{"id":496415,"date":"2026-10-15T01:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/496415\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T01:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:20:14","slug":"automatters-more-pacific-airshow-huntington-beach-2026-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/496415\/","title":{"rendered":"AutoMatters & More: Pacific Airshow Huntington Beach 2026 \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Pacific Airshow Huntington Beach returned to Southern California Oct. 2 \u2013 4, just one week after the MCAS Miramar AirShow in San Diego. I covered both annual airshows.<\/p>\n

I drove up from San Diego to Huntington Beach early on Saturday morning, found a place on a city street to park (not an easy feat to accomplish!), and then walked the remaining blocks to the airshow (carrying my heavy camera gear!).<\/p>\n

While both airshows feature military and civilian aircraft, performers and exhibits, the Pacific Airshow Huntington Beach is a civilian airshow, for which admission is charged, whereas the MCAS Miramar AirShow is a military airshow, with free General Admission, parking and a colorful, informative event program. Both shows offer extra-cost hospitality options, at various price points.<\/p>\n

\"RoyalRoyal Air Force Falcons Parachute Display Team
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

The most obvious difference between the two airshows is that the flying performances at the MCAS Miramar AirShow take place entirely over land (at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar), whereas the Pacific Airshow Huntington Beach takes place over the Pacific Ocean, just beyond Huntington Beach. The contrast is dramatic.<\/p>\n

While both shows included exhibits on the ground, there were significantly more on-the-ground exhibits at the Miramar show, with many of those being military aircraft, vehicles, equipment and demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Huntington Beach is an incredible venue for seeing and photographing the aviation demonstrations. This year, thankfully, the weather was beautiful, unlike a recent year when low cloud cover all day prevented us from seeing planes performing. That can happen on the coast.<\/p>\n

There was a wide range of admission options to suit most every budget, starting with $20 General Admission tickets that included: beach access where you could bring your own chair and small umbrella, live announcer commentary, hands-on innovation at the NXTGN STEM LAB, performer signing sessions, access to food vendors and licensed bars for purchase, shopping for Pacific Airshow merchandise, Aviation Alley exhibits and the Pacific Airshow Kids Zone.<\/p>\n

\"UnitedUnited States Air Force F-22 Demo with chaff
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

Additionally, more expensive options included elevated seating on the Huntington Beach Pier, the Garden Bar, the Beach Club, RV camping and more, up to and including Custom Premium Hospitality offerings in Private Cabanas and Chalets.<\/p>\n

Each day\u2019s schedule of performers was not released until shortly before that day. Saturday\u2019s airshow action was virtually non-stop, so as much as I would have liked to explore the exhibits, learn from the presentations on the NXTGN Stem Lab Stage and attend some of the performers\u2019 meet-and-greets, there just was not time to do so all in one day.<\/p>\n

\"RoyalRoyal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

This is from Saturday\u2019s jam-packed schedule: 10:14 AM: Matt Jolley \u2014 Show Intro.; 10:16 AM: Opening Ceremony and Anthems; 10:20 AM: United States Air Force\u2014 Wings of Blue Flag Jump; 10:31 AM: NASA Flyover \u2014 F-15 and F\/A-18; 10:35 AM: USMC \u2014 MV-22 Osprey Demo; 10:48 AM: NASA Freedom 250 \u2014 F-5 x 5; 11:01 AM: Dawn Patrol Airshows \u2014 Formation Team; 11:12 AM: Luke Czepiela, Mike Daniel and Issa Kalfon \u2014 Red Bull; 11:23 AM: Michael Goulian \u2014 Extra 330SC; 11:36 AM: B-25 and TBM Avenger \u2014 Lyon Air Museum and Greg Colyer; 11:45 AM: United States Navy F\/A-18 \u2014 Rhino Demo; 12:02 PM: Bob Carlton \u2014 Foxjet Sailplane; 12:11 PM: Royal Air Force Falcons \u2014 Parachute Display Team; 12:21 PM: Royal Air Force \u2014 C-17: 12:29 PM: Royal Canadian Air Force \u2014 Snowbirds; 1:21 PM: MIG-29 \u2014 Jared Isaacman; 1:30 PM: Red Bull Air Force \u2014 Aaron Fitzerald (Red Bull aerobatic helicopter pilot) and Issa Kalfon (flying the Gravity Industries Jet Suit (powered by miniature jet turbines) up to and then past Luke Czepiela (as he piloted his ultra-light CubCrafters STOL \u2014 Short Takeoff and Landing \u2014 Carbon Cub airplane, low along the shoreline; 1:51 PM: United States Navy \u2014 F-35C Demo; 2:13 PM: Torrey Ward \u2014 Subsonex Microjet; 2:24 PM: Emma McDonald (AU) \u2014 Edge 540; 2:35 PM: United States Air Force \u2014 F-22 Demo (with multiple releases of military chaff \u2014 a radar countermeasure); 2:51 PM: USAF Heritage Flight \u2014 P-38; 3:02 PM: Greg Colyer T-33 and Jason Somes MIG-17; 3:15 PM: Jeff Boerboon \u2014 Extra 330SC; 3:32 PM: United States Air Force Thunderbirds!<\/p>\n

\"SeagullSeagull joining USAF Thunderbirds in formation
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

Visit the AutoMatters.net website to see many of my photos from Saturday, including one where a seagull (that I sharpened to improve its focus) appears to be joining the USAF Thunderbirds in formation!<\/p>\n

For more information about the Pacific Airshow Huntington Beach, visit: https:\/\/pacificairshowusa.com.<\/p>\n

To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latest text, visit \u201cAutoMatters & More\u201d at https:\/\/automatters.net. Search by title or topic in the Search Bar in the middle of the Home Page or click on the blue \u2018years\u2019 boxes and browse.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 by Jan Wagner \u2013 AutoMatters & More #947r1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Pacific Airshow Huntington Beach returned to Southern California Oct. 2