Gulf Coast Salute   Tyndall AFB   March 28-29, 2009

Photography and report by Rich Kolasa

1
2
3
4
5
  The final weekend of March brought a great airshow lineup to the Florida panhandle, but also some very challenging and dangerous weather for the Tyndall AFB crew. A severe weather system planted itself in the area mid-week and continued to circulate through mid-Saturday, interrupting arrivals and practices, even bringing tornado warnings and heavy downpours on both Friday and Saturday mornings.

 

  The Air Force and David Schultz Airshows’ people went so far to put safety first that Saturday’s gates opening was delayed to 1pm, quite rare for an airshow. As soon as minimums were reached, the F-15, F-22, and Blue Angels flew for the small but enthusiastic crowd. Skies cleared fully by sundown, leaving Sunday to be a nearly perfect airshow day. Moderate winds did force a few minor changes to the show line-up, but other than that it went off without a hitch.

 

  The airshow lineup was stellar, featuring the Sons of Legends (Kyle Franklin and Matt Younkin, and for this show new wingwalker Todd Green’s debut), Randy Ball in his Mig-17, Jerry “Jive” Kerby flying Fowler Cary’s “Vintage Thunderbird” T-33, the two-ship “Horsemen” P-51 acro routine (Jim Beasley Jr. was unable to get the third Mustang over from Kissimmee due to weather), ACC demos by the F-15C and F-22 (one of the last performances by the West Coast Eagle team from Eglin), some QF-4 fly-bys before a super 4-ship Heritage Flight led by Dan Friedkin in “Double Trouble II”, the Golden Knights, and of course the Blue Angels.

6
7
8
9
10
  As if that wasn’t enough of an airshow line-up, there was also Joey “Gordo” Sanders in his “Red Baron” Reno-racer SNJ, the “Pacific Prowler” B-25, a nice C-17 demo, Tim Weber in his Extra 300 (including a race with the Air Force Reserve Jet Dragster) and the “Sky Soldiers” four Cobra helicopter demonstration team.
11
12
13
14
15
  Static displays at Tyndall are a bit unusual, as the airshow tarmac takes up a fair amount of normal “sun shelter” area that protects base aircraft from the hot Florida sun. Because of this, many of the static aircraft were under cover in stalls, certainly not the best situation for photography, but good for avoiding sunburn. Of particular interest at this show were a pair of Alaska Air Guard F-16s (in the colorful “Aggressor” camouflage), a German Panavia Tornado, and of course some Tyndall F-15s and F-22s. There were also a pair of Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson, 3 CF-18s, a Super Hornet from China Lake, a couple of QF-4s, an AWACS E-3, an MC-130, MH-60 and MH-53, a Marines AH-1 Cobra, a T-1, a Randolph T-38, U-21, and a Canadian CT-142.

 

  The estimated crowd of 75,000 on Sunday was treated to a superb show. Brigadier General Darryl Roberson and his staff should be commended on the effort put into this event. Tyndall is a great place for a show, sitting just southeast of Panama City, Florida on the panhandle.

  Rumors are that the yearly one-day event became a two-day show this year in order to start an alternation with Tampa’s MacDill AFB to make for one yearly airshow in western Florida. I personally hope this isn’t the case, as I’d love to be back at Tyndall next year.