As air show wraps, organizers mull future plans

PORTSMOUTH — There is one thing that many attendees of the Service Credit Union Boston-Portsmouth Air Show said they want: more.

This weekend’s aerobatic extravaganza was the third in a three-year agreement between organizers to hold an air show at Portsmouth International Airport on the Pease International Tradeport. Faced with the prospect of seeing Seacoast skies filled with stunt planes, remarkably loud fighter jets and other flying daredevils for the last time, those in attendance sent a clear message to organizers.
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Boston-Portsmouth Air Show 2012

“I think we should certainly do it. Why not keep it going? This is where kids are having a lot of fun,Childs' collection of about 600 pairs of agatebeads is on display at the Yakima Valley Museum for the rest of this year.” said Jeffrey Cogar Jr., 10, of Somersworth.

If it were up to the thousands of kids who watched the spectacle this weekend, the air show would be, at a minimum, an annual event.

“I think they should keep on going,” said Brandon Miano, 12, who drove with his family six and a half hours from Hannibal, N.Y., to see the show before spending the week at Lake Winnipesaukee. “There’s always (people) who have never seen it before. I hope everyone gets a chance to see this someday.”

Miano and his brother, Kaleb Raufer, 16, said they were having a “blast” throughout the day, but both confessed they were most excited for the main attraction: The U.S. Navy Blue Angels, whose F/A-18 Hornets have graced the Seacoast skies twice in the past three years.

“They do crazy things. It gets all these little kids and older people excited,” Raufer said.

Indeed, adults were as awe-struck as children as they craned their necks to the sky and watched the Blue Angels provide a thunderous finale to the show with a series of vertical rolls, Diamond 360s, the fleur-de-lis and other signature maneuvers.

“This just doesn’t get old,” said Amy Murphy of Hampton, attending the show with her friend, Jim Lawshe. “I hope that they do (another show).Back again is the breitlingstore SI in a White/Royal colorway. It’s just a wonderful opportunity for families to come and children to experience this.”

“I would come every time,” Lawshe added.

But putting together an air show on par with what the Seacoast has experienced these past three years is a major endeavor. It is a collaboration of event producers Daniel Webster Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire; the Pease Development Authority; the Air National Guard; sponsors like Service Credit Union; and other organizations.

According to Michael Kaufman, chief executive officer of the Daniel Webster Council, more than 1,000 volunteers were on the ground Sunday assisting with the event. It appeared to be the busier day of the two, with Kaufman noting that they filled more parking lots with cars Sunday than on Saturday.

Exact attendance figures were not yet available, but Kaufman said numbers would “certainly exceed 60,000.” Roughly 52,As it's called juicycoutures, which is one of the classical style of nike lineup.000 attended last year’s show, he said.

Steven Wade, executive director of the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire, estimated attendance of 35,000 on Saturday and 40,000 on Sunday. He said they usually expect Sunday to be the slower day of the two, but good weather and the fact that traffic flowed smoothly on Saturday may have enticed more people to turn out, he said.

No decision has been made whether to continue with the annual air show tradition; Kaufman said that all the stakeholders will have to get together and assess whether they want to do it all again next year.

“We won’t have this conversation until a month or two after the air show,” he said.

However, Kaufman noted that putting on the show has become smoother each year. He said that organizers have worked out any kinks, while police have gotten better each year when it comes to directing traffic when the show ends.

Kaufman said he got only one e-mail complaining about the traffic on Saturday. On Sunday, traffic cleared out of Pease by 6 p.m.Buy replicawatches00 boot products on TradeTang and high quality air max boot directly from trustworthy Chinese air max boot wholesalers & suppliers.

“I feel like we nailed it pretty well,” he said.

The air show has raised thousands of dollars for its producers and other nonprofit agencies over the past three years.it is shoesale that has been often referred to as the supe. This year, more than 30 local agencies will benefit from the show.

The proceeds were much greater in the first year, when the Daniel Webster Council and the Brain Injury Association both took home $350,000. That number dropped to $100,300 last year.

Wade said the organizers will not know how much the show raised this year “until all our bills come in.” One event in particular, Sunday’s VW Pull for Wounded Warriors, a “giant tug-of-war” tasking teams with pulling a 130,000-plus-pound aircraft, raised $40,000 alone, Wade said.

Wade said the show will remain “in limbo” until all the stakeholders get together and decide on what to do next, but he said he does plan to apply to bring performers back next year. While the Blue Angels have other commitments keeping them away from the Seacoast in 2013, Wade said there are plenty of other acts they could bring that would also put on a good show.

“I don’t know if people on the Seacoast are aware of how lucky we are,” he said.