as someone who came with their 6yo that's not really a complaint.
 
Super unimpressed with drones. Seems like I am watching a computer algorithm as opposed to watching art.
 
AV8R_87 said:
Watching the night show at OSH made me realize that I find the drones pretty underwhelming, especially when mixed with the fireworks.
They could be a good show opener, before handing it over to the planes with fireworks and the big fireworks show.
The way they did it, it felt like watching a race with big block V8s and electric golf carts on the track at the same time.

So, what's the opinion of the community on this one? Yay or Nay?
Click to expand...
I like the combination of fireworks + drones + pyro + airplane with fireworks + lasers. A drone show alone would be incredibly lame, but the way they combine it with everything else is pretty cool still. They'll need to do lots of new things with them over the coming years or come 2030-2035 it'll be completely lame.

Zeldman said:
They did the drone show at last years 4th of July celebration, a real snooze fest, I tell ya whut.

Lighted drones.?? Not for me. I need the bright flashes and window rattling booms.
Click to expand...
Agreed, but putting them together is pretty cool.

ArrowFlyer86 said:
Plus I thought the prop "drawing" was pretty legit. Cool how they orchestrate the movement.
View attachment 143386
Click to expand...
Saturday night they had one drone at each blade tip on the prop that was throwing sparks.

baboss said:
I think it looked better from the N40 vs. watching it online Saturday night. Wondered how good it looked inside the gate but I doubt I'll ever know. I don't like people THAT much!
Click to expand...
It'd definitely be better live than online, as the 3D effect would be completely lost online. It's definitely better to make your way to the flight line, I watched Saturday from Relleumtdats and it wasn't as good. In particular, the eagle was much harder to discern that far off axis.

SoonerAviator said:
I think the drones can add a little bit to it, but they shouldn't be the main focus. The entire point is to replicate the explosions/sound of artillery. Hard to do that with a bunch of drone propellers spinning at mach-Jesus.
Click to expand...
I've never heard the props from the drones, as there's lots of fireworks and pyro and a plane still flying through most of it.

Ed Haywood said:
IMO last year's OSH show was much better than this year. I think perhaps the drone portion was reprogrammed at the last minute for the Rob Holland tribute. Those routines probably take time to design.
Click to expand...
Jim K said:
Last year's show was absolutely incredible, and the drones were a big part of that. This year I thought lost a step. The ground fireworks to create smoke for the lasers was a waste IMO. I don't feel like the lasers added anything.
Click to expand...
I do think last year was better overall. The lasers were... Meh. New and different I suppose but the effect was kind of lost with everything else going on and it seemed like they didn't really fit in with the rest of the show.

Jim K said:
Also, the dinosaurs seemed really out of place. I understand it's hard to come up with something novel, but Jurassic Park? OTOH, the Rob Holland tribute was really great.
Click to expand...
See, a lot of people I was with didn't realize that was Rob Holland's logo or that that was a tribute.

As far as the dinosaurs, well... We're dinosaurs, and we fly dinosaurs that we fuel up with dinosaurs so it might not be as out of place as you initially thought. :rofl:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
See, a lot of people I was with didn't realize that was Rob Holland's logo or that that was a tribute.
Click to expand...
Honestly, Wednesday night I didn't either. I don't follow acro, and though I knew the name and knew I had seen him do incredible stuff at osh, I was unfamiliar with the logo. At some point during the week I figured it out. Watching again Saturday, the logo, the song, the plane, the eagle... it was quite moving. Sadly I'm guessing 95% of the people who saw it had no idea
 
Fireworks, drones, planes, lasers AND big explosions. Kinda unique and cool.

5 flat engine unlimited monoplane aero routines in a row… oooph.
 
Salty said:
Reduced cost? 500 drones will buy you more than a few more bangs.
Click to expand...
If the company doing the display owns the drones, they can reuse them. So their cost is lower than fireworks. The cost to someone "buying" a show may not see the savings.
Salty said:
They probably charged 100k for the drone part of the show. I'd argue that would probably buy enough ordinance to extend the show longer than the drones did. I think some people like the drones.
Click to expand...
The cost may have been much lower.
This company starts at $15k per show (list price)
skyelementsdrones.com

How Much Do Drone Shows Cost

Review this ultimate guide to understand drone show pricing. Before you consider a drone show for your event its important to know how much they cost!
skyelementsdrones.com skyelementsdrones.com
$100k is only for a large show with thousands of drones.
 
