2012 Airshows
Titusville (Tico), FL   Urbana, OH B-25 Gathering   B-25 Fly-Over at Doolittle Reunion, Dayton, OH   MCAS Cherry Point, NC   Shaw AFB, Sumter, SC   Whiteman AFB, Knob Noster, MO   Boeing Field, Seattle, WA   Kokomo Air Show, Kokomo, IN   CWH Airshow, Hamilton ON   Indianapolis Air Show, Greenfield, IN   Indianapolis Executive B-17 Texas Raiders   Thunder over Michigan, Belleville, MI   Gratiot Community Airshow, Alma, MI   Marion Fly-In/Drive-In, Marion, IN   Fort Wayne Air Show, Fort Wayne, IN   Waukegan, IL   Glendale Airport, Kokomo, IN   Indianapolis Regional Airport, IN   Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport, IN

Tico 2012 Warbird Airshow Photo Review
Warbirds at Space Coast Regional Airport, Titusville, FL - March 9-11, 2012  

Tico.  What else can one say or need to say?  The first warbird show of the year after winter without the sights, sounds and smells of warbirds performing in warm, sunny weather while the calendar still says it is winter.  While the weather in this year didn't quite live up to the expectations on a couple of the days, if one was at the event any of the three days they saw some great warbird flying.  This year the show was all about four B-25s.  Normally if you are lucky one B-25 will be at an event and it may not even fly if it is static only.  This year all four Mitchells flew all three days and with air boss Ralph Royce directing the highly experienced pilots that were flying the B-25 portion of the show was very memorable. 

The Tico show is about flying warbirds with a very small (thankfully) sprinkling of civilian aerobatics.  (But actually we need a couple of civilian aerobatic acts as that gives us time to go to the Porta-John.  One does not want to be inside a Porta-John when the warbirds are flying!)  So the Tico air show committee gets it right with lots of warbirds.  Not like many shows that have lots of civilian aerobatics with a warbird or two, or maybe none at all.  "Supporting" the great B-25 fly-bys was a cast of trainer fly-bys and formations, an F4U aerobatic demonstration, T-6 aerobatic demonstration, jet formation team aerobatic demonstration, T-33 demo, A-4 demo, along with P-51, P-40, AC-47,O-2, OV-1 all doing fly-bys and a UH-1 constantly flying as it was giving rides.  And this year, although not flying in the show, but flying rides before and after the event, was the world's only B-29, "Fifi".  Where else are you going to see something like this?  Not at most shows, unfortunately  What a way to start out the 2012 air show season!

First Flag jump of the year!!  Welcome to the 2012 Airshow Season!

"Spooky", the AC-47 from Topeka, KS was the jump ship and taxies back in.

Doug Matthews makes a great pass in his super looking T-33.

A Sky Soldiers Huey on final over Tom Reilly's B-25 "Killer B".  The Huey was giving rides all weekend.

Get Ready on the Hot Ramp!!  Here come the B-25s!

Panchito!

Barbie III!

Wild Cargo!

Killer B!

The B-25s put on a great show and kept the patterns tight to get back in front of the crowd as quickly as possible.  Here Panchito and Barbie III turn to get back to show center.

A true Warbird!!  John Fallis does a fly-by in his P-40N, serial number 42-105861 for the crowd.  42-105861 served with the 49th Fighter Group of the 5th Air Force in the South West Pacific from August 1943 until May 1944 when it was damaged and left to rot at the former fighter strip at Dumpu, Papua, New Guinea.  It came back to the US in 1974 and John purchased it for restoration in 1998.  We are glad he did.

John waves at the crowd as the P-51 flies overhead.

The CAF Corsair put on a fine Aerobatic demonstration all three days.

Dennis Labbe from Ft. Meyers takes off in his Cessna O-2A.

Dennis marked the target with his smoke for the T-28s that did simulated strafing and bombing runs.

Note that the camera can see the pilot, which also means the pilot has great visibility in the Mohawk to pick out targets on the ground.  The side canopies on the OV-1 actually let the pilot look down, something that Grumman introduced in its famous S2F Tracker.

This is the first time I have seen this OV-1 fly.

Joe Masessa taxies back in after several nice passes.  Note the side canopies that allow the pilot and observer to look down.


Count them as they taxi back in.  Nine T-28s were in the air at the same time.  Actually when they started up there were four B-25s in the air so for those of us that were down at the west end we could hear (17) Wright Cyclone engines all at the same time.  When the T-28s taxied in and shut down it became real quiet.

Gene McNeely inbound for a photo pass.

Another first for me.  A-4C 149606 rotates to begin the demo.

Skyhawk Ventures from Sanford, FL operates this great looking warbird.

Dale "Snort" Snodgrass, solo pilot of the Black Diamonds Aerobatic Team, doing what he is the master of.

The Black Diamonds were actually the Black Trio for the weekend.  Also missing was the Mig-17 for the solo.

Where did everyone go?  This is sort of like an old 1950's science fiction film where the population of a town disappears.  Here all the lawn chairs are deserted and no one is standing at the show line.  It turns out the B-29 was getting ready to crank and take some riders up Saturday morning.  All the spectators had to get back even though the B-29 was out on the taxi way and the prop wash would be parallel to the crowd line.  This was new to me.  When at Midland in 2010, I stood right next to it on engine crack with a lot of other enthusiasts.

Also new was the presence of real firemen as fire guards.  I have never seen this before.  But note that the B-29 crew member fire guard has the big extinguisher and the firemen look to have one small extinguisher among them.  I am not sure if the air show, fire department or CAF requested all of the extra precautions.  In any event they were not needed.  When at Midland I stood where the fire guard is when the B-29 was starting.

The B-29 was scheduled to give rides at 10 am and after the show at 5 pm each of the three days.  However, on Friday evening she taxied out, did the run-ups and then came back in due to weather moving in.  On Sunday when I came through the gate a 9 AM the ticket taker told me it was going up at 10.  I told him I thought that was probably optimistic because at that time the birds weren't necessarily walking, but they were probably discussing among themselves that it might become necessary.  Fifi did fly Sunday after the show as shown here in my last photo of the weekend.  On take-off the pilot asked tower if he could come around for a 1,000 foot fly-by down the main runway and was approved.  The area was still 90% clouds but I was able to catch Fifi in this patch of blue.  A great way to end the weekend!

Titusville (Tico), FL   Urbana, OH B-25 Gathering   B-25 Fly-Over at Doolittle Reunion, Dayton, OH   MCAS Cherry Point, NC   Shaw AFB, Sumter, SC   Whiteman AFB, Knob Noster, MO   Boeing Field, Seattle, WA   Kokomo Air Show, Kokomo, IN   CWH Airshow, Hamilton ON   Indianapolis Air Show, Greenfield, IN   Indianapolis Executive B-17 Texas Raiders   Thunder over Michigan, Belleville, MI   Gratiot Community Airshow, Alma, MI   Marion Fly-In/Drive-In, Marion, IN   Fort Wayne Air Show, Fort Wayne, IN   Waukegan, IL   Glendale Airport, Kokomo, IN   Indianapolis Regional Airport, IN   Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport, IN