A Look Back: The Andrews 2019 Air Show Aircraft Lineup: Part 2

Editor: This is Part Two of a two-part article about the Joint Base Andrews facility, tenant units, and their latest air show in 2019.

The Andrews 2019 Air Show Aircraft Ramp Lineup:

Joint Base Andrews, in 2019 last summer, had a lot of airplanes. If you counted everything, both on the public Static Ramp and the Restricted Hot Ramp, where the flying planes were staging out of, there was a total of 99 airplanes on the ground at JBA. Lets just round it off and call it an even 100 airplanes. Since there was no “After Action Report”, what follows may be the only accurate list of EVERY PLANE that took part in the Andrews Air Show in 2019. OK, let’s just take a walk down the ramp, starting at the north end, where the busses are unloading the public. Don’t forget, there is no public parking at the Andrews Show. The public had to be bussed in from the Washington Redskins FedEx Parking Field, about 6 miles north of JBA. Coming in it’s good. But the return trip after the Blues finish, and you are really tired, and you are sooo thirsty, and you’re waiting an hour in line for a bus to get back to the FedEx Lot at 4 PM and it’s 90 degrees, well, that could be brutal.

So, you get off the bus at 0900 and the first thing you see are 16 UH-1N blue VIP Hueys of the 1st Helicopter Squadron on the far north edge of the ramp by the tree line. After you make it through the Bag Check and X-Ray Check at the security gates, the first plane you see close up is a big AMC C-5M Super Galaxy from the 60th AMW, 22nd Airlift Squadron out of Travis AFB, CA; next to it is a C-17A from the 436AW / 512AW-AFRC from Dover AFB, DE.; then a private UH-1 Huey in SEA colors warming up near the busses that’s getting ready to launch with some privileged shooters who will later photograph the Saturday morning ramp crowd from a low slow pass over the crowd line.

Walking further, we have a blue VIP UH-1N from the local 1st HS (Note: these Andrews Hueys will soon be replaced with 15 Boeing / Leonardo / Augusta-Westland MH-139A “Grey Wolf” VIP helos soon to arrive at JBA). Then we have a gloss grey T-38C Talon (soon to be replaced by the new Boeing / Saab T-7A “Red Hawk” advanced T-X Trainer) from the 509th BW / 509th FTS out of Whitman AFB, MO; Next a UH-1N Twin Huey from the 512th Rescue Squadron, 58th Sp Ops Wing, out of Kirtland AFB, NM, in a Vietnam color scheme; then another UH-1N Huey in a gloss grey from the USAF Flying Training Squadron, AETC, 59th Ops Gp, out of Ft. Rucker (yes, it’s an Army base), AL; next a civil 1966 Beech A23-24 “Mouseketeer Super III”, then a second 1967 Beech 23-24; then a 2017 Pipistrel DOO Ajdovscona “Virus” custom kit plane;

Then some real military planes: a white and orange T-45C Marine Goshawk from Navy Training Air Wing Two (TW-2) based aboard NAS Kingsville, TX; next, a F/A-18E Super Hornet from VFA-213 “Black Lions” out of Oceana; then an F/A-18D Hornet from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23) “Salty Dogs”, with “Strike Test” and “Don’t Tread On Me” logos and an “SD” tail code, out of Pax River; then a grey Sikorsky MH-60R from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron One (VX-1) “Pioneers”, also out of Pax; then a Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey from Marine Tilt Rotor Squadron VMM-263 “Thunder Chickens” out of MCAS New River, NC;

Then a Eurocoptor UH-72A Lakota from the US Navy Test Pilot School (actually on loan from the US Army) out of Pax; then a KC -135R tanker from the 459th ARW, the “Congressional Wing” from here at JBA; then a AC-130W Spectre Gunship from the 27th SOW / 16th SOS out of Cannon AFB, NM; next a Fairchild-Republic A-10C “Warthog” from the 177th WG / 104th FS, MD-ANG, “MD” tail code, out of Warfield ANGB, Martin State Airport, Middle River, MD, near Baltimore; then an F-15C Viper from the 104th FW, MA-ANG, out of Barnes ANGB, MA;

