Pacific Airshow will bring runway to the Huntington Beach sand this fall
Kevin Elliott remembers attending Circle View Elementary School in Huntington Beach. Remote control planes were a favorite toy back then.
“I’d ride my bike to the end of the street and I’d look and see which way the flag was going on top of the Boeing building,” he said. “I’ve always been close to aviation my whole life, and now here I am in the air show business. Who would have thought?”
Elliott, now the executive director of the Pacific Airshow, went from flying toy planes to landing on his home beach in a real one Thursday morning. He and Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark each landed on the sand at Huntington State Beach in two short takeoff and landing (STOL) planes, one blue and one yellow, flown by pilots Casey Pozdolsky and Bruce Graham.
Spectators at the Pacific Airshow will see similar things this fall.
Elliott, Van Der Mark and other local officials, including state Sen. Janet Nguyen, held a press conference at the beach, near Huntington Street and Pacific Coast Highway, to announce the return of the popular air show Oct. 4 through 6.
One significant change in the Pacific Airshow this year is that a temporary runway will be constructed on the beach to bring attendees up close and personal with select aircraft.
Elliott said he envisions the runway being 30 feet wide by at least 500 feet long. It will be made out of a plastic material called Matrax, which the air show already lays down for walkways at the event.
He said the plan is to have four STOL planes doing a combined demonstration during the air show.
“Now we have something for kids and people to come and interact with and see,” Elliott said. “We want to bring helicopters and all kinds of cool stuff down here. It’s about bringing the air show to the people.
“You have to be an enthusiast to go seek a hot runway somewhere where there’s an air show and eat bad food. You don’t have to be an enthusiast to want to come to the beach and be entertained. That’s the whole magic of Pacific Airshow.”
Van Der Mark said landing in the STOL plane was the best form of transportation she’s ever taken to get to a meeting.
“I did get to fly the plane,” she said with a smile. “Thank you, Bruce. That was kind of cool.”
Popular acts like the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, F-22 Raptor demonstration team and A-10 demo team will be back for 2024 at the Pacific Airshow, the largest air show in the country by attendance. More than 700,000 people watched last year’s show in Huntington Beach, according to estimates.
Elliott said he’s also hopeful about bringing back the Afterburner Music Festival.
“I don’t know that I’m ready to make that commitment, but obviously it’s something we’re seriously working on,” he said. “Not to bring it up, but we’ve come through a global pandemic and navigated that. We’ve continued to build the event year on year, and we feel like we’re finally catching our stride in terms of really bringing this event where it needed to be.”
Huntington Beach made a multimillion-dollar settlement with the air show last year, after the final day was canceled in 2021 due to an oil spill. The entire settlement was not released by City Atty. Michael Gates, leading some onlookers to suggest impropriety.
Ocean View School District Trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin filed a lawsuit to get the full settlement released. That lawsuit is currently pending, with a court date set for May.
Also recently, Huntington Beach released a study with a hypothetical featuring a five-day air show in the future. The study was part of the city’s California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process to evaluate and mitigate environmental impacts.
City officials emphasized that no such change is in the immediate plans, but they wanted to ensure that an exaggerated scope was submitted. That way, if Elliott’s company, Code Four, decided to lengthen the show or add new features, the environmental impact report would already account for that.
“If we ever wanted to do an air racing type of event, we might have qualifying on Wednesday and Thursday,” Elliott said.
Tickets for the 2024 Pacific Airshow are currently on sale, with early bird pricing for general admission and pier seating that runs through the end of February. After that, prices will increase slightly to this year’s regular prices, Elliott said.
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