Waukegan Airshow

[ChrisE]

This September 11, 2010, there will be the annual Waukegan Airshow.  Gates are open 10am, to 5pm.  The airshow portion itself is 1pm-3pm.  There will be numerous aircraft demonstration flights including a P51 mustang, the only single seat A4 left flying in the nation, an F-18 military demonstration flight, the L39 hopper flight, a well known and highly talented group of L39 jet fighter pilots who do formation flying, and much more.  This really will be a great event with some very unique planes.  Waukegan airport is home to the warbird heritage foundation, which will be flying several of their planes and having the others on display.  For more information on it, click here .  For more information on the Warbird Heritage Foundation, click here .  This great event is taking place just across the street from Bevier park, so why not get a round in, and watch some beautiful aircraft flying!  If you have any questions about the show let me know!

[pdga#7648]

should be pretty neat.
Peoria's air show starts today, endingh tomorrow. I'm here at work, watching them warm up I guess. But they are freaking loud and low!

[Jon Brakel]

I've been at Bevier in the morning the weekend of a Waukegan Air Show and have seen some of the stunt planes doing their warm-up runs. They usually don't do any stunts on those runs. I think they are just plotting their course and making sure that the plane is behaving normally.

The last air show that I went to a pilot died when she crashed her stunt plane into the runway. This was probably at least 10 years ago. It kind of turned me off of air shows for a while.

[ChrisE]

Hey all, just a reminder, the airshow is this Saturday, and really should be a great performance!  Sorry for the delayed response here, but as to the safety, they have improved greatly in the last 10 years and are now in a radar controlled area, making it much safer!  There are also regulations defining what the pilots can and cannot do, in order to plan for any emergency, and generally works out very well because of it!  So if anyone is around for the weekend, there are really a very unique set of aircraft there to see, some that cannot be seen flying anywhere else in the country!

[Jon Brakel]

Hey all, just a reminder, the airshow is this Saturday, and really should be a great performance!  Sorry for the delayed response here, but as to the safety, they have improved greatly in the last 10 years and are now in a radar controlled area, making it much safer!  There are also regulations defining what the pilots can and cannot do, in order to plan for any emergency, and generally works out very well because of it!  So if anyone is around for the weekend, there are really a very unique set of aircraft there to see, some that cannot be seen flying anywhere else in the country!

Airshows are safer than the drive to the air show! 

The crash that I saw was not at Waukegan. I think that air show was in Wisconsin some where. A friend of mine drove so I really don't remember where it was. It was really too windy for the low altitude stunt she was trying to do.

[ChrisE]

Ah yeah, that comes down to pilot judgment usually.  Things can happen, but as you said, your more likely to pass several accidents on the way there.  There are of course risks, as you will most likely see some pilots performing flight maneuvers that frankly would terrify most pilots.  These individuals perform stunts like flat spins, which, if any of you have seen the movie Top Gun, may recognize that as the problem that ended up killing Goose in the movie.  But when performed in special aircraft by well trained pilots, these are not as dangerous.  But absolutely thrilling to watch!