Next, a Northrop-Grumman E-8C “Joint STARS” from the 461st Air Control Wing (461ACW) and the 116ACW, GA-ANG, a joint unit, out of out of Robins AFB, GA; next a KC-10A Extender tanker from the 60th Air Mobility Wing (60AMW) and the AFRC 349th AMW, an associate unit of the 60AMW, out of Travis AFB, CA (Note: the 60AMW is the largest Air Mobility organization in the USAF with KC-10A’s, C-17A’s and C-5M’s).

The US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) was here with a 1966 Lockheed P-3B Orion Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft, a unit of their Air and Marine Operations (AMO) and is a Long Range Tracker (LRT) used for tracking air and sea smuggling, drug and immigration violators. The P-3’s work out of Jacksonville and Corpus Christi; next a CBP 2012 American Airbus Eurocopter AS350-B3 “A-Star” Light Enforcement Helicopter from Manassas, VA; then a USCBP all-weather 41 foot high speed Interceptor Class “”Safe Boat”; next a small squadron of USAF Civil Air Patrol SAR planes — a CAP C-172S “Skyhawk”; a CAP 2005 Cessna C-206H “Stationaire”; a CAP 1986 Cessna 182R “Skylane”; a CAP 8-passenger Australian Gippsland GA-8; a CAP 2001 Maule MT-7-235 “Super Rocket” that looks just like a C-172, but isn’t; a large CAP Cessna 182T “Skylane”; and finally for the “CAP Air Force” here today, a CAP large toy Thunderbird replica F-16 Viper that the kids could sit in and peddle around.

Nearby was a UH-72A Lakota helo and a militarized Eurocopter EC-145, both from Alpha Company, 1st of the 224th, DC-Army-NG, out of Ft. Belvoir, VA, that are used for training, MedEvac and surveillance; then a UH-60 Lima (L) Black Hawk from Golf Company (G), 3rd of the 126th, DC- Army-NG, also out of Ft. Belvoir, VA, Davison Army Airfield, used for General Support Aviation (GSA) in the DC area (Interesting Fact — Ft. Belvor is a gigantic local Army base with 58,000 personnel and civilian workers making it nearly twice the size of the Pentagon in staff population); next a DC-ANG C-40C (Boeing 737-700C BBJ) from the 201st Airlift Squadron / 113th Wing, out of JBA; next a Fast Mover from the DC-ANG, 113th FW, 121st FS, “Capital Guardians”, an F-16C Viper fighter jet;

Next a total contrast – a 1944 Douglas DC-3 done up as a C-47 Skytrain with “That’s All Brother” and “3X” nose art from the Commemorative Air Force (CAF), Central Texas Wing, based at the American Airpower Heritage Museum in San Marcos (Dallas) Texas; then a 1956 North American T-28C Trojan, also out of Texas, all done up as a Navy trainer in white and day-glo orange of VT-5 with “USS Lexington” logo; then another real Warbird, a 1945 Grumman TBM-3E Avenger owned by the American Airpower Heritage Museum, the CAF “Ghost Squadron”, based at Culpepper, VA, done up in BT-13 colors; next the 1941 Boeing B-17F Bomber “The Movie Memphis Belle” from the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo, NY; also out of Culpepper, VA, an olive drab CAF 1943 Stinson L-5 Sentinel liaison aircraft “Gayle Ann”.

