The 2008 schedules for the North American military teams were released yesterday at the ICAS convention. Below is a listing by date and location.

BA United States Navy Blue Angels
GK United States Army Golden Knights (Black & Gold teams)
SB Canadian Air Force Snowbirds
TB United States Air Force Thunderbirds

08 March
NAF El Centro, CA - BA

13-16 March
Sacramento, CA (15-16 only) - BA
South Padre Island, TX - GK
San Angelo, TX (15th only) - TB

29-30 March
NAS Meridian, MS - BA
Tyndall AFB, FL (29th only) - TB / GK

05-06 April
NAS Kingsville, TX - BA
Punta Gorda, FL - TB / GK

12-13 April
Smyrna, TN - BA
Lakeland, FL - TB

19-20 April
Peoria, IL - BA / GK
Wilmington, NC - TB / GK

26-27 April
Vidalia, GA - BA
Charleston AFB, SC (26th only) - TB

03-04 May
Ft. Lauderdale, FL - BA / SB / GK
March ARB, CA - TB / GK

07 May
Anderson, SC - SB
Myrtle Beach, SC - GK

10-11 May
Barksdale AFB, LA - BA / GK
Pittsburgh, PA - SB
Langley AFB, VA - TB

14 May
Duluth, MI - SB

16-18 May
Andrews AFB, MD - BA / GK
Malmstrom, MT (17-18 only) - SB
Fort Smith, AR (17-18 only) - TB / GK

21-23 May
Naval Academy - BA
Cranbrook, BC (21st only) - SB

24-25 May
Jones Beach, NY - BA / GK
Janesville, WI - SB / GK
Tinker AFB, OK (24th only) - TB

28 May
USAF Academy, CO - TB

31 May
Danville, VA - GK
Portage, MB - SB
McGuire AFB, NJ - TB

01 June
Danville, VA - GK
Brandon, MB - SB
McGuire AFB, NJ - TB

04 June
Kapuskasing, ON - SB

07-08 June
MCAS Cherry Point, NC - BA / GK
Montreal F1, QC - SB
Rockford, IL - TB / GK

10 June
Magog, QC - SB

14-15 June
Quebec City, Canada - BA / SB / TB
Army B-day OCPA - GK

18 June
Kingston, ON - SB

21-22 June
Davenport, IA - BA / GK
Sioux City, IA - GK
CFB Borden, ON - SB
Klamath Falls, OR (21st only) - TB

24 June
Eielson AFB, AK - TB

25 June
Goderich, ON - SB

28-29 June
Huntsville, AL - BA / GK
Evansville, IN - GK
Ottawa, ON - SB
Elmendorf AFB, AK - TB

01 July
Canada Day, Ottawa, ON - SB

03 July
Dubuque, IA - GK

04-06 July
Traverse City, MI (5-6 only) - BA / GK
Cape Girardeao, MO (5-6 only) - GK
Stampede (4th only) - SB
Battle Creek, MI - TB

11 July
Pensacola Beach, FL - BA

12-13 July
Milwaukee, WI - TB

16 July
Thompson, MB - SB

19-20 July
Duluth, MN - BA
Gary, IN - GK
Yellowknife, NWT (19 only) - SB
Edmonton Grd Prx (20th only) - SB
McChord AFB, WA - TB

23 July
Cheyenne, WY - TB
Prince George, BC - SB

26-27 July
Twin Falls, ID - BA
Helena Military Open House - GK
Wetaskiwin, AB - SB
Rochester, NY - TB / GK

30 July
White Rock, BC - SB

02-03 August
Seattle, WA - BA
Dawson Creek, BC (3rd only) - SB

06 August
Penticton, BC - SB

08-10 August
Fairchild AFB, WA (09-10 only) - BA
Abbotsford, BC - SB / TB

13 August
Rocky Mtn House, AB - SB

16-17 August
BA - Chicago, IL - BA / GK
Yankton, SD - GK
Springbank, AB (16th only) - SB
Offutt AFB, NE - TB

20 August
Atlantic City, NJ - TB

23-24 August
Greenfield, IN - GK
Moose Jaw, SK (23rd only) - SB
Kansas City, MO - TB / GK

27 August
Welland, ON - SB

30-31 August
Cleveland, OH - BA / GK
Toronto, ON - SB
Travis AFB, CA - TB / GK

01 September
Cleveland, OH - BA
Toronto, ON - SB

02 September
Van denBos School - SB

06-07 September
NAS Brunswick, ME - BA / GK
Halifax, NS - SB
Westover ARB, MA - TB / GK

10 September
Stephenville, NL - SB

12-14 September
Eau Claire, WI (13-14 only) - BA / GK
Summerside, PEI (13-14 only) - SB
Reno, NV (12-13 only) - TB

20-21 September
NAS Oceana, VA - BA
Midland, TX - GK
Dover 400, DE - GK
Victoria, BC - SB
Scott AFB, IL - TB

