MCAS Yuma and Travis AFB shows, plus a bit of El Centro practice (pic heavy!)

[Roger_Over]

A family holiday was planned in California, and luck allowed it to begin and end with airshows. Yuma and El Centro were near each other and had airshows on the same Saturday, a coin toss meant we chose Yuma but still checked out El Centro on Friday afternoon for the Blue Angels practice display, as it was a team we’d never watched before.

MCAS Yuma airshow and Travis AFB Wings over Solano were both good shows in their own way, we had no trouble getting on or off base other than a delay getting in to Yuma due to the requirement for foreign nationals to go to a hangar to be quizzed, photographed and finger printed which meant no chance of getting around the statics early.

Yuma
Pros – Free show and parking, north facing, all military flying, interesting and varied static display. USMC F-5N flypasts!
Cons – Desert heat haze and harsh light make photography tricky, tactical demo felt a bit flat without the planned MV-22B and CH-53E but understandable given recent events, static was cluttered.

Travis
Pros – Free show and parking, excellent static selection fairly well laid out especially heavies, most if not all the remaining KC-10 fleet were present on static, flying, or parked on the ramps which was great for the farewell event, plus multiples of other based aircraft and a couple of anonymous KC-46’s both static and flying. The Parade of Heavies was nice to see but high, wings level and widely separated as expected.
Cons – South facing so difficult to watch the flying never mind photograph it.

Neither show offered an option for viewing departures, I’d have happily paid good money to watch from a north facing spot on base on Monday. Here’s a few snaps taken with a bridge camera to give a flavour of the shows if interested.

06 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

08 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

09 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

10 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

11 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

12 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

13 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

15 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

16 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

19 El C by Aquila427, on Flickr

20 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

21 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

22 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

25 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

26 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

27 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

29 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

31 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

32 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

33 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

34 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

35 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

39 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

41 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

42 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

43 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

44 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

45 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

46 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

47 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

49 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

53 Yuma by Aquila427, on Flickr

54 Travis by Aquila427, on Flickr

55 Travis by Aquila427, on Flickr

57 Travis by Aquila427, on Flickr

59 Travis by Aquila427, on Flickr

60 Travis by Aquila427, on Flickr

61 by Aquila427, on Flickr

62 by Aquila427, on Flickr

64 by Aquila427, on Flickr

65 by Aquila427, on Flickr

67 by Aquila427, on Flickr

69 by Aquila427, on Flickr

71 by Aquila427, on Flickr

72 by Aquila427, on Flickr

73 by Aquila427, on Flickr

74 by Aquila427, on Flickr

75 by Aquila427, on Flickr

76 by Aquila427, on Flickr

77 by Aquila427, on Flickr

78 by Aquila427, on Flickr

79 by Aquila427, on Flickr

81 by Aquila427, on Flickr

82 by Aquila427, on Flickr

83 by Aquila427, on Flickr

86 by Aquila427, on Flickr

87 by Aquila427, on Flickr

91 by Aquila427, on Flickr

92 by Aquila427, on Flickr

93 by Aquila427, on Flickr

94 by Aquila427, on Flickr

95 by Aquila427, on Flickr

Thanks for persevering!

[sylvancatharsis]

Nice overview. Particularly liking the Raptor flare shots from Travis; proves that shooting into the sun isn't always a bad thing! And those F-5s... \m/

[frank]

A Bridge camera you say, I am seriously impressed. Lovely shots

[Berf]

Some spectacular images there - thanks for the info

[Airwolfhound]

Some stunners in this lot, loving the F5s Thanks for posting

[Stagger2]

Really liking the variety here. 'Proper' US. Airshows are hard to come by after you've stripped away the entourage of Season-long performers. Yuma is great end to end. F-5 formation is

Given the orientation at Travis, these shots are really good & you seem to have that Bridge camera tamed! Shame the Hawkeye seemed to stay high, would've loved to see a topside of that!

[spellow3010]

You had a good trip there... We opted for El Centro in the end, and our trip included Travis show and finished Luke show. We were surprised at El Centro when the F-22 and P-38 did a heritage flight session for us. And then the F-22 did it's demo, though obviously without flares. We thought that was a bonus.

And yeah, we had the Foreign National kerfuffle at Yuma show last year. Really no need for it. We've all be processed getting into the USA at the airport, so what gives? USMC really seem to despise us. Imagine doing this to US citizens at Cosford! I would suggest RIAT too, but that's technically leased to the US.

No such foreign national stuff at El Centro - in fact, we were made to feel really welcome by everyone there. Thanks to NAFEC.

Travis, we just had to show our passport to a Federal Agent just inside the entrance gate. No problems.

Luke show - there was a Foreign Nation queue, but we were told that Canada and UK was just a 'flash the passport and go' situation. There were lots of other nationalities being escorted to a different 'questioning booth.' Hey-ho.

Anyway, a great haul of pictures. I'm looking forward to processing some of mine, especially the Raptor flares into the sun at Travis. An arty moment!

[Wes_Howes]

And yeah, we had the Foreign National kerfuffle at Yuma show last year.

It was the same at Iwakuni, must be a USMC thing.