Tinker AFB Air Show

[SoonerAviator]

I took the wife, kids, and my father down to OKC for the Tinker AFB air show yesterday which featured the Blue Angels, the Tora, Tora, Tora show, and the F-35 solo, as well as several other notable performers. The Tinker crew put on an outstanding event which was well organized and went smoothly. I haven't been to an air show like this in probably 2 decades, but my wife and children had never been to an airshow (pancake fly-ins sure, but no aerobatics going on). Can't say enough good things about how easy it was to navigate, and the Air Force app had great maps, ground display details, and lots of hands on stuff. I think the kids liked the Tora! show the most, with the F-35's constant action a close second. It was fun getting to expose them to that kind of aviation and hopefully put a small spark to what they are capable of. Wife was amazed as well and wished she had been taken to an air show like that when she was younger.

The Blue Angels were perfect, as expected, and it was my first time seeing them perform. I have seen the Air Force Thunderbirds before, and I've been to the NNAM and have seen the Blues on the ground, but never their show. Hat's off to them all, they are inspiring tens of thousands of kids (and adults) at every show.

 

[Sac Arrow]

The Blue Angels are awesome. But not perfect. They have had their incidents. I personally watched an A4 plow into the jungle after a long landing at an air show when I was a kid. It sort of stuck in my memory.

 

[SoonerAviator]

The Blue Angels are awesome. But not perfect. They have had their incidents. I personally watched an A4 plow into the jungle after a long landing at an air show when I was a kid. It sort of stuck in my memory.

Well, I meant put on a perfect show. I have seen several of the Blue Angel documentaries and the mishaps were certainly memorable. The story of going from the Grumman Tiger/Cougar to the F4 was pretty amazing, as well as the back-story of the A4 to F-18 transition.

The only thing that would have been better is to have the Blues routine about an hour earlier. It was 3:15p when they finally got the show going and it was 95F+ with CAVU skies, so everyone had been baking for hours and were starting to pack it in. We came well prepared with umbrellas and such, but many were absolutely roasting.

 

[RyanShort1]

Well, I meant put on a perfect show. I have seen several of the Blue Angel documentaries and the mishaps were certainly memorable. The story of going from the Grumman Tiger/Cougar to the F4 was pretty amazing, as well as the back-story of the A4 to F-18 transition.

The only thing that would have been better is to have the Blues routine about an hour earlier. It was 3:15p when they finally got the show going and it was 95F+ with CAVU skies, so everyone had been baking for hours and were starting to pack it in. We came well prepared with umbrellas and such, but many were absolutely roasting.

Yeah, I've never understood why the jet shows fly at the peak of the heat...

 

[SoonerAviator]

Yeah, I've never understood why the jet shows fly at the peak of the heat...

Well, I'm sure it's tough to get all of the acts in before a certain time, and they try to allow as many people to arrive as they can to see the show. They didn't open the gates until 8am (we arrived at 10am) and there was already a line about 100yds long through one of the entrance points. It took us about 30 minutes to get inside the gates to the event, but almost no delay getting there and parked. We were able to go look at the ground displays for an hour before we set up camp with the chairs/collapsible wagon/umbrellas.

It was fun getting the kids up next to the B-52 tires to show them the tires were taller than they were, lol. The B-2 is always cool to see up close as well.

They had pretty long lines to walk through a few displays like the E-3 Sentry which were air conditioned but it didn't seem worth it with the kids in tow.

 

[jrcox19]

Yeah, I've never understood why the jet shows fly at the peak of the heat...

The show promoters are convinced that if the big acts go first, everyone will leave immediately after. They probably aren't wrong.

 

[Mxfarm]

Well, I'm sure it's tough to get all of the acts in before a certain time, and they try to allow as many people to arrive as they can to see the show. They didn't open the gates until 8am (we arrived at 10am) and there was already a line about 100yds long through one of the entrance points. It took us about 30 minutes to get inside the gates to the event, but almost no delay getting there and parked. We were able to go look at the ground displays for an hour before we set up camp with the chairs/collapsible wagon/umbrellas.

It was fun getting the kids up next to the B-52 tires to show them the tires were taller than they were, lol. The B-2 is always cool to see up close as well.

They had pretty long lines to walk through a few displays like the E-3 Sentry which were air conditioned but it didn't seem worth it with the kids in tow.

Had a friend go down from KS, they arrived early, thought he said they waited 2.5 hours to get in. Sounded like they had a much larger turnout than they expected. BTW, he loved the F-35.

Marc

 

[SoonerAviator]

Had a friend go down from KS, they arrived early, thought he said they waited 2.5 hours to get in. Sounded like they had a much larger turnout than they expected. BTW, he loved the F-35.

Marc

I heard a lot reports about people having to wait a while to get in, but I'm assuming they either A) didn't show up until 11AM or afterwards, or B) came in on I-40 instead of I-240 which the air show directions specifically said to avoid because of heavy construction. I believe parking filled up around noon on both Saturday and Sunday with drop-off the only option after parking was full. While I would have loved to have gotten into the show at 8AM when gates opened, there wasn't a snowball's chance my wife and kids were getting on the road at 6AM from Tulsa, lol. Getting out of town at 8AM was about the best I could squeeze out of them. Next time they do an air show I bet I can get them up a little earlier, or convince them to go down the day before and stay the night in a hotel so that we can be there earlier without the drive.

We came in off of I-240 (South side of the AFB) and literally didn't hit traffic until going through the Tinker AFB gate. Probably less than 10 minutes to get parked from there.

 

[midwestpa24]

The show promoters are convinced that if the big acts go first, everyone will leave immediately after. They probably aren't wrong.

Well yeah, just like at a concert the prime performer performs at the end of the show, with the smaller opening acts before.