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Utterly ridiculous...    We started out the day fine.  Drove the hour to Tampa, waited in traffic for another half hour to 45 minutes which was understandable and taken in stride.  Then the fun began; we walked, and I'm NOT exaggerating here because I paced it out, more than a mile from the parking to where the line for security began.  After finally getting to within 1/4 mile of the gate, we found out about the line for security.  Again, I am not exaggerating here.  there were TWO lines, each 1/2 mile long, and were growing longer as we watched.  Enough is enough.  Had I been alone, or just with the wife, I might have stuck it out, but with twin 5 year olds, there was no way I was going to subject the to any more of that mess.  The best part?  Instead of walking back the way we came, we cut across the parking lot and was back to the car in 10 inutes.

On the good side, we set up our chairs out in the parking and watched some of the show.  Where we were at, all of the planes flew directly over us, and when the Eagle flew over at about 200 feet, it almost deafened us.  The memorial flight consisting of a Mustang, a Sabre, a Falcon, and the Eagle was a thing of beauty and moving, even from our disadvantaged view.  We didn't stick around for the Blue Angels, but I'm sure it was an awesome show, as always.

Tonight, I am sitting down and writnig some serious letters to the Airfest promoters, the MacDill base commmander, the Blue Angels, and the DoD.  There is simply NO excuse for what happened out there today, especially when you consider Disneyworld experiences the same volume of visitors EVERY DAY and there is nothing like this nonsense.  The promoters could have at least sent some people over to learn from them.

good on you.

the paris airshow is actually better than a theme park

Never come to the Kecskemet airshow Kevin, you have to park in a field and walk round two sides of the base (a couple of miles) with a few zillion Hungarians to try and get in. The temperature is 40-42'C!
My best friend Steve and I did this 2 years ago and the next day Steve looked like he'd been cooked and I looked like an irradiated lobster! But then as we only have an airshow here every other year it was worth it
What have Americans got against walking? I do loads of walking. Most weekends we chuck Emi in the pram and walk down to the local lakes and back.... that is about 10Kms. Nice Sunday afternoon out with the family (mind you the pram is a sod cross-country) 8-) I'll always remember my neighbours in San Diego who drove from next door to come round for dinner. Their front door was about 100m from ours

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Airshows were never a problem for me whilst stationed at KAFB.  :D

Why do Americans drive 100 yards, you ask? Well, gas is cheap and we are lazy. At least, some of us are. I was told about a guy (long since moved away) in my apartment complex who would drive his Caddy from his door to the mailbox and back-- a total distance of about 100 feet. Yes; he was a big, fat tub of clinton...

Welcome to the post 9/11 world.  I've been going to the Offutt AFB airshow for years.  Since 9/11, security became rediculously intense.  Sucks, but that's life.  

You have my sympathy... my beef was that there was inadequate information as to who was allowed in which gate (my in-between status didn't help). Your experience was far worse, though.

But the key problem seemed to be that they just could not process people quickly enough (searching everything and passing each person through a metal detector). The reason, as I saw it from about 0800 on, was that everybody sort of showed up at once, after the show started. Didn't help that there was a steady tide of people all day, since most came to see the Blue Angels, who ended the show.
I drove in from West Tampa around 0700, and there was no traffic backup to speak of, despite the gates opening at 0800.
I guess opening the gates earlier won't help- I would suggest they use two of the three main entrances for airshow spectators, instead of one. Base personnel and contractors could have managed with just one- it was a weekend. And they would be expected to know to show up early.
The distance to the parking and second security gate can't be helped- the base is HUGE, and the road entrance is well away from the show area.
Not sure if shows at all military fields are like that, but it's worth remembering: get there really, really early.

I went to an airshow, though it was more of an airlift :-/ in 1995 some people set a record for putting  a bunch of people up in the air in GA craft in a certain time period. dont remember what it was though i was only 6 at the time.

BUT! I almost fell out of a B-17 bomb bay (those cat walks are quite narrow and dangerous for a child) that flew in! twas actually the Yankee Lady




ah, i almost fell out of the Yankee Lady  :P