Gillespie Airshow 2005

The local wing of the Commemorative Air Force organize this show annually near San Diego, and there’s a nice selection of aircraft, which are displayed in various formations – Hellcat and Zero, Bearcat and Zero, Skyraider and Fennec. Here’s the Skyraider with a General Motors built FM-2 Wildcat painted up as a British Martlet:

The weather was great, but Julie Clark decided to fly a low show anyway:

Not sure whether she’s screaming in terror or whooping it up in delight:

The hills at the east end of the runway made a very photogenic background as planes like this O-1 Birddog landed.

It’s actually a very photogenic show, the light is good from the beginning and gets better and better as the day wears on. Only downside is the very limited amount of rope space after they shut down the ramp to let aircraft perform. The taxiways are very close to the crowd, someone standing near me decided to beat a quick retreat to avoid being hit by the wingtip of one of the planes going past, and the crowd was hit a couple of times by jet blast from some of the aircraft.

There was a nice little communist contingent at the show, including this AN-2 Colt (the only one I’ve ever seen flying outside of New Zealand):

The other Soviet aircraft consisted of the L29 Thunder Delfin jet display team, a solitary L39 Albatros and the highlight of the show for me, a MiG 21 “Fishbed”:

Of course, what sort of a southern California airshow would this be if I weren’t able to add yet another inadequate photo of the H-21 Shawnee to my ever-expanding collection?

Full highlights here:

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/Gillespie2005/Highlights/index.html

Richard.