GaryM said:
Some companies allow reloading mortar tubes during a show, but the fire codes are pretty strict about the shells waiting to be loaded being kept in a steel magazine to prevent exactly the scenario you describe.

The company I shot for (I was a crew chief for Pyrotechnico, my very cool one-day-a-year part-time job for 20 years) didn't like reloading. Neither do the pyrotecnicians. We were a one shell-one tube operation, no fireworks exposed to sparks once the show started. That's the best practice.
Click to expand...
This was about 35 years ago, in Texas, and the phrase ''Hold my beer while I light this'un'' was a popular phrase... and the shells were stored in a card board box next to the beer cooler.

Outdoor activities were much more fun in Texas before the liberals moved in...


 
Zeldman said:
Outdoor activities were much more fun in Texas before the liberals moved in...
Click to expand...
I suppose so, if "liberal" means a person taking measures to prevent this from happening:
Zeldman said:
I forgot about another fun part of real fireworks.

We were at a race one night and they had a fireworks show. The 3rd or 4th shell misfired and plopped into their box full of fireworks. The whole show went up in flames and the shells were flying everywhere, which most went outward, not up. Which also set the infield grass on fire, which caught the water truck on fire because it would not start.

The VFD would not get close because of the flying shells. The fireworks only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, and once the shells quit it took 20 or so minutes to get the water truck and grass out.
Click to expand...
People get away with things that are potentially dangerous to others, until they don't- there have been many aviation examples.
 
Last edited:
The first year I thought the drone show was pretty lame (it was). Last year it was pretty interesting when used alone. I think doing at the same time as fireworks, pyro, and the solo airplane, is targetted at the short attention span group. It's right up their with the assinine masters of destruction car/airplane thing they did a few years back (which was dangerous as hell because the car guys didn't give a **** about what they were doing).

This year I was out shooting photos (vintage in review) while they were setting up for the shows. Got to see where the fireworks and pyro were set up. All the drones needed to do is stay east of Taxiway A (aka runway 36R) and they'd be clear of it I'm pretty sure. The pyro was set up in the paved ditch between Papa and 36.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
People get away with things that are potentially dangerous to others, until they don't- there have been many aviation examples.
Click to expand...

Dad.?? :lol:

Just a little info...

I still have both eyes, and I put on clean underwear almost everyday in case I am in an accident, haven't run with scissors for a while and we took in a strange puppy last month that was starving, covered in ticks and fleas. Yes, we pet her before we gave her a tick and flea bath.

She is now well fed, de-wormed, had all her shots, full of energy, very playful, growing and gaining weight and looking for her forever home and humans.
 

Attachments

  • 20250619_153135.jpg
    20250619_153135.jpg
    2.1 MB · Views: 5
  • 20250720_174516.jpg
    20250720_174516.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 5
Zeldman said:
Dad.?? :lol:

Just a little info...

I still have both eyes, and I put on clean underwear almost everyday in case I am in an accident, haven't run with scissors for a while and we took in a strange puppy last month that was starving, covered in ticks and fleas. Yes, we pet her before we gave her a tick and flea bath.

She is now well fed, de-wormed, had all her shots, full of energy, very playful, growing and gaining weight and looking for her forever home and humans.
Click to expand...
If you don't consider those situations as a false equivalence to the incident below, that's fine by me.
Zeldman said:
We were at a race one night and they had a fireworks show. The 3rd or 4th shell misfired and plopped into their box full of fireworks. The whole show went up in flames and the shells were flying everywhere, which most went outward, not up. Which also set the infield grass on fire, which caught the water truck on fire because it would not start.

The VFD would not get close because of the flying shells. The fireworks only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, and once the shells quit it took 20 or so minutes to get the water truck and grass out.
Click to expand...
 
Saw the drone and fireworks show at Disney World a couple of years ago, was interesting at first but more from a technical curiosity of how it was programmed than anything else.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top