Air Shows Fly Over Ocean City This Weekend

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Look up at the sky: it's a full weekend of air shows in Ocean City. All events Saturday and Sunday are free.

Ocean City Airport Festival
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Municipal Airport (26th Street and Bay Avenue)

The festival features a ground display of unusual airplanes ranging from World War II to present. The event also features a parachute jump from Team Fastrax, “America’s Skydiving Team.”

There will be food, music, classic cars and kid's activities, including the Ocean City Board of Realtors’ Bubble Mania.

The skydiving team performs sometime after noon, depending on wind and weather. The half-mile “Runway Run” will return and is open to all ages. It offers a chance for anybody to cover ground normally traversed only by planes. The run will go off at some time between noon and 2 p.m.

Additional parking for the festival is available at Shelter Road. Free shuttle service will be provided.

Parachute Pyrotechnic Show
8 p.m. Saturday

The show returns for its third straight year. Several highly trained and specially licensed Team Fastrax parachuters will exit an aircraft 6,000 feet above Ocean City's beach and boardwalk.

Brilliant white or multi-colored projectile pyrotechnics are then ignited as the parachuters fly in formation, creating a dazzling display for spectators on the ground. The jump will end with a landing on the Seventh Street Beach and will be viewable along the entire Boardwalk.

Boardwalk Aerobatic Air Show
1 p.m. Sunday, best viewed between Fifth Street and 14th Street

Some of the best pilots and aerobatic champions in the world put on a show over the beach and boardwalk. Some performers include:

• Mark Meredith Air Shows: Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Meredith performs award-winning spins and aerobatics.
• Ace Maker 33: Gregory “Wired” Colyer shows off the capabilities of the T-33, the U.S. Air Force’s first operational jet and a piece of U.S. aviation history.
• Tucano Air Shows: The MK1 Tucano and its 1,100-horsepower turboprop “not only roars, it whines,” according to its pilot. The Tucano will execute loops and other maneuvers at all speeds.
• Kevin Russo Air Shows: Kevin is in his 22nd year flying air shows with his restored SNJ-6, which was built in 1944 and delivered to the Navy during World War II.
• Team Fasttrax: The team will make a jump to open the show. Ocean City Police Department Chief Jay Prettyman is scheduled to make the jump with the team.

There is no rain date for any of the shows, which may be canceled if weather conditions aren't safe for flying. There is a 30 percent chance of showers Saturday night and Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

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