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2022 Airshows 

Dayton Airshow Warbird Photo Review
Warbirds at Dayton Airport, Vandalia, OH - July 30-31, 2022 - Photos taken Sunday, July 31, 2022.

The Tora Group passes in review in front of airshow center at the Dayton Airshow.  The wall of fire ignites once they are clear of the area. 

The Tora Act was actually in the middle of the show, but I have chosen to feature it first.  The orientation of the shot indicates that I am located a considerable distance to the right of airshow center in the general admission seating area.  Airshow center was reserved for the sponsors of the event and those who wish to pay extra to be at airshow center.  As I arrived early, I could have located myself closer to airshow center, but I chose my location for a specific reason that will become obvious later.

The Dayton Airshow was not in my original 2022 airshow plans.  Earlier in the year, a good friend of mine offered me a Saturday Photo Pass that he knew he was not going to be able to use.  I looked at the airshow lineup and was not all that impressed with what was coming to the event.  I thanked my friend for the offer but declined.

Things change.  On Thursday, July 28, 2022, an email from another friend noted that the Blues were going to be at the Dayton Airshow.  A review of the schedule indicated that the event had added several military acts and fly-bys which were of most interest to me.  I was busy on the Saturday of the show and decided to go over on Sunday.  I am glad I did as I really enjoyed the event.  It was a great way to spend a day.

Originally, I was not going to do a report when I made my decision to go to the event.  However, the show impressed me enough to take the time to do one.  I no longer do a report on every show I go to, only those that are new to me or I think are worth the effort.  This year's Dayton Airshow is one of these.

Several other acts are not included in this report.  They are the Golden Knights, Kent Pietsch, Kevin Coleman, CareFlight Medical Helicopter, and the Blue Angels.

The airshow announcers, Rob Reider and Danny Clisham, did an excellent job of talking about the previous act and masking the fact that Tora! Tora! Tora! was approaching from the west.  I had to tell several photographers to my right who were busy talking that Tora was inbound.  Speaking of the airshow announcers, both were on their game on Sunday and were most informative.  I enjoyed listening to them and learned several new facts from them on Sunday.

On my trip over to Dayton from central Indiana, I could see dark cloud cover to the east where I was headed.  I was afraid it might be a gray day at the Dayton Airshow.  However, not long after arriving at the event, the skies cleared out and we had a mixture of blue skies and puffy white clouds making a perfect backdrop for aircraft photos. 

At the end of the fifteen minute routine, the Tora Group passes in review.  It has been several years since I have seen them, so I really enjoyed the routine.

This photo, taken at 9:02AM, is the line of spectators waiting ahead of me for the gates to open at 9:00AM.  I arrived at this location ten minutes earlier and found this line.  The line runs all the way up to the arch in the background.  This line should have started moving not long after this photo.  However, the airshow's WiFi was not working, so the airshow personnel at the gate could not scan tickets.  The problem did not get resolved until almost 9:30AM.  This location is more than half the distance from the parking lot and by the time the gates opened, the line was all the way back to the parking lot.  There was a considerable number of spectators that arrived early to see the show.

Note that several persons have umbrellas.  There was some very light rain in the area as I arrived.  The cloud cover that I drove under to get to the show can be seen except for clear skies in the west.  The clear skies moved which made for good weather at the show.

I think this is only the second time I have seen a de Havilland Vampire fly at an airshow.  The announcers did a great job of explaining this aircraft and its capabilities to the spectators.  A couple of facts I learned were that over 3,200 were built, and it was the first jet powered aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier.  One of its uses in combat was during the Suez Crisis of 1956.

The Vampire was armed with four 20mm cannons. 

The original airshow schedule listed the Vampire as flying after the F-15 Eagle.  While the Vampire is an impressive aircraft to watch and listen to, placing it after the newer and more capable, high performance F-15 would have been counterproductive.  The show changed the order and flew it before the Eagle act.  This was the perfect place for it.

The airshow's website listed that there was going to be an F-15 fly-by, which was sort of ambiguous.  I was thinking it would be one or two passes by a single F-15.   When I arrived and saw two F-15s from NAS Joint Base New Orleans sitting out in front of the crowd line, I knew that the fly-bys would be impressive.  There were multiple individual high speed passes by each aircraft followed by a tight formation pass.  The aircraft then left the airshow area and returned to New Orleans.

This was a unique helicopter routine.  Firstly, there is a Vietnam era AH-1 Cobra flying at the same time as a current Army AH-64 Apache.  Secondly, the two helicopters are flown by a father in the Cobra and his son in the Apache. 

Both helicopters did some maneuvering at airshow center.

I think this is a first for me, as I do not remember ever seeing an E-3 AWACs aircraft fly at an airshow.  If I have, it has been so long ago I can't remember it.  This was a Sunday only event so my pick of going this day enabled me to see it.

The E-3 gave us two nice low passes and then continued on to the west.  By this time of the day, the crowd had filled in the all of the general admission area.  Empty spaces of grass were becoming few and far between.

The last time I visited the Dayton Airshow was in 2017.  I came that year specifically to see the F-35 demonstration aircraft in its first year.  At that show, I sat to the east not far from where I sat this year.  That location allowed me to be right in front of the F-35 as it prepared for flight and its recovery afterwards.  This year I set up in front of the F-16 demonstration aircraft for the same reasons.

One of Captain Fiedler's ground crew assists her with her flight gear.

In all of the years I have been to airshows, I have not had the opportunity to watch a pilot climb the ladder to the cockpit.  The first step is a considerable distance from the ground. 

The Viper Demo is ready to taxi.

I like the F-16 demonstration as it is loud. The aircraft also turns around and gets back in front of the crowd in short order.  For this event, I did not take many photos of the demo so I could enjoy the flying without seeing it through the view finder of my camera.  However, I did take a few, of which several samples are shown here.  The three below are from the Heritage Flight.

Next up was the USMC CH-53 Super Stallion act.

As the CH-53 was moving to airshow center, the C-17 was taxiing out for its aerial demonstration. 

The F-16 was also coming back in after its flight.

The CH-53 went to airshow center and did the typical turn-arounds and sideways movements helicopters normally do at airshows.  In this case they were done by a really big helicopter.

It then flew backwards to its parking location behind the Blue Angels.

This is the shot I missed in March at the Naval Air Station Joint Base New Orleans.  I had left the crowd line at New Orleans as a civilian act was flying.  As I was walking back to my seat, this F-16 taxied by my seat location. 

The last act of the day for me was the C-17 Demonstration.  I had planned on watching the Blues, but with the huge crowd size and the two hour drive home, I once again left before their flight.  However, while walking back to the parking lot, the four-ship formation flew directly over me inbound for one of their early passes.  I also saw several other low flights in the parking lot, so all was not lost. 

Fighter pilots are well known for talking with their hands.  Captain Fiedler talked to her ground crew from the cockpit and used hand gestures to demonstrate what she was talking about.

There were several groups of visitors to the F-16 Demo aircraft during the day.  This included the little guy in the lower right-hand section of the photo.  He is talking with someone not in the photo, most likely his mother.  He appears to be gesturing at the aircraft and saying, "Mommy, do you think I can sit in the cockpit?"

Of course he can!

I had no idea I was going to take a photo like this when I located my chair in front of the F-16 Demo first thing in the morning.  As I consider this my best shot of the day, I will end my report of a very nice visit to the 2022 Dayton Airshow with this photo.