Weather curtails Saturday's Westmoreland airshow; disappointed fans can return

Mother Nature wasn’t on the side of the Angels, or their fans, Saturday.

A low cloud ceiling kept the headlining Navy Blue Angels jet demonstration team from taking to the skies, along with several other aircraft that were slated to appear during the first day of this weekend’s Shop ’n Save Westmore­land County Airshow.

But the clouds that curtailed Saturday’s aerial lineup came with a silver lining. Officials at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, reversing an earlier policy, said disappointed spectators who want to return can do so, either for Sunday’s conclusion of this year’s event or for a future show.

On Sunday, officials at the Unity airport will honor tickets regardless of whether they were purchased for Sunday or Saturday.

Because of covid restrictions in place when the drive-in air show was being planned, the Westmore­land County Airport Authority limited attendance to 1,000 vehicles for each of the show’s two days. About 90% of those tickets, sold through Shop ’n Save supermarkets, had been snapped up.

Organizers are hoping for better weather Sunday, when the show is scheduled to kick off just before noon. The show also will be livestreamed on the event’s Facebook page.

Unseasonably cold temperatures in the 50s and intermittent light rain made for a dreary day at Saturday’s portion of the show. But that didn’t keep away ticket-holders, many of whom packed their vehicles with family and friends and came prepared to tailgate.

Kathleen Carnicella of Pittsburgh’s North Hills brought two of her children and their families, for a party of eight.

It was the clan’s first time attending the local air show, though she remembered her children and her seeing the Blue Angels perform aerial maneuvers years ago in Ohio.

Unfortunately, like all others who attended Saturday, they didn’t get to witness the six-jet team’s precision formations.

“I love when they (fly) real close together,” Carnicella said. “That’s what the boys want to see.”

Michael Horvath wasn’t too disappointed, though he brought his family from Carroll­town to take in the show with the family of his brother-in-law, Kevin Veneskey of Derry Township.

Horvath enjoyed the bone-rattling aerial patterns executed relatively low to the ground by an Air Force F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet that can reach speeds up to 1,500 mph and a maximum thrust of 35,000 pounds. He captured the jet’s maneuvers in a video and fired it off to his brother, an Air Force veteran.

“It was worth coming down here, no doubt about it,” he said. “I wish the weather would lift, but it’s still good. It’s a fantastic day.”

A handful of longtime “red shirt” volunteers at the air show, including Anthony Ferrante of Vandergrift, adjusted their crowd control skills to focus on the first-time drive-in format.

“It’s a different year,” he noted. “Usually, thousands of people are there in an area where the planes are coming out, and people will fly in to see the air show. Nobody’s flying in this time.”

Aerobatic pilots Skip Stewart of Lakeland, Tenn., and Greg Koontz of Ashville, Ala., were able to perform in their respective small aircraft, a Pitts S-2S biplane and a Piper J-3 Cub. But Jim Tobul of Jackson Hole, Wyo., who grew up in Wexford, was unable to take off in his 1945 F4U Corsair fighter plane.

“I need about 2,000 feet of clearance under the clouds to perform,” Tobul said. “Unfortunately, a low pressure system came in, and it started to stagnate and became stationary.”

In the first phase of its existence, the Corsair completed more than 200 combat missions during the Korean War.

The Corsair and Pitts were to have been joined by a P-51 Mustang fighter plane and a modified MXS aerobatic plane in a Saturday morning flyover of several Westmoreland County communities before the air show got underway.

That effort also was scrapped because of poor weather conditions. But the Heroes’ Tribute flyover will be attempted again, beginning about 10:15 a.m. Sunday.

Expected to include passes over the Ligonier, Vandergrift, Rostraver, Jeannette, Greensburg and Mt. Pleasant areas, it is meant as a salute to first responders and essential workers who have provided vital services in the region during the pandemic.