Stuart Air Show

 I may be needing to change the name of my blog to "The Very North End of South Florida  - Guy" soon. That's right. Back in Stuart. I should have been painting my new house but decided to visit the Stuart Air Show instead. Excellent choice as it turns out.

I'm more familiar with the Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea show. I've never bought a ticket to it as I've had friends in the near vicinity and can usually find a viewing area relatively close.

I saw the Stuart show from a boat once but this time I thought I would get a little closer to the action. I didn't have time to get a discount ticket as I just heard about it on the radio on the way up so I paid $20.00 at the door. Once through the gate, I was pointed to a parking space right on the tarmac about 50 yards from the entrance. Good thing as I went back and forth to the car for my lawn chair and a fresh battery.

The show ground was huge and loaded with planes from military aviation history, stunt planes, and helicopters to a C-130. All accessible and plenty of personal on hand to ask questions and sometimes tell stories.

Some of the vintage planes looked like they just rolled off the showroom floor. After touring the C-130, the Electra passenger plane seemed like a miniature reproduction. Hard to imagine this plane was the luxury travel of the near past.

The shows started around 11:00 with a WWII weapons demonstration which escalated into an elaborately choreographed fire fight. The entertainment continued with no let up till the end of the air show around 5:30. A real bargain for the price of admission.




My favorite show of the day was the School Time Jet Bus. While the planes were loud, none of them shot a fifty foot flame out the back. When the announcer told the crowd this bus was going to race a stunt plane already in the air and traveling over 100 MPH it seemed like a pretty easy bet who was going to win. Wrong!! The bus travels at 300 MPH and left the plane in it's own smoke trail. Oops - did I give it away. Apparently I was the only one surprised. This is something you need to see to believe. From what I could tell, most of the crowd comes back year after year for this show. I know I will be joining them.