Walking a little further down the ramp, we had a 1955 Fuji LM-2 out of Culpepper, VA, a liaison aircraft built in Japan under license to Beechcraft for the “Japanese Home Ground Defense Force” that was similar in design to the Beech T-34 but with four seats; next the Douglas C-54 / R5D Skymaster “Spirit of Freedom” owned by the Berlin Airlift Historic Association” out of Toms River, NJ; finally some classic Heavy Metal, a 1960 B-52H “BUFF”, tail code “LA”, from the 96th Bomb Squadron out of Barksdale AFB, AL; then a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UCAV from the 432nd Wing, 732nd Ops Gp, 17th Attack Squadron (17ATKS), from Creech AFB, NV; next, a 1945 Chance-Vought F4U-4 Corsair with a “416” nose from Jim Torbul’s Airshows, named “Korean War Hero”, that actually served VF-884 on board the USS Boxer (CV-21) with nose “416” and later as nose “308” with VF-664 aboard the USS Valley Forge, and is now home with Joe and Jim Torbul since 1981 in Pittsburgh.

THE HOT RAMP:

All the planes that took to the air on Saturday were staging out of the restricted Hot Ramp on the other side of the wire. Some were close to the wire and you could see them clearly. Others were were set back and were far on the other side of the airport on their home ramps like the F-16 Vipers from the 113th FW, DC-ANG. Here’s what we could see and sort of figure out:

At 0930, walking in, in a bright morning sun, from the bus Drop Off, at the north end of the ramp, we had the 16 blue and white VIP UH-1N Huey’s from the JBA, 1st Helicopter Squadron, all lined up by the edge of the grass with four turning warming up for the morning launch to start the show; then a DC-ANG UH-72A Lakota holding Hot; then another UH -1N Huey Photo Ship helo also holding hot, actually all close to the incoming busses. It was kind of cool when the Huey 4-ship launched in trail with their distinctive “whoop-whoop-whoop” rotor noise on the low lift off right near the busses. It was like a scene right out of “Apocalypse Now”. Later, with the Huey 4-ship low pass over the crowd to start the show, they even played “Ride of the Valkyries” from the movie. This will all be over soon with the arrival of the new Leonardo MH-139A “Grey Wolf’s inbound and soon to arrive at JBA with their super quiet engines.

The Hot Ramp also had the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels together for the first time anywhere in quite a while, with their support planes and their number 7 and 8 announcer and media planes, all hidden away someplace. Also hiding on their own ramps across the field were the four demo F-16C Vipers from the 113th Wing, DC-ANG, and the KC-135R demo tanker from the AFRC 459th ARW. The US Army also had their new jump plane hidden away – the C-147A, a DeHavilland DHC-8, 315 series, that replaced the jump team’s old Fokker C-31A, which had reached the end of its life cycle and hours. Remarkably, both planes kind of look the same. The A-10 Demo Team with their two A-10C “Warthogs” from the 355th Wing, 355th OG, 354th Fighter Squadron, out of Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, AZ, were also on the Hot Ramp and fairly close to the wire. The Hot Ramp also had the Stunt Planes — 69 year old Patty Wagstaff was here with her black Extra 300S single seat monoplane; then there was Michael Goulian with his 2009 Extra 330SC now done up for 2019 and 2020 in a gold, black and chrome color scheme with a big yellow “WAT” across the entire wing top for “Whelen Aerospace Technologies”, his new sponsor; then Sean D. Tucker and Ms. Jessy Panzer, a 2-plane demo team called “Team Oracle”, with Panzer flying a monoplane Extra 300L and Tucker in his modified Challenger III Pitts Special biplane, both painted in their recognizable Oracle bright orange (2019 was the last season for Ticker’s Challenger III, after which it will be in a display place of honor in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC; and then there was the “Jelly Belly” plane (it’s really the name of his candy sponsor), also on the Hot Ramp, sort of a stunt plane, with Kent Pietsch flying his 1942 and 800 pound little yellow Interstate Cadet, a WW2 Army L-6 liaison plane that looks like a Piper J-3 Cub, but isn’t. (An L-6 Factoid — An Interstate Cadet, just like Jelly Belly, flown by Hawaiian female aviator instructor Cornelia Fort with a student pilot, was one of the first planes (if not the first plane) to be attacked by IJNAS Japanese naval planes en route to the Pearl Harbor attack on the morning of December 7th, 1941.)

