Afterburner.nl - MCAS Cherry Point Air Show 2005

	An air show the Marine Corps way On 7 and 8 May the 2005 version of the air show was held at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point (North Carolina). Since we were in the area, we didn’t want to miss this opportunity of course. We decided to be at the air show gate early. Early enough to be as one of the first on base. American air shows are known to be a photographers nightmare. Certainly when it comes to the static display, aircraft are parked all over the ramps and the crowd is allowed to get in front of-, behind-, under- and even in the displayed planes. Good for them of course but this makes it very difficult to get a few decent shots of the aircraft! The gates would open at 8 am, we were there at 7. So we were in early and after the security check we rushed towards the static ramp. To our surprise we did actually take some good static display pictures without crowd around. When we were ready with that we tried to find some good spots near the flying display line. These were found on a grandstand, which was accessible for only 5 dollar. Having settled at the grandstand the first aircraft for the flying display took the sky. For us not really interesting so we filled our time with discussing the static display. The official air show website announced the presence of many aircraft on our wish list. Although we saw a nice line up of aircraft, we missed a lot from the list. From the Navy there was no F-14, E-2, T-2, T-44 and TH-57. The air force presence lacked the B-1, B-52, AC-130 and T-38. Having dealt with this we noticed that the flying display was becoming more interesting now. A bare metal B-25 marked ‘Panchito’ was attracting our attention and an air force F-16 was taxiing towards the runway. It was the solo display bird from Shaw AFB. As we were setting up our photo gear for the flying display we realised that the sun wasn’t very cooperative. It was out there and becoming hot already but still producing backlight. A well educated guess learned that it may take quite a few hours before it would turn into the perfect position. Some things you just can’t control… After the F-16 landed, we were about to meet the American way of air show entertainment. A truck was making its way to the runway. Not just a truck, no it was one driven by jet engine! Stunning how the twin-engined Chevy accelerated and only just didn’t take off. This different kind of jet display was followed up by an air power display performed by the US Marine Corps. A Prowler crossed the field at about 1500 feet followed by two Hornets performing a recce run over the field. Afterwards two AV-8Bs caused some damage to hostile targets on the ground. When the area seemed pretty safe, six CH-46 helicopters brought in troops, protected by two Cobra helicopters and a UH-1N. When all the enemies were terminated, the troops were picked up again. The Hornets did another recce run while the Prowler and Harriers urgently needed a refuel. Fortunate for them there was a KC-130J in the area! The rotary wing aircraft returned to New River while the fixed wings landed at Cherry Point. One of the Hornets even showed off with a cable arrested landing. Good show USMC! The flying display continued with solo displays of a Harrier and an F-15 Eagle, an air force heritage formation (F-15, F-16 and F-86) and of course not to forget the Blue Angels and Fat Albert. Magnificent to see the Jet Assisted Take Off of the C-130 of the team!! Although the Blue Angels had to change one of their aircraft during the display they gave a stunning show. Due to the bad weather on the Friday before the show, the organisation cancelled the night show. They rescheduled it for Saturday night. We didn’t wait for that and left after the performance of the Blue Angels. In our humble opinion we think the organisation offered a great air show, although it lacked some highlights such as an air display of the Osprey. A big compliment goes out to everyone how turned this event into a great one! Red as a lobster we left the field.