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2023 Airshows

Crossroads Airshow Photo Review
 Indianapolis Regional Airport - October 27, 2023 - Photos taken at the Practice Show Friday, October 27, 2023.

How to save $180 and still see the Crossroads Airshow's important flying acts.  

The Crossroads Airshow has brought the first airshow, along with the Blue Angels, back to the Indianapolis Regional Airport.  This is the first airshow at the airport since 2012 when the airport was previously called the Mt. Comfort Airport. I still call it by its previous name and I will use both names for the airport interchangeably in this report.  I first came to the Mt. Comfort Airport as the Warbird Chairman in 1982, when the Indiana Wing of the CAF put on its first of six airshows at this location, with its last show in 1988.  Two of these shows featured the Blue Angels that were then flying the A-4 and could land and operate out of the airport's 5,500 foot runway.  Once the Blues went to the F-18 the runway at Mt. Comfort was not long enough for them to land and operate at the airport.

I then joined the Indianapolis Air Show in 2001 where I served as the Warbird Chairman until it did its last show in 2012.  The Indianapolis Airshow had both the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels as performers during its run at Mt. Comfort, but the two jet teams had to operate remotely out of the Indianapolis International Airport due to the short 5,500 foot runway.

There was much excitement among airshow enthusiasts when on December 16, 2021, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced that the Blue Angels would be returning on October 28-29, 2023 to the Indianapolis Regional Airport with the newly created Crossroads Airshow.  There is no more of an auspicious start to one's event than to have the Governor of Indiana make the initial announcement.  Even more exciting for the local airshow enthusiast was the fact that the Indianapolis Airport Authority had added 500 feet to the runway which now allowed the Blues to operate locally at the airshow site.

However, several others, including myself, who had been with the previous airshows at Mt. Comfort Airport had some concerns about the event.  One was how the show was going to work around all of the expansion that had taken place at the airport over the past 40 years.  Another was weather, as the last weekend in October is really iffy for this area.  The third was parking.  The previous two organizations that had shows at Mt. Comfort had rented some of the surrounding farm fields on the airport property to use for parking.  Those fields were now all in crops and were not available.

Much of the excitement of the return of the Blues and the airshow to the Indianapolis Regional Airport dropped in late May when ticket prices were announced and the cost of parking one's car, truck, or van was set at $150!  This immediately brought out quite a bit of negative criticism on social media, to say the least. The show countered by noting that tickets only cost $10 per person.  So, if one carpooled and split the cost among the occupants, the cost wasn't all that bad.  In my case, I normally go to shows by myself, so it would cost me $150 for parking, $10 for admission, and then another $20 for the service charge of purchasing the ticket online.  All tickets had to be purchased in advance online.  This adds up to the $180 it would cost me to go.  No airshow is worth this amount of money to me.  In looking at the Crossroads Airshow website while writing this page, I found that if I waited until the end, I could have purchased a parking pass and three admission tickets for $87.  This is the first time I have seen a show cut ticket prices after charging full price to early buyers.  Normally, shows reward those who purchase tickets early with lower prices.

However, I knew on Friday there would be a practice show for the event when most of the acts would fly.  And on a Friday before a weekend airshow, the airport is still operating on a normal basis and open to the public.  My wife and I drove out and we parked in the volunteer parking lot.  While we couldn't get into the airshow grounds, that was ok.  We could see what we wanted to see from the parking lot.

We arrived a little after 1pm.  I had guessed the practice show would run between 1pm and 4pm, with the Blues flying at their normal time period at the show between 3 and 4 pm.  We didn't have long to wait until the F-16 Demo arrived at 1:30.  Our location in the parking lot put us just to the west of the airshow center.  Here, Capt. Aimee Fiedler makes her entrance to the show from behind the crowd line.  The 6,000 foot runway is too short for the F-16 to land, so it had to operate remotely from Indianapolis International Airport.  The Crossroads Airshow was not on the original schedule for the F-16 Demo, so this was a nice added attraction to the event.

