OK, I know there have to be some great airshow road trip stories out there, I put the (American) in brackets because we need real road trip stories here (of a length over six hours drive time each way) or else it does’nt count…I know plenty of folks have driven far and wide to get to a show they just felt they HAD to be at and we want to hear of the adventures you had along the way….I’ll start things off with my trip to Phoenix for the Phoenix 500 air races back in 1996 when my co-driver was one DJ Price, nephew of David Price of Santa Monica fame, and the reason I took him (besides him wanting to go) was to hopefully introduce him to his more famous uncle…who I had met twice but he had never met…and unfortunately he did’nt meet him at this show, either. The drive was fine but about 100 miles N of Phoenix we discovered the heavy smell of oil coming from under the hood (we borrowed a Suzuki Samurai 4×4 from a friend of mine for the trip) and we checked under the hood and discovered that we had forgotten to put the oil cap back on when we checked and added oil at our last gas stop….so now there was oil on EVERYTHING under the hood…we stopped again and stuffed rags into the oil cap hole and made it into Phoenix and to a parts store and got a new oil cap and proceeded to a car wash to clean the engine off….the show was great, met up with several friends at the Races (pics to follow), met a certain assistant editor of ANOTHER British aviation magazine, took a ride in the Evergreen B-17 ‘Shady Lady’ (DJ wimped out, said his pancake breakfast from that morning was’nt sitting well)…funds unfortunately were coming up shoprt and if we wanted to make it back to Greeley we would’nt be able to motel it the last night so DJ crashed in the Samurai and I threw down on the ground with my sleeping bag and slept there, damn the rattlesnakes….when we departed back to Colorado, we had a certain Assistant Editor from that OTHER British aviation magazine wedged in the back of the Samurai and going back to Colorado with us (a photo of this situation exists, I just don’t recall where it is) and he jumped on a train for his next destination once in Greeley…we saw him next at the Corsair Gathering a few years later…all in all, a great trip and a lot of fun…..who’s next?
Mark
By: crazymainer - 4th March 2005 at 12:25
Mark,
Don’t have any road trips that are to exciting unless you count last years trip over to Geneseo with Ryan and Scott nothing exciting just target by the NY ANG F-16s. Not sure why something that Scott and Ryan had done a few weeks before going to Canada.
How about a six hour flight had a few of those :diablo:
RER
By: Snapper - 4th March 2005 at 07:17
Oh, and by the way, I doubt it’s a deliberate snub – but I went to bed at midnight and have just got up at 6:30. I have seen it now – I guess they’re sleeping…..
By: Snapper - 4th March 2005 at 07:16
6 hours is nothing. Duxford’s D-Day bash took that from the Red Lion to the gate…..
By: Corsair166b - 4th March 2005 at 06:08
Heck, if you’ve driven from the north of Scotland to the south of England, we want to hear about it (if it was a road trip for an airshow)….don’t be shy, folks, let’s hear about some of those European airshow road trips!
Mark
By: TimApNy - 4th March 2005 at 02:23
My guess is the 6 hour drive thing has limited the responses here. 6 hours can get you a long ways in the EU.
By: Corsair166b - 3rd March 2005 at 23:37
What, no other takers? Come on, you guys, I know there’s some good stories out there….!
M
By: TimApNy - 3rd March 2005 at 18:13
My wife Kelly and myself drove 13 hours to the Gathering of Corsairs in Indiana for Albany, NY. We were going to leave Friday night and show up in the morning for the show because Kelly had to work that Friday. Thursday she found out she could take it off so we left in the morning. The trip was pretty low key. Got some pictures of the F-84C along the highway in PA.
The next morning we get up bright and early so that we can be first in line when the gates open. When we arrived know one was there. I like to get there at lest 1 hour before the gates open. Indiana doesn’t do the Day light savings time thing; so we were about two and half hours early. Kelly was not a happy camper! Like I did that on purpose. So we drove out to get in line. We visited with others who did the same thing, One car load of people drove up from Missouri. The show was great, 7 Corsairs showed up, I hoped for more BUT there were 7 Corsairs. We stayed until dark taking pictures and just hanging out after all the Non-junkies left.
The next morning we got up early to drive to the Air Force museum. I figured we’d spent 2-3 hours there and take off for the 9-10 hour drive home. Was I wrong! 6 hours later we left. Kelly was about died and had long sense OD’d on looking at a/c. We drove in short shifts trying to stay wake as we drove, trying to sleep when we weren’t. I think we arrived home at 3 or 4 am. We’d been up for almost 24 hours.
Then there was the Yankee Air Force show in 2003. That was also fun, but only 10 hours. We stopped at Niagara Falls, the Air museum there; then through Canada to Willow Run. What a great show that was. They had a P-38, P-39, P-40, P-47, F6FF4U-5, F4U-1A, 4-B-17G. On the way home we stopped at the Canadian warplane Heritage. Took the tour. Then stopped at Knapp Vineyard for a tasting and dinner. Then drove the rest of the way home.
By: Corsair166b - 3rd March 2005 at 17:45
Some photos from that particular Phoenix trip, including chasing Sentimental Journey around the airshow circuit, DJ in front of ‘Voodoo Chile’, some of the ‘wildlife’ to be seen there, and the Evergreen Mustang and Corsair turning the pylons…
Mark
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March 3, 2005 at 5:19 pm