Half a Million Train Sights on Planes’ Flights at El Toro : Air show: The audience <i> oohs </i> and <i> aahs </i> the death-defying dips and dives of the performances, saving loudest ovation for the Blue Angels.

There were old planes looping and spinning, trailing plumes of colored smoke. There were shiny new planes zipping overhead, ripping through the sky to make space for complex maneuvers. There were military planes pretending to drop bombs, complete with fiery explosions turning to billows of black on the ground. There were restored vintage planes surrounded by proud owners and overflowing scrapbooks. There were plastic toy planes in the clutches of dozens of jubilant children.

And there was the massive, camouflage-colored C-5 Galaxy, its nose lifted to the air, its body open so visitors to the 44th annual El Toro Air Show could walk through and grab a peek.

In all, there were 160 planes on display Saturday, another 40 or so flying around, at the air show, drawing a crowd of about 500,000.

“We know the names of all the planes here,” said 12-year-old Jeremy Thacker of Buena Park, whose favorites are the A-10 Warthog and F-10 fighters. This was Jeremy’s ninth air show with his father, Robert, a computer operator. On Saturday, Robert Thacker said simply: “It gets better every year.”

Despite a cloud cover that chilled the morning and kept the planes flying low, Thacker’s comments were a common sentiment on the base Saturday as thousands of devotees settled in for the patriotic celebration of military techniques.

They came on bicycles and motorcycles, in trucks and trailers, pushing strollers and little red wagons. They came toting lawn chairs, plastic picnic tables and tents. They came waving flags and wearing badges, in uniforms ranging from the Boy Scouts to cheerleaders to the Civil Air Patrol.

“Last year was our first time, but we can’t miss it now,” said Jim Wronski of Orange, who pedaled to the show with his wife on their custom, two-seater recumbent bike, which they had painted blue and gold to match the air show colors. “It’s like a carnival, an old-fashioned get-together. It’s a lot of fun.”

Sure, but it’s also a lot of work.

It took about 250 Marines to set up chairs, plastic fences, bleachers and concession stands in a 48-hour blitz before the first planes hit the runway Friday, said Larry Mutz, a consultant from Tennessee who has helped run the show since 1980. After the show repeats itself today from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.--gates open at 7 a.m.--that phalanx of personnel will return to clean the place up.

On duty during the show are 1,000 Marines, plus 100 civilians, Mutz said. That includes the 40-person crash crew that is on standby the entire time.

For the huge crowds there are 450 portable toilets and 250 concession stands. Scattered throughout the base are some 2,500 trash cans--and they are filled and emptied, 10 times each, each day.

Mutz doesn’t get much sleep in the days before the show, but as the planes buzzed overhead Saturday afternoon, he said, “I don’t feel it.”

“The adrenaline kicks in,” Mutz said. “When I look down, and see a kid looking up, it just makes my day.”

Thousands of kids were looking up all day long as the stunts seemed to get more and more spectacular.

In the morning, there was Lori Lynn Ross, walking on the wings of a World War II-era UPF-7 WACO as pilot Jim Franklin turned the plane--and Ross--upside down. After lunch, there was the Navy Seals “Leapfrog” team, sailing through the air in blue-and-gold parachutes and landing only a few yards in front of the crowd. Then came Team American, a trio of aerobatic flight pilots, featuring the miraculous return to the air of a Marine who was nearly killed six years ago when his plane crashed at the El Toro Air Show.

“You fall off the horse, you get back on the horse,” Col. Jerry Cadick shrugged as he prepared for his flight Saturday. “Flying fighters is not risk-free--we all know that. I need (flying), just about how I need food and water.”

After 25 years in the Marine Corps, including two in Vietnam, Cadick, now 51, was flying an F/A-18 fighter jet during the 1988 show when he went down.

His face was smashed, set back about an inch. Five ribs snapped, a vertebrae exploded. Both legs broken, one ankle crushed completely, the other fractured. And a collapsed lung. “Other than that,” he joked Saturday, “I was unhurt.”

“I’m not sure I know why I’m (alive)--neither do the doctors or anyone else,” he said. “It’s just pure luck.”

Though the program was full of air show stars from around the nation, the biggest crowd pleaser was saved for last: the elite Navy Blue Angels. With their six custom-painted F/A-18 Hornets parked at center stage throughout the show, the Angels earned an ovation just for taxiing slowly down the runway.

“They’re just the most amazing people ever. Everything they do is amazing,” said Kim Borio, 20, a lifeguard from San Clemente. Wearing a blue sequined bikini top with white stars, Borio bounded up to the Angels before they took flight, begging them to pose for a picture, then sat cross-legged in the front row during their act.

“I’ve been coming here since I was 5 years old,” she said. “It’s a big outdoor party.”