What’s Going On?

The Fleet Week 2009 Air Show in San Francisco this year was perhaps a slight disappointment from the many years that I’ve been attending. Before you you think that this was a total failure continue reading and I will explain everything. The Blue Angels are by far one of my all time favorite things to see every year and although some of the maneuvers are pretty much routine they always seem to keep me in awe. They are by far one of the most skilled men and women of our Armed Forces that are chosen to be a part of the Navy’s flight demonstration team. However, this year the weather put a damper on the show for Saturday and the Blue Angels had to put an end to their show fairly quickly and ugly conditions on Sunday prevented the Blue Angels to do any maneuvers up into the clouds.

First off, Thursday was a good and sunny day down at the Marina. The Blue Angels including their Hercules C-130 and a few other propeller planes took to the skies over San Francisco. The Blue Angels were doing their typical survey flights over the city to get a general feel of location for how the show will be for Saturday and Sunday. Also present for a little practice were three propeller planes including one bi-plane. The pilots of the four planes were Sean Tucker with Team Oracle, Melissa Pemberton with Melissa Aerobatics, Tim Weber with Geico, and Michael Wiskus with Lucas Oil Pitts. Also joining in a solo practice was Julie Clark with Chevron who has clocked in over 30,000 hours of accident free flying and Airship Ventures which flew a large blimp across the skies.

The next day on Friday, the air show was in full swing for a full complete practice with great sunny skies. The day was exceptional with just beautiful weather and the show was pretty amazing. Like Thursday all of the previously mentioned pilots took part in practice in addition to a couple more demonstrations by a United Airlines 747 and Gregory Colyer who flew the T-33. The great weather allowed for some great images and I am so thankful that I came to the practice on Friday because the next two days were gloomy.

Saturday was a partly cloudy sky with most of the clouds burning off as it passed Marina Green and to the east. Yes I attended on Saturday as well. I told you I love planes and jets, who doesn’t? Saturday is the first official day of the Fleet Week Air Show and boy was it exciting. Planes all over the skies and right over your head makes for one exhilarating day. The show included all the above pilots and planes plus a United States Coast Guard HH-65 helicopter which performed a diver rescue demonstration who dove and was retrieved from the water, the Patriots jet team, and with a couple surprises that were not on the schedule like two F-16s, four T-6A Texan II planes, and a C-17C Globemaster III cargo plane. Ending off the airshow were the Blue Angels which had to cut short their performance due to the fog rolling into the Bay. According to one of the pilots I spoke with the FAA would not allow them to fly without 3 miles of visibility. When I heard that I totally understood because the Blue Angels need pinpoint accuracy when flying at high speeds and all those crazy aero acrobatics.

Later Saturday night the Blue Angels held a “Meet and Greet” for about 45 minutes at Pier 39. There fans could meet up close and personal with the pilots of the F-18s, C-130, and the rest of the crew. I had a chance to get autographs with all of them and they too were happy to answer any questions about the Blue Angels or the Navy. This was the first time I had ever met the Blue Angels first hand and I thought it was a pretty cool experience. Following the “Meet and Greet” there was a live 80s cover band that played all the greatest hits named Fast Times at Pier 39 and further down the waterfront at Pier 3 there were fireworks presented by the Hornblower Cruises and Events.

Sunday was a gloomy day much far worse than Saturday, but the good thing about Sunday was that the air show still went on without a hitch. The show went on despite overcast clouds and light fog. Even more surprising is that the Blue Angels took to the skies with a modified program which made me happy. Still great maneuvers in the sky and some awesome pictures of a high speed low pass by from one of the F-18s that created a cool water vapor bubble effect. On Sunday I had a different vantage point from the other three days, I was at Aquatic Park which is a nice place to watch, but a horrible place to take pictures because of all the obstructions of buildings and boats that are in the harbor. Other than that it was a cool place to be with many people who clapped and gave a bunch of Ohs and Ahs.

Overall, I lied. The air show was great. The weather for the first half was great, but the remaining half the weather wasn’t cooperating at all. The planes and their pilots took to the air with an amazing show. Seeing the giant Airbus A380 was a great sight to see two years ago. I just can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year.

A selection of pictures from the San Francisco Fleet Week 2009 Air Show can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. Please feel free to leave me a comment below for the pictures and/or the posting.