2010 Northern California Air Shows
Selected Northern California and other air shows nearby. Dates and performers always are tentative. Visit the actual show sites for current information.

I've not been to an air show in about 5 years or so. It somehow just all of a sudden stopped. As a result I have fallen out of practice using my expensive DSLR. I hope to start going to shows again soon, when I have a job -- most air shows are not free. In the meantime, all the old pages are still here. I will assemble a list of air shows local to me later.

Something significant happened while I was away from air shows. The Air Force Thunderbirds got their first female pilot, Maj. Nicole Malachowski. I saw this on a PBS television show and for an hour it satisfied my appetite for air shows.

The show was from January 2008. They noted that the Blue Angels have never had a female pilot. They spent a little bit of time with this woman, who said at age 5, after going to an air show, she told her parents she wanted to be a Phantom pilot (not just a jet pilot, a PHANTOM pilot). In sixth grade, when all the girls told their class they wanted to be secretaries or wives, she told the class she wanted to be a fighter pilot. She was told by the teacher that there aren't any women fighter pilots so she'd better prepare a Plan B. Well, that didn't deter her and she went on to go to the Air Force Academy and became a fighter pilot. The show said it took until 2008 for a women to join the flight squad because of how late they began allowing women fighter pilots, and the fact that it takes five to eight years to accrue the minimum 1000 hours of fighter pilot time the Air Force requires for someone to even apply for membership on the flight team. They get 40 applications a year for 3 pilot openings.