As far away from the showline as I was, I could not really get any close-up photos.  But I was there to see what I could see.  The weather was obviously overcast, and Captain Fiedler did a low show.  While it was overcast, it was also 75 Degrees F out.  Practice day at the Crossroads Airshow was the last day of the warm weather.  The temperature dropped 20 degrees overnight and the weather for the weekend is only predicted to be in the mid-fifties with rain.  The airshow missed the good weather we had the previous week.

The Redline Team was next on the practice schedule. 

Some ground entertainment during the Redline practice was this group of airshow volunteers attempting to get this car freed from the ruts in which it was trapped.  It took them awhile, but they were successful.  Note the golf carts in the background.  There was always concern during the run of the Indianapolis Airshow that we had too many golf carts.  It was good to see that the new show also has a good number of them.

Dean Cutshall's high speed entrance in the F-100 from behind the crowd line almost caught me by surprise.  My wife warned me that he was inbound. 

The F-100 is also a remote act and staged out of its home base in Fort Wayne, IN. 

Kent Pietsch does a low pass during his aerobatic routine.  I have included this photo for those who are familiar with the previous airshows at Mr. Comfort.  The brick building is what is known as the power vault if I remember correctly.  It is located at the easterly end of the field.  During previous shows, this area was not filled with tents as is shown here.  The Crossroads Airshow had to condense the crowd area into a space less than one-half of what previous shows used.  This is due to the expansion of commercial flight operations located at the west end of the field.

Surprisingly, there was enough ceiling for the United States Special Operations Command Parachute Team to jump during the practice show.

The Para-Commando is landing at show center in front of the narrator's and air boss' stand.

Fat Albert makes a low pass from the east.  The static aircraft are parked on runway 16-34. 

There is an interesting situation in this photo.  On the right three Blue Angel aircraft are lined up to take off.  These include two aircraft from the four-ship formation section and a solo aircraft.  On the left are two aircraft that are not ready to go.  I had heard that once the Blues went to the Super Hornets they were having difficulties keeping them all operating at the same time.  I had not seen this previously as when the Blues or Thunderbirds get ready to fly, I leave to beat the traffic at the end of the shows.

Ready to go are numbers 1, 3, and 7.

Pulling up to Blue Angel number 6 is the maintenance truck.  The second number 7 will have to wait until 6 is repaired until it gets worked on. 

I find this counter productive to the mission of the Blue Angels, which is to showcase how good Naval Aviation is.  What they are telling the public is they can't keep their aircraft running.  It is my understanding that the Blues have some of the oldest Super Hornets in the Navy and this is the reason for the constant maintenance issues and downtime. 

The opposing solo pilot is flying Blue Angel number 4.  Here he is doing the slow roll on take-off.

This is the four-ship formation with only two aircraft.

Meanwhile, the maintenance team is working on getting Number 7 in the air.

Now the second number 7 is flying, and the four-ship has three aircraft in the formation, including two number 7 aircraft.

Meanwhile, back down at the east end of the field, the maintenance team has shifted over to the other Blue Angel that needs repair.

Success!!  All six Blue Angels.

There are some advantages to being out behind the show area, as the Blues do some re-maneuvering in the area. 

The sky has cleared and the sun has come out.  This will be the last sun we will see until Monday morning.

The two large tents are exhibitor tents.  These are set up on the taxi-way 16-34. 

Here are two military static displays on runway 16-34.

The seven food tents are also located on the taxiway.  There is another set of food tents on the west end of the viewing area.  Coolers are not allowed into this event.  This is a change from the previous shows at the airport where coolers were allowed. 

Number 6 is landing, and it is time for my wife and I to head to some Trunk or Treating with two of our granddaughters.  The sun came out at the end of the practice show and the weather was warm.  It was a good way to end the 2023 airshow season.