Up, Up & Away

The annual Miramar Air Show flies by this weekend

Parking at the MCAS Miramar air show was the first adventure. Guided by a burly private in camouflage and aviator glasses, we taxied down the airstrip designated for parking. He stood in front of my car, two fingers of each hand indicating to keep moving forward. As my bumper inched toward his shins, he kept signaling, his arms bending at the elbows, his fingers serving as mini air-traffic controller wands. When the front of my car was lined up perfectly with the fifty other cars in the row, he crossed his arms sternly in airfield language for STOP.

Families and school groups flooded the entrance to the air show. A line of people waited their turn to have the metal-detecting wand waved briskly over them. ROTC teens marched past in a column, swinging their arms inexpertly to the brusque “LEFT, RIGHT” of their officer.

Once on the tarmac, we were free to peruse the displayed military planes and helicopters. Aircraft ranging from a plane large enough to accommodate tanks to a helicopter that could realistically fit one small person were strewn on the tarmac. We ogled jets as sleek as sport cars and helicopters as lumpy as grasshoppers.

Booths advertising everything from Verizon to Cajun hush puppies lined two main walkways. A grandstand, from which spectators with their ears plugged watched the jets taking off and executing complicated maneuvers, was set up on the far side of the air field. The smell of barbeque wafted over our heads.

Every few minutes some kind of aircraft would roar through the sky above us and we’d look up to see a jet, its sound trailing behind it by a few seconds. Once we looked up as tiny people with rectangular parachutes drifted slowly toward the ground. Later, they dropped some kind of smoke bombs over the demonstration area during a combat simulation.

I was slightly overwhelmed by the sheer variety of activities. The grandstand, the jets roaring overhead, the food stands, the booths with information and souvenirs, the aircraft, the adorable kids with their faces painted in camouflage — all of these things competed for my attention as I moseyed through the show.

One of the main attractions is the touring Blue Angels, a Navy flight demonstration team that travels to different air shows showing off flight skills and formations. We didn’t stay long enough in the afternoon to see them fly, but we got to gawk at the half-dozen glossy blue planes lined up in anticipation of the show.

Combine the large number of sights with the size of the land on which they’re situated, and you’ve got yourself a very long walk if you want to see everything. The air show will make for a great family day – just be sure to bring the stroller and the sunscreen.

The 2008 MCAS Miramar Air Show runs through Sunday. miramarairshow.com.

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