Cloudy Skies Ground Snowbirds, but Point Mugu Air Show Goes On

Cloudy skies kept the stars from coming out Sunday at the Point Mugu Air Show.

The show’s star act, the Canadian Snowbirds, was canceled on the event’s second day because low-lying clouds made it too dangerous for the nine jets in the precision-flying team to perform.

“It’s all safety,” said Point Mugu Aviation Technician Steve Freund. “They have to stay within extreme physical sight of each other.”

The Snowbirds, a team of Canadian military pilots, fly their red-and-white trainer jets in close range.

To avoid collision while flying their aerobatic maneuvers, the pilots have to be able to see each other very clearly, Freund said.

Freund estimated that the Snowbirds would need clear skies up to about 2,500 feet. But the clouds Sunday hung about 1,500 feet above Point Mugu, said Steve Burback, a meteorologist at WeatherData Inc., a private weather forecasting company.

The Snowbirds flew Saturday, when the air show had an audience of about 95,000, Point Mugu spokeswoman Nancy Duncan said. About 110,000 people went to the show Sunday, but spectators began streaming out about 3 p.m. after it was announced that the weather could ground the featured performers, who were scheduled for 4 p.m.

Although the stars didn’t show, the supporting acts still got plenty of applause and cheers throughout the day.

And many visitors apparently rated the acts by how loud they were.

“I think some people come out here for the noise,” said Ted Elliott, 54, a property manager from Topanga Canyon who came to the event with 17 friends and family members.

His brother, Gene Elliott, 51, a Camarillo lumber salesman, said people like the roar of the jets and the loud buzz of the propeller planes because the sounds demonstrate the power of the various aircraft.

Brad Butzbach, 27, who came to Ventura County from Fresno to spend both days at the air show, said he liked best the deafening roars of jets such as the F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet and the Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harrier jumper jet.

“The louder the better,” Butzbach said, as he and his friend videotaped the various aerobatics performances for their families in Fresno.

Some people in the audience apparently didn’t share Butzbach’s enthusiasm for the high decibels. A few could be seen wearing earplugs.

Others, such as Thousand Oaks resident Terri Bowman, just used their fingers to plug their ears.

“All that noise from that little plane,” Bowman, 28, said about the Harrier jump jet. “It’s loud. You know when you can feel it in your chest it’s loud.”

Even audience members who said they were thrilled by the noise of the jets added that they “wouldn’t want to hear it every day.”

Besides the Harrier and the F/A-18, one of the loudest and most popular performers at the show was earthbound.

The yellow, orange and red Shockwave Jet Truck, which belched large clouds of smoke and fire from three jet engines mounted on its back, raced several stunt pilots throughout the day.

Each race was like a competition of bird against beast. The stunt pilots, flying directly over the truck as it sped down the runway, started ahead of the monster truck.

But the truck, which can reach speeds above 300 miles per hour, always caught up and roared ahead of the propeller planes or small jets, sparking cheers and whoops from the crowd.

The truck managed this feat because it can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in about one second. It burned 120 gallons of diesel fuel every time it did an eight-minute demonstration.

Gene Elliott said he thought people rooted for the jet truck over the aircraft because they identified with the earthbound vehicle.

“It’s just on the ground, seeing something I can relate to,” he said. “I’ve never flown in a plane like that, but I’ve ridden in a truck.”