24 September
Tri Cities, WA - SB

27-28 September
Grand Junction, CO - BA
Parkersberg, WV - GK
Chico, CA - SB
Salinas, CA - TB

01 October
Douglas, AZ - SB

04-05 October
MCAS Miramar, CA - BA / GK
El Paso, TX - SB / GK
Vance AFB, OK (4th only) - TB

11-12 October
San Francisco, CA - BA / SB
West Chester, PA - GK
Ft Worth, TX - TB / GK

17 October
15 Wing Moose Jaw, SK - SB

18-19 October
Little Rock, AR - BA / GK
Huntington Beach, CA - GK
Dobbins ARB, GA - TB

25-26 October
NAS Jacksonville, FL - BA
Houston, TX - TB

01-02 November
Lackland AFB, TX - BA / GK
Lafayette, LA - TB / GK

08-09 November
Cape Canaveral, FL - BA
Las Vegas, NV - TB

14-15 November
NAS Pensacola, FL - BA

Roger Buis, owner and pilot of the popular airshow helicopter named OTTO, has announced his retirement. Although the OTTO airshow routine had a kid based theme with blowing bubbles and bouncing yoyo’s, I was always impressed with the helicopter airmanship that Roger displayed. In recent years Roger also performed an airplane-to-helicopter transfer with John Mohr and stuntman Todd Green.

Thank you Roger for an outstanding airshow routine and good luck in your future endeavors.

An online petition to save the Red Barons has been started by Ed Shipley at Airshowbuzz. If you enjoyed watching the team perform (or wish you had) then click the image to add your name to the list.

The Schwan Food Company, owners of the Red Baron® Pizza Squadron aerobatic team, have announced their retirement after 28 years of performances. The official announcement in PDF format can be found here along with a discussion of the retirement at Airshowbuzz.

I had the fortune of seeing the team perform twice in their final year. First at the Gathering of Mustangs & Legends where I took the photos below. The last time was at the Jacksonville Sea & Sky Spectacular where I had the opportunity to have the team autograph a photo from the Gathering.

Thank you to Schwan Foods and all the pilots, maintenance crews, and announcers for providing the airshow circuit with a top notch aerobatic team throughout the years. You will be missed but not forgotten.

It has been an unbelievably tragic week at the Reno Air Races. On Tuesday, Steve Dari died when the Rose Peregrine RP-5 biplane he was piloting crashed after developing engine trouble shortly after takeoff. Yesterday, Brad Morehouse perished when his L-39C crashed after apparently getting caught in the wake of another jet. Then this morning, Gary Hubler died when the Cassutt racer he was piloting crashed after a collision involving two other aircraft, one of which was an Owl OR71 piloted by Jason Somes. Prior to this year the last fatal crash at Reno was in 2002.

After shooting solely with a Canon 20D for the last 3 years, I have added a second camera body to my gear - the Canon 40D. I’m looking forward to seeing how it performs at the North Georgia Air & Car Show next weekend. In the mean time, here are a couple of initial shots taken from my backyard.

Jan Wildbergh was killed yesterday in the crash of a GEICO Skytyper SNJ-2 at Naval Air Station Oceana. Jan was a veteran of the Dutch Air Force, where he flew the F-84 Thunderjet. He immigrated to the United States in 1959 where he worked as a flight instructor, chief pilot and FAA pilot examiner. Jan had been a pilot with the Skytypers since 1986.

One of the GEICO Skytypers has crashed while practicing for the Naval Air Station Oceana air show. Ralph Roberts with the GEICO Skytyper team has reported during an interview on WAVY news that the #6 aircraft has gone down. There is no information on the fate of the pilot. For additional information please see the AirShowBuzz forums.

David Burdine was killed on Monday when the YAK-52 he was in crashed shortly after takeoff. Also killed in the crash was the pilot, Steven Hildebrand. David was a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot. He was well known on the air show circuit as the owner and pilot of the blue and red MiG-17. Additional info can be found at the AirShowBuzz forums.

I decided to create this blog to present some of my other aviation photography that doesn’t fit the air show theme of my ShowLinePhoto site. You can expect to see things like military and civilian airport spotting photos, aviation museum tour photos, and even photos from my own backyard (yes, I am one of those people who run outside to see what is flying over). In addition, I will be posting comments about the air shows I attend and posting newsworthy events about the air show and aviation trades.

Speaking of newsworthy events, I have been hard at work this summer with a redesign of the ShowLinePhoto site. The overall theme will closely mirror this blog site. Gone will be the javascript menubar and in its place a simpler text based menubar. A new section will be added - videos! And finally, after many requests, I will have prints for sale. I still have several things to accomplish, including attending five air shows in the next nine weeks, so please excuse my tardiness if I don’t get the fall air show photos posted in a timely manner.

That’s all for now, thanks for stopping by and feel free to comment about anything you see here.