F-35 Demo Team - Abbotsford Airshow

The USAF F-35A Lightning II Demo Team puts on an incredible aerial display. This jet is LOUD and FAST!
The 2024 schedule for the F-35 Demo Team can be found here: www.airshowstuff.com/forum/vi...
00:00 Takeoff
01:12 Weapons Bay Doors
01:38 High Speed Pass
01:57 Minimum Radius Turn and Lightning Loop
03:11 Dedication Pass
03:36 Inverted Pass
03:54 Vertical Climb & Pedal Turn
04:58 Square Loop
05:48 High Alpha Pass (Slow Speed)
06:47 Aileron Rolls
07:12 Tactical Pitch
07:47 Heritage Flight Rejoin
08:05 Heritage Flight w/ P-51D
09:13 Inverted Pass
09:34 P-51D 4 Point Roll
09:44 Tactical Pitch #2

[@glacieractivity]

Amy may be chunky, but she sure knows to move nimbly after they removed the final restraints on her FBW computer and unleashed her 9G glory. That authority combined with the 9X will make the most competent airshow pilot showing off cobra manoeuvres really question their life choices, even though it is not Amy's primary job to get herself into the visual range of anyone.
As a lifelong fan of the F-16 (I got to spend a week in a brand new Norwegian F-16 squadron during the early 1980s) I am fully aware that while that F-16 was a 9G dayfighter through and through it no longer was with all the upgrades it got (including the MLU+ package). The F-16 became a heavy girl with all the new computers, radar, and pods hanging off everywhere in addition to external tanks. I have seen interviews with Norwegian F-16 pilots flying ground or close-air-support missions over Afghanistan noting that they had to nudge the aircraft in and out of the afterburner just to keep up with the KC-135 when refuelling. Reminding me that the F-16 was and is a 6G not a 9G machine in most configurations.
I trust no keyboard warriors, but I do trust the smiles of pilots having converted from the F-16 to the F-35. As one Norwegian pilot frashed it: "If going to an airshow "naked" I may pick the F-16 for the fun - but going anywhere near a real-life mission? I am sitting in a cocoon of information without my adversaries even knowing exactly where I am if even knowing they have company". Another pilot stated: "We have switched to systems in the cockpit we only turn while sitting in the simulators, in case someone is watching us when training in the sky".
I also wish to add: that Norway (in the European consortium) got into the F-16 development program during the 1970s and the first machines were delivered around 1980. 15 more years had to pass before the F-16 had become the day-and-night fighting multi-role MoFo we go to know it as. This time, Norway's first squadron went combat-ready in 2021 and 5 years (2025/6)) later it will be in the full Block 4 version, ready to keep the Norwegian-developed JSM stealth cruise missile inside her weapons bays (based on the NSM missile that pretty much every NATO nation with a coastline are ordering and starting to implement as I write).
We are already co-training with the Swedish JAS-39s (soon going operational with the brand new E-model), the Finnish (operating the F-18 as they await their F-35s), the Danish and Dutch F-16s (as they also wait to go operational with their incoming F-35s), British F-35Bs and Eurofighter, American F-15s, B1s, B2s and 52s to explore tactics.
Finally - thanks for the well-recorded demo, buddy, Happy holidays and New Year. (I was writing this ungodly long message while waiting for a call from my sister and kids phoning in for Christmas - they are doing great :-)

[@douglas_brighty_tan127]

Magnificent and awesome footage on the F-35A 😎👏

[@EricksonAviationMedia]

F-35 is an impressive plane in person.

[@douglas_brighty_tan127]

@@EricksonAviationMedia yes as the condensation shows how agile this F-35A really performs 🤩

[@Konkr420]

amazing

[@EricksonAviationMedia]

Thank you! She flew a pretty great demo!

[@AviationStation85]

Was this Sat or Sun?

[@EricksonAviationMedia]

Sunday

[@suissdagout5153]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