I've been to a few, and grew up near Bell Air Force Base with planes and jets going over head all the time. I actually watched from my backyard when the Blue Angels crashed in 1985, killing one pilot. After each year and seeing more crashes where spectators die, I just don't get the appeal. I can see a jet up close and say, "cool" (saw a stealth up close at McDill in Tampa), but I can't see the need to be right under these things when they are going mach whatever and trying a manuever that pushes the capabilities of both pilot and machine. Reno is the latest example, but I really think I'd feel the same without my personal experiences.

It's just like these off-track races we see video of, where a car/truck flips over and right into spectators that are a mere 10-15 feet away. I know people like these events, but can they not be appreciated from a safe distance??

The Reno air race is NOT an "air show".
It's one of the most deadly races on planet Earth and people (usually pilots) die almost every year.

I'm getting really tired of the media calling it an "air show".
At a regular air show, the planes do NOT fly directly over the spectators heads.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

I guess what I'm getting at is the people who go to Reno are enthusiasts of a deadly sport where catastrophic crashes are commonplace. It's like NASCAR, no one wants to see a crash, but they don't look away when it happens.

I'm friends and family with several people who go to the Reno races regularly.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

My fault...I read that. But still, I see plenty of air "shows" that have had deadly crashes that killed spectators, in the US and europe. When I watched them from my backyard, sometimes with binos, it seemed like a good enough view without having to be any closer. I wasn't in danger there. In fact I was in more danger from the usual weekly flying drills than from the shows. I never had a second thought of trying to get down on the base and be nearly right underneath it all.

I thinking dying in a car crash on the way to an air show is about 1000x more likely than dying from a plane crash at an air show

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Hold my beer and watch this...

For some perspective

1994


2010


2007


another from 2007


1979


and the list goes on and on....

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Did you mean Beale Air Force Base and MacDill Air Force Base? Just messing with you man. I was in the Air Force and my wife is active and has been in for 12 years and change now. We're at Peterson and are heading out to Langley in a few weeks.

There is a big difference between the races in Reno and a run of the mill air show at an air port or base. I've never been to a race but there is something about watching those amazing planes zip around so close. I mean they are mammals flying through the sky. It's pretty sweet. That being said, I prefer to be a safe distance away.

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Bell was the base in Wheatfield, right outside Niagara Falls. Saw the stealth at MacDill right after I moved to FL in 1997. When it flew by I told my buddy, "Stealth my ass, I hear it loud and clear!"...

You mean Bell AeroSpace Company? They made planes but weren't a military base.

As for the stealth....what a cool fucking plane. being colored blind kept me from the "real" Air Force jobs so I was a medic and always wished I could fly like my friends.

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Yeah, Bell Aerospace Company. People there just always called it the air base. My grandmother worked there way back during WWII and after.

This.

I love airshows. They are fascinating. Get to see some of the most complex machines in the world being controlled by some of the most skilled pilots in the world.