So, this past Monday, the "Big Three" of North American teams released their 2008 show schedules.  This is enough for me to go ahead and start thinking about where I wanna go in 2008.  To a certain extent, I’m in a worse situation now than I was the last few years.  I moved here to Chattanooga about five months ago, and it’s not quite the central location for big shows that Raleigh was.  In Raleigh, I had Langley and Oceana both about three and a half hours away, Cherry Point about two hours away, and Seymour Johnson and Pope AFB/Fort Bragg within an hour.  Add in the on-again, off-again Coastal Carolina Airshow in Wilmington, (~2 hours) and I was in a good spot.  Not so much here. 

For 2008, I’ve decided that I want to bump my show attendance up.  This has been difficult in the past, when I worked a job that required I be there nearly every weekend.  I was able to swing two or three weekends off in a year, but that was about it.  This year, I expect to have left that place behind by the time show season rolls around.  I had hoped that Airshow Chattanooga would make an appearance this year, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case- at least they’re not showing up on the team dates so far.  But there is a good side- the Blue Angels have a show date in Smyrna, TN, a relatively short hour and a half from me.  That one’s definitely on the list.

Next up, I have something of a debt to repay.  Last year, I flew from my new Tennessee home to Virginia Beach for the Oceana show- completely worth the expenditure, I might add.  But wait, there’s more.  I have an acquaintance I know via online communication who lives in California, and is a fellow airshow fan and general aviation nut.  Well, somehow, I convinced him to fly out to Virginia Beach for Oceana as well.  So, this year, I’ve gotta pay him back with a visit to a big West Coast airshow.  Not quite sure yet what I wanna do for this.  The Blues will be at NAF El Centro as well as MCAS Miramar, the latter being sort of the west coast’s Oceana equivalent.  There’s also the Thunderbirds at March ARB, right around the corner from my friend’s little neck of the woods.  I think I’ll wait for more extensive schedules to come out before I make this decision.

Going back to Oceana for a bit… I’m going for that.  No question.  Always a great show, tons of heavy metal in the sky.  And then there’s Langley, over in that vicinity, too.  I’m gonna plan on flying out for that, too.  Not quite as impressive as Oceana in my experience, but it is home of the ACC and therefore home to lots of Air Force fighters.  Yeesh, now I’ve committed to three flying trips for shows for the year.  And finally, we’ve got the Thunderbirds at Dobbins ARB near Atlanta to cap off the year.  Oh, and after cruising down for the Great Georgia Airshow this past year, I expect I’ll journey down for that one as well.  And I almost forgot- the Tennessee Museum of Aviation at Knoxville hosts a couple of warbird fly-ins every year… and I do love some warbirds, especially the two P-47s and the TBM Avenger they’ve got up there.

So there we have it- still over two weeks from the new year, and I’m making plans for maybe seven(!) airshows.  I better start saving up some money for all this… and probably buy another SD card for the camera… and maybe a lens… jeez, it’s getting worse. 

2008 team schedules:  Blue Angels  Thunderbirds  Snowbirds

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