Blue Angels at El Centro - a very small crowd?

Clyde, what were they flying then - Panthers or Tigers? I would have
loved to see a Blues Panther show.

v/r
Gordon
PS, great bit of writing there - I think most of us could feel the
rocks under your feet.

Ed McKeller and Mr. Pieroni (probably butchering that) used to run a
large bus from our air museum out to El Centro to catch that show each
year. The best part of the excursion was the bus ride - we always had
at least a couple retired Blue Angel pilots on the bus, sharing stories
of flamed-out Panthers landing in the desert or sneaking up on boats on
lakes, things like that.

The show we went to was the day before the start of the official season
- and yes, it was generally referred to as the family airshow, since it
was primarily an invitation-only type show. Our bus had its own
bleachers (it pays to have Blue Angels on your museum board of
directors!). There were a couple occasions when it honestly appeared
that our group of 50+ made up the majority of the "crowd".

v/r
Gordon

I just saw them a few hours ago here at Mather AFB in Sacramento. First
official show of the season I heard. They did a fine job. Estimated crowd of
80,000 today, and about the same yesterday.

Best part for me though was seeing a p40 do fly by's. Too enamored with the
AVG I guess.

- Doug


wrote in message
oups.com...
Ed McKeller and Mr. Pieroni (probably butchering that) used to run a
large bus from our air museum out to El Centro to catch that show each
year. The best part of the excursion was the bus ride - we always had
at least a couple retired Blue Angel pilots on the bus, sharing stories
of flamed-out Panthers landing in the desert or sneaking up on boats on
lakes, things like that.

The show we went to was the day before the start of the official season
- and yes, it was generally referred to as the family airshow, since it
was primarily an invitation-only type show. Our bus had its own
bleachers (it pays to have Blue Angels on your museum board of
directors!). There were a couple occasions when it honestly appeared
that our group of 50+ made up the majority of the "crowd".

v/r
Gordon

"Mike Kanze" wrote in message
. ..
They call it "El Centro of nowhere" for a reason.

Sheesh, Mike........
It's only about dos cervezas from Yuma!!!!

Cheers.

Dos?

You must be a slow drinker. g

(No Yuma jokes - I promise.)

Cheers!

--
Mike Kanze

"Kind-hearted people might think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds this is a fallacy that must be exposed."

-- Karl von Clausewitz


"PosterBoy" wrote in message news:PxOTf.163232$sa3.76442@pd7tw1no...

"Mike Kanze" wrote in message
. ..
They call it "El Centro of nowhere" for a reason.

Sheesh, Mike........
It's only about dos cervezas from Yuma!!!!

Cheers.