Hachinohe Air Show

A few weeks ago there was an air show in Misawa. This ended up being a HUGE attraction, with thousands of Japanese spectators pouring on base to see airplanes, take pictures, and buy hamburgers and cakes from the Americans. But what a lot of people didn't know is that there was a pre-airshow the day before the big show. It was in Hachinohe, just about a half hour away from Misawa.

Chris and one other pilot from Misawa, Jesse, were "voluntold" to fly the F-16s to Hachinohe for the day. Jesse's wife, Laura, and I met them there with all kinds of squadron t-shirts, baseball caps, patches, keychains, etc.

The air show gates opened at nine. Laura and I were there a bit early and had to wait to enter. As we were standing around in our red, 13th FS t-shirts waiting to walk out to the flight line, we were stopped by a couple people asking if we knew the F-16 pilots that would be flying in, and whether or not there would be squadron goods for sale. By the time we got the squadron stuff out to the flight line, there was a crowd of people waiting to buy it. We had to scramble to set prices and get our yen organized for giving change. We were so unprepared...

There was little to no flying at this air show in Hachinohe... people mainly came out to see the planes, and get pictures, autographs, and souvenirs.

And let me tell you, the Japanese don't mess around when it comes to taking pictures!

This kid hung out all day... He kept returning to get more stuff signed.

Laura and I got to take lots of family photographs.

Chris and Jesse got to be celebrities.

Laura and I got to be celebrities by association.

Chris was so busy selling patches, and signing t-shirts, and posing for pictures, that we almost forgot to get our picture in front of the jet :).

Later that afternoon, they cleared the flight line so the jets could taxi and take off. All the spectators moved to the edge of the taxi way so Chris and Jesse had an audience as they performed their pre-flight checklists and prepared for take-off.

Another great example of how serious the Japanese are about their photography...

Chris, getting ready to go.

Check out that lens! Geez! There are F-16s starting up and I'm not even paying attention because I'm so distracted by these cannon-sized lenses!

Pulling the chocks! Now we're getting somewhere!

...and cue the rain. Just a couple minutes after I snapped this picture, it started pouring. We were told (by the Japanese spectators listening in on the radio chatter) that the weather in Misawa was terrible, and so the Japanese jets headed that way were aborting their take-off. Laura and I ran to get some umbrellas and returned to see our own fearless pilots taxiing to take off. Of course, the cameras were dry, in the car, so we have no pictures of that :).