Originally Posted by Hydro Junkie

Have any of you ever seen the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds perform? Here in Seattle, the "Blues" perform their aerobatic show every August. The "flightline" is required to be clear of people and boats(show is over Lake Washington) or they won't even take off. There are a few times when their aircraft get below 500 ft while over the crowd, one being when the plane's pilot does a "stealth run" over the park at over twice the height of the trees. In doing so, the pilot does nothing but fly straight and level at roughly 300 kts, pulling up AFTER getting back over the lake. The others are when their patterns take them down to low level at the end of a maneuver. The major difference here is that the entire area is a "No Fly Zone" from early morning until late afternoon as mandated by the FAA specifically for the airshow. Just to be clear on this, the"Blues" are the headliner but there are aerobatic displays by civilians as well as demos by the various branches of the military and Coast Guard through out the day.