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2011 Air Shows

Selfridge ANGB Air Show, August 20-21, 2011

Location: Selfridge Air National Guard Base, near Detroit, MI.
Admission: FREE
Parking: FREE
Value: Excellent
Air Force Academy Wings of Blues Parachute Team
Selfridge Air National Guard Base is located just outside Detroit. This year it held its bi-annual airshow on August 20 and 21. It was a very busy weekend in the Motor City. The air show shared the weekend with a Nascar race and the 17 th Annual Woodward Dream Cruise with its classic cars, muscle cars and hot rods cruising down Woodward Avenue. Despite these other events, the air show attract thousands of spectators, the estimated number for Sunday was 75,000.
Selfridge has a long history. It was originally called Joy Aviation Field and in 1917 it became Selfridge Field, to honor the first military aviator to lose his life in an accident, 1 st Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge. Today it is an Air National Guard Base, the home of the 127 th Wing, flying A-10 Thunderbolt II and KC-135. It also houses a unit of the Michigan Army National Guard flying CH-47 Chinook and Coast Guard Air Station Detroit with its HH-65 Dolphins.
This year neither of the two US premier demonstration teams was scheduled to participate. Instead the F-22 Raptor was going to be the main attraction, but the entire Raptor fleet had been grounded since May and had not flown yet! Organizers were able to book the F-18 Super Hornet Demo team and several other top notch performers for show. There was a large contingency of civilian performers.
Warbirds were represented by Yankee Air Force Museum’s B-17, B-25 and C-47; Tuskegee Airmen Museum’s AT-6; Vlado Lenoch’s P-51D; a Vought F4U-5 Corsair; F-86F Sabre from the Warbird Heritage Foundation; Two L-39 Albatross.
On the civilian front there were air show favorites: Otto the Helicopter, John Mohr’s Yellow Peril Stearman and Todd Green airplane to helicopter transfer. Melissa Pemberton flew her Zivko Edge 540 around her husband, Rex Pemberton as he flew with his special wing suit until his parachute deployed, once he landed she went on to her solo routine. Steve Oliver also delighted the public with his Super Chipmunk – Skydancer act. Skip Stewart, Brett Hunter and the Third Strike Wingwalking also performed at the show.
Since A-10s are based at this air base, it afforded the public to see a 4-ship formation pass. Also the base’s KC-135 and HH-65 flew. The Dolphin also did a search and rescue demonstration. An F-16 from the Ohio Air National Guard did a couple of passes and the Air Force Academy Wings of Blues Parachute Team did a flag drop and their air show routine.
The show was cut short on Saturday due to inclement weather approaching the air base. Also Sunday ended up not being a full day, not because of the weather. Todd Green, an accomplished stuntman and wing walker fell 200 feet to the ground when he could not hold on to Otto the Helicopter skids on his third attempt to transfer himself from John Mohr’s Stearman to the helicopter without any harness or protection. This was a stunt that he had done successfully many times before, including Saturday. Unfortunately he succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. Our thoughts at AirShowsReview are with his family and friends.
This was a bad weekend for the air show circuit. Bryan Jensen crashed on Saturday at the Kansas City Aviation Expo and Jon Egging, a Red Arrows pilot, crashed also on Saturday at the Bournemouth Air Festival in England. Both pilots died.
The Selfridge Air Show is free for the public. Several food vendors and sanitary facilities were spread throughout the grounds. There were activities for children too. The crowd line is very far from the runaway requiring 300 to 600 lens to get good photos. I would like to thank Captain Penny Carroll from the 127 th Wing Public Affairs for her assistance during this weekend.
Aircraft/Performers Presented:
  • F-18 Super Hornet Demo team
  • Air Force Academy Wings of Blues Parachute Team
  • F-86F Sabre
  • A-10
  • KC-135
  • F-16
  • Coast Guard Air Station Detroit with its HH-65 Dolphins
  • F-18C -static
  • B-1B - static
  • B-52 - static
  • and many othere.
Rating: 8 out of 10
L-39 Albatross
Todd Green, an accomplished stuntman and wing walker fell 200 feet to the ground when he could not hold on to Otto the Helicopter skids on his third attempt to transfer himself from John Mohr’s Stearman to the helicopter without any harness or protection. This was a stunt that he had done successfully many times before, including Saturday. Unfortunately he succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. Our thoughts at AirShowsReview are with his family and friends.
Vlado Lenoch’s P-51D with the Vought F4U-5 Corsair
A-10 Thunderbolt II
Photography and report by Ricardo von Puttkammer for AIRSHOWSREVIEW LLC
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