Oxnard’s Air Show Is Canceled Due to Cost

The annual Oxnard Airshow has been canceled for 1992 after eight years of performances by wing-walkers, aerobatic pilots and antique airplanes, organizers said Friday.

After losing $15,000 on the weather-plagued 1991 show, promoters of the nonprofit event said they cannot afford to go on with the show this year.

Instead, they plan to stage an Aug. 22 fund-raiser at Oxnard Airport to pay off last year’s debts, said air show President Don Lewis.

“If we can recover from these losses, we will try to resurrect the show, maybe next April,” Lewis said.

Fund-raiser participants will pay $1,000 each to accompany stunt pilots in World War II fighter planes--a P-51 Mustang and a Bearcat--through a series of daredevil maneuvers over the ocean, Lewis said. Or they can catch a wild ride in a 50-year-old Navy trainer for $600.

The Oxnard Airshow was founded in 1979 and for five years was a kind of airport open house to the community that featured rides on small planes and helicopters and close-up looks at vintage aircraft.

Since 1984, when it became a full-fledged air show with aerobatic planes, the event has raised more than $50,000 for local charities, Lewis said.

But last year, with clouds layered at only 300 feet above runways, just 2,000 to 3,000 people showed up over a gloomy September weekend, he said. The two-day show usually draws about 10,000 spectators and about 6,000 are needed to break even, he said.

“It was just not nice at all,” Lewis said. “We got very few planes airborne.”

The bad weather, combined with fewer sponsors because of a bad economy, resulted in revenues of only $53,000 compared to expenses of $68,000, Lewis said.

“We usually have the event paid for going into it,” Lewis said. “But last year because of the economy we had less sponsorship.”

Lewis said a true shame of the 1991 event was that so few people got to see the last flight of the 1913 Smithsonian-bound Beechey “Little Looper,” then the oldest aerobatic plane still flying.

“We’ve had a lot of firsts and lasts at the air show,” he said.

Small compared to the 180,000-spectator Point Mugu Airshow in October, the Oxnard Airshow nonetheless has been rated as one of the best in the nation by the International Council of Airshows, Lewis said.

He will try to keep it going by inviting 50 to 100 wealthy local residents and aviation enthusiasts to the August fund-raiser.

If successful, plans will begin immediately for the next show, which would be moved to the spring so it would not compete with the Point Mugu show, he said.

Those interested in participating in the fund-raiser can reach Lewis at 983-4606.