This day was giving me serious flashbacks to Harrisburg. I woke up to 500' OVC ceilings and rain and was immediately hit with a feeling of regret for choosing to go to Martin State instead of attending the show the day before. On the way there it was raining nearly the whole time; however, it stopped once we got near the city. The constant mist was also a reminder of that cloudy day in central PA. 

From our parking spot we had about a 1.25 mile walk to our spot, and with a 20-pound backpack on my back, it wasn't exactly fun. Although not necessarily hard to carry, it was definitely slowing me down a little bit, although we actually made really good time walking rather than taking the bus. We got good seats about 15-20 feet from the fence. Unfortunately, as soon as we sat down it started raining again. It wasn't a hard rain, but we forgot the umbrella in the car. I am just glad my bag is waterproof.

Around 11:00 a CH-53 Super Stallion flew in from the southeast over the remnants of the Key Bridge. They flew around 7-8 passes over the crowd before leaving. Not long after, Coast Guard station Atlantic City brought their MH-65E Dolphin out for a SAR demo. Having seen the same station perform a SAR demo over the ocean 2 weeks prior, it wasn't quite as cool. Not to say those guys aren't absolutely awesome though. MD State Trooper 3, a Leonardo AW139 based out of Frederick flew their own rescue demo. They were flying a mock rescue of saving a person off of a sinking ship, which is something I had never seen before. A V22 Osprey was the last of the helicopters to fly, doing around 5 passes before heading back to Martin State.

12:00 came and went without any jets around, a discouraging sight to see with the weather as rough as it was. We could hear comms coming through from someone's scanner in front of us, and I could hear a PIREP (pilot report) of 1200' ceilings and 5 miles of visibility. This was enough for the Red Arrows to fly a flat show, and that is what they did. The Reds had the lowest show minimums out of any team there, being 700' ceilings and roughly 2.3-mile visibility. Their demo only lasted about 10 minutes and consisted of only flat passes by the crowd. 

The Patrouille De France were up next. With minimums of 1500' ceilings and 3-mile visibility, they were barely about to fly, but they got it done. With an entrance from behind the crowd, they put the colored smoke on, and the solos split off for their roll. Once back in formation, the team also performed only flat passes. They were able to fly the tornado maneuver, which was not before seen at either of their previous shows in the US. Towards the end, the team split into 2 diamonds, and one diamond headed straight back to Andrews, while the other diamond did one last pass before following the others.

Right after they turned back around is about the time when I opened my phone and went on Instagram, only to see that the Viper demo was cancelling their performance. This made no sense to me, as we had more than their required 1500' ceilings and double the required 3-mile visibility by that point. I can't speak for FEMA and there may have been something else that we didn't know about preventing him from flying, but it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. That is until the Blues showed up.

I was fortunate enough to get invited down to the fence and I was able to shoot a full demo with nobody in front of me for the first time ever. They were perfectly on time right at 2:30 and flew in from in front of the crowd. This performance made the whole day worth it for me. I am a huge fan of low and fast, and we saw a lot of that with this low show. The 85% humidity caused some insane vapor almost every time there was a hard pull. The first sneak pass was right over the water, almost exactly at the same altitude of the crowd. Then the second jet roars in from behind only a few seconds after at 95% the speed of sound.

The diamond keeps getting tighter with every show, and before we know it, they will be at "Yankee Set" (this is when the diamond is at the famous 18" apart). The echelon stack was perfect during this show, and so were the opposing passes. The minimum radius turn came out of nowhere, and the number 5 made a full cloud of vapor as he was pulling vertical after completing the turn.  

The last non flat maneuver of the show is the Delta Breakout. The delta formation flies directly toward the crowd and breaks into every direction. The number 4 jet, flown by Brandon Wilkins (Wobbly) is the fan favorite during this maneuver. He continues straight until he is almost right above the crowd at only a few hundred feet altitude, and pulls a 7G+ turn to the left with the burner fully lit. He then recorrects with a hard right pull to put himself in position to enter the delta again. I had seen videos of this on social media, and it was on my bucket list to experience this once before the year was over. Once the delta is back together, they will fly 1 more pass in front of the crowd, before returning back to their staging location.

Even though the weather may not have been perfect, this was a great show day and the crowd distance from some of the maneuvers was closer than you'll get at any show on a base. Thank you to the French and the British for coming over to help us celebrate 250 years of independence. I can't wait for fleet week to be back in 2028.