Thunderbirds at Coney island.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Does that mean the whole "Air Force Week" in NYC is cancelled? It was scheduled for Aug 24-29th.

No. As far as I know and from what I've heard there is till an Air Force Week in August that will include several flyovers and events all over the city...

[moose135]

Not that I have any "inside" information, but something doesn't add up. I don't buy that the show was canceled due to airspace congestion, or costs to the city, or traffic on the Belt Parkway. We've been talking about the show in this thread since February, the planning for it has been going on for months, maybe a year - the Thunderbirds included the show on their schedule that was announced in December. I would have thought that the airspace guys would have raised their concerns earlier than one month out, maybe when the Thunderbirds advance team visited JFK back in February. And I imagine the organizers would have needed to get various permits from the city long before now.

I came across something that may be a reason, especially given the timing of the decision - in the Thunderbird support manual I linked to on the first page of this thread, it says that for a civilian air show, a $6,000 fee is required to help offset the expenses involved, and the fee is required 30 days prior to the show. I wonder if some sponsors backed out, or never materialized, and the organizers found themselves coming up short, and decided to pull the plug?

[imported_ch2tdriver]

quote "I don't know how many shows you've been to, but you can't just "move it 20 miles to the east & call it a day", especially in the busiest airspace in the world."

Well thats not entirely true. Anyone remember the T-Birds at Sunken Meadow Park of all places in October of 2000? In '97 and '98 we had the airshow out at Gabreski in Westhampton. There was no show in '99 that I recall, but it was planned for October of 2000 at Gabreski with the T-Birds as headliners. Previous shows did not have a jet team only A-10 demo IIRC. The birds were booked but for one reason or another the show fell apart and was cancelled. Who was behind it I don't know, possibly someone in LI gov or maybe the parks dept, but they kept the 'Birds booking and moved the display to Sunken Meadow (which is not a big park by Jones Beach standards).

That show was surreal. I went on Sunday. The clouds were rolling in and the 'Birds showed up early, to get the display in before a SNOW SQUALL moved in. That show box took them over some pretty populated areas, and that week in Newsday an article appeared with a lot of people complaining about noise and low flying. My parents were at the edge of the 5 mile ring in East Northport, and people on their block were coming out into the street to watch the F-16's buzz overhead as they repositioned for the next manuever.

So it's not impossible to move this show, or at least parts of it. The main question is who has the will and the cash in this economy.

Pete

[Chris S]

FYI- The Thunderbirds have been officially rescheduled now
to be at the Offutt Airshow in NE on Aug. 28th and the 29th !!
Coney's Island's loss is Offutt's gain !!
Here's the Thunderbirds updated schedule on their site:
http://thunderbirds.airforce.com/schedule.html

[atz]

I work in Coney Island and first posted about the air show and Air Force Week on my Coney Island blog "Amusing the Zillion" as well as on this forum back in December. Over the past few months we'd heard that the air show could not get all of the necessary permits--a complicated situation by all accounts- and wasn't going happen this year. But until the Thurnderbirds took Coney Island off their schedule, we didn't want to believe it! Air Force Week NYC is going on as scheduled and sending people to the Atlantic City Air Show. Events in Coney Island are limited to Air Force nights at the Brooklyn Cyclones and Ringling's Coney Island Circus.
http://www.airforceweek.af.mil/newyo...ug10/index.asp

[Derf]

The reason why the Coney Island Airshow was canceled was because it was going to cost $26,000+ dollars for the Police to be there and there was no money for that. No other reason that that. This is the reason.

[Speedbird1]

Just a reminder that today's scheduled USAF Thunderbirds Air Show over Coney Island was canceled. It has been moved to somewhere over Nebraska instead. It was to honor Air Force Week. The reasons for cancellation have already been discussed elsewhere. At least we have Kid's Day to look forward to.

[Billbo1970]

The website now says "Postponed until 2011". Are they really planning to try again next year, or is this just smoke?

Bill

[Gerard]

The website now says "Postponed until 2011". Are they really planning to try again next year, or is this just smoke?
Bill

We'll find out in 2011 I guess. BTW too bad it was cancelled. You couldnt ask for better weather this weekend for an Air Show!!!

[Derf]

They are tying to bring it back in 2011

[chrisparypa]

No chance for 2011 show... They can't find sponsors and put air show together for the last 2-3 years ?? I don't believe that Thunderbirds will give Coney Island next chance, there will be no Coney Island on the Tbirds schedule for 2011, BA's posted 2011 already so there is no way that they will show up... so if they couldn't find sponsors etc for air show with Tbirds how come they will put everything together without one of the main jet teams ?? Snowbirds or Red Arrows maybe :)))))

[Derf]

I do not understand what your post means, This year had nothing to do with sponsors...

[Billbo1970]

I can't believe it got cancelled over $26,000.... that's not a lot at all. I chalk the whole fiasco up to very poor planning:

1. Hardly anybody I mentioned it to knew that there was going to be a show at Coney Island.

2. $26,000... really?! You couldn't have tried a fundraiser to scrape up that amount of money?? I'm sure you could have easily gotten 26G from aviation fans & local business' that would benefit from the influx of tourists....

Bill

[Gerard]

The reason why the Coney Island Airshow was canceled was because it was going to cost $26,000+ dollars for the Police to be there and there was no money for that. No other reason that that. This is the reason.

Interesting that PD doesnt have $26,000 in their budget for the show but they allocate tons of $$$ for parades, demonstrations, baseball playoffs (Yankees NOt Mets LOL), UN Week etc.
And Bloomberg being very pro-aviation this would have been a no-brainer PLUS it would have been a shot in the arm for CI business.

[puckstopper55]

I think it would be great to try it again next year. The only drawback that I could see if the T-Birds will be at Jones beach a few weeks earlier, so casual (non plane enthusiast) may not be as tempted to see the show again.

I would almost be tempted to say combine the 2 shows and make it 1 super awesome show!