Final season for A10 demonstration team - schedule enclosed

I'll be going to at least one, maybe three

I wish these were more local, these things are incredibly loud and impressive up close.  I had a group buzz my house in high school, and it sounded like a train was coming through the house!

Never thought of an A-10 as loud.  An F-35.... ouch.   Santa Maria might be doable for me.  Nice small airport, but with really limited parking.

Adding the link because I didn't see it. 👍

https://aerobaticteams.net/en/resources/i458/A-10C-Thunderbolt-Demonstration-Team-2024-Schedule.html

I suppose live brrrrrt demo isn't part of the show?

I used to live in South Carolina, near the NC border in the Sandhills. There would be military aircraft flying training regularly. 2 that I vividly remember. First was a dark night and I got out of my truck at a friends house. A plane (can't identify it because I never saw it) went by at near Mach speed on the deck. I never heard it coming, damn near E36 M3 my pants. Second was at the RC flying field. 3 A10's were flying around and they came over the field at barely over tree level. Some scary birds right there. Glad to not be on the receiving end of those. 

I was driving out to either southern California or Reno in 1985 or 86, and somewhere in Utah or Nevada, (hard to remember exactly) when while cresting some mountain on some desolate highway, I came across a bunch of cars pulled over at some valley outlook. Being the nosy curious guy I am, I also pulled over, parked, and got out to see what all of the fuss was about.

Flying over the valley at our eye level maybe a mile away where a T-33 (instructor) flying side by side in formation with an A-10 (student). They would fly along level and then suddenly dive down towards the valley floor, the A-10 letting his 30 mm gun rip off a few rounds and a few seconds later the depleted uranium bullets tore into a red and white tarp pinned to the valley below. A few seconds later, the sound of the gun would reach us at the top of the mountain. While still flying side by side next to each other, they would circle around, gain altitude, and repeat the exercise until the A-10 used up all of his bullets at which time he switched over to several missile attacks.

And before you new it, they where done and flew away. I got back into my car and continued on my merry way very much impressed with what I had just seen. 

Years ago we were setting up a July 4 pyro show on a barge in Commencement Bay and part of the festivities involved an A10 doing a simulated run on our barge. We had several 5" titanium salutes, just great big berkin' flashpowder bombs on the audience side of the barge and we had a walkytalky that the pilot could get on and tell us when to set em off. Well I tell you what, it was one HELL of a thing, even on a bright sunny day on the 4th of July with a crowd of happy folk on the beach, to have a freaking Warthog bank, and level down on you, even when you're fairly certain he's got no ammo and even though you're pretty sure that even if he did, he had no interest in lighting you up, It was still a HELL of a thing..

In reply to Jay_W :

Back when I did parcel delivery, my area was near an Air Force Base. We'd get flyovers and stuff and sometimes I would stop and look. One time I heard a roar over me, and I stopped and got out and watched an A-10 bank away from me, having approached from the side. Putting it together afterward, I believe the driver was doing a practice run on me. Big white vehicle, steady pace, flat open fields, nice easy target. 

Jay_W said:

I suppose live brrrrrt demo isn't part of the show?

I think the last time they did that, you had to be at the Bagram airshow.