The Hot Ramp also had Warbirds: the 1944 B-25J Mitchell bomber “Panchito” down from the Delaware Aviation Museum (An interesting fact for you New Yorker’s: In August 1954, this same aircraft was transferred to the New York Air National Guard and was stationed at the “Westchester County Air Force Base” near White Plains. Here she was used by the 2nd Radar Calibration Flight to test and train airborne radar systems for the local Air Defense Command fighters. In April of 1955 she left HPN to go to Birmingham, Alabama, to be converted to a TB-25N and then sent to the 115th FS, CA-ANG, for proficiency ratings training. There were also three Mustangs on the Hot Ramp: the first was the 1945 North American P-51D Mustang “Quick Silver” flown by Scott Yoke, a highly polished gloss metal bird with a black nose and invasion stripes; the second was the 1944 P-51D Mustang “Bald Eagle”, flown by and owned by Mr. Jim Brasley, a successful Philadelphia Lawyer, and was silver with a yellow nose and also with invasion stripes (Brasley is part of the USAF Heritage Flight Demo Team and will team up later with the A-10 “Warthog Demo Team” out of Davis-Monthan); the third Mustang was a P-51C Mustang with a bright red tail and a red nose from the CAF “Red Tail Squadron” out of Red Wing, Minn., an airplane dedicated to telling the inspirational story of the Tuskegee Airmen in WW2; and finally a blue and yellow Stearman biplane from the 1940’s that was on the hot ramp but did not go up.

Two of the Hot Ramp planes joined up later to become part of the 2-ship “Class of 45 Demo Team” with Scott Yoak and his P-51D Mustang “Quick Silver” and Jim Tobul and his F4U-4 Corsair “Korean War Hero”, and later did some wild bombing and strafing simulations with the help of some neat pyro being blown up by the “Tora Bomb Squad”. And finally on the Hot Ramp were our old friends from Republic Airport on Long Island, who seem to show up at every air show in the northeast lately, the six SNJ-2 WW2 Texan trainers that that make up the “GEICO Skytypers”, that great outfit that does not only their neat signature computerized dot matrix high altitude skywriting but also do a wild CAS / ACM low flying demo, a real crowd pleaser!

And Then There Was THE FLYING SHOW!!!

Everybody on the Hot Ramp, except for that visiting yellow and blue Stearman, got into the air for the Flying Show. At about 1000 hours, the four Hueys did their slow “Apocalypse Now” pass with the music of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” playing to start the show. The flying included demonstrations by: The Golden Knights; the A-10 Demo Team; Patty Wagstaff; Michael Goulian; Kent Pietsch and his Jelly Belly three acts; Team Oracle with Sean D. Tucker and his new addition, Miss Jessy Panzer; the three Mustangs; the “Class of 45” two ship demo; the Thunderbirds at mid-day; the KC-135R fly over; the F-16 Viper Demo; the “Tora Bomb Squad” blowing up the place; B-25 “Panchito” with some beautiful bombing and strafing with the Class of 45 crew; the “GEICO Skytypers”; the “Shockwave Jet Truck” with flames, white smoke and lots of noise; and finally the Blue Angels starting at 1500 with a low flat show because of a low cloud deck but had to abort early when the rain came in heavy. But even with the rain at the end of the day, it was a good show at Andrews in 2019 with 100 planes on the ground!

Let’s all come back in 2021 and do it all again at Joint Base Andrews !!!

Photorecon.net -The Digital Aviation Magazine, wishes to thank Sgt. Abby Richardson and the PAO staff of the 11th Wing at JBA for their invitation and the outstanding cooperation they gave us for the 2019 Air Show at Joint Base Andrews.