As a young boy, my grandpa would take me to the Portland International Airport to look at airplanes. Sometimes, this meant actually going into the terminal to check out planes (because you could do that in the 80s!) and other times, we would park at the end of the runway and watch airplanes take off and land. This led to a lifelong fascination with airplanes for me, as we watched some incredible airplanes throughout the year, including the iconic Boeing 747, countless Boeing 737s, Boeing 727s, the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, and the Concorde even showed up once!
Fast forward a few decades, and I now live in Orange County, California. Each summer, Huntington Beach hosts the Pacific Airshow on a weekend in October. The skies are filled with some really fun planes, both military and civilian. Last weekend, the Pacific Airshow filled up the skies with these planes, and I was actually in town and able to go and check them out. I enjoyed a weekend of wandering around the beach and nearby areas with my eyes on the skies…and also my camera lens.
The highlight of the weekend for me was probably the arrival of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. I love the Thunderbirds, only second to the U.S. Navy Blue Angels (guess I should have gone to San Francisco this weekend for Fleet Week). They are beautiful to see in formation in the sky. They also do some incredible flying together that really is awesome. Despite the heat, every time I saw they were on the schedule, I found myself outside with a camera. This definitely did lead to a little more sun than I probably should have gotten. Oops! I took a ton of photos of these incredible airplanes. These are just a few that popped out at me while I was scrolling through my gallery.
The Thunderbirds weren’t the only stars of the shows, however. There were also some other incredible aircraft, both new and old. One highlight was getting to see a heritage flight with a P-38 Lightning flying alongside an F-22 Raptor. It really was incredible seeing these two planes flying together.
There were also some planes that, as a kid, I wouldn’t have imagined seeing in person. This included two different MiGs. One of these was a MiG-29 that was piloted by NASA Administrator Jared “Rook” Isaacman. That was a sentence I never expected to be able to write. It really was awesome seeing this plane streak across the sky and also knowing that it was the NASA Administrator doing that. For whatever reason, it reminded me of pilots like Chuck Yeager and those who were trailblazers for aviation, as we are trailblazing into a new era of space flight.
There wasn’t just one MiG, though. There were two! There was also a MiG-17 that flew with a beautiful T-33 Shooting Star. This was a historic moment that also showed the beauty of some of these iconic planes.
Speaking of NASA, several F-5s that were painted with Freedom 250 colors flew throughout the weekend. I believe one of these was also piloted by Isaacman. There was also an F-15 and an F/A-18 on hand to commemorate America’s 250th birthday.
And if ALL of that wasn’t enough, there were also other planes from different eras and countries that performed above the Pacific Ocean in Huntington Beach. Off the top of my head, this included aviators from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. I could point out each plane, but I think I’m just going to show my photos.
The weekend really was a lot of fun. While it was quite warm, it beats the alternative of this weekend, where there is supposed to be quite a lot of rain on Sunday, and it is cloudy today. This was a fun change of pace that was much more fun than I expected. My camera also had a blast. I’d love to get an even stronger lens, or maybe rent one, for the next time the airshow is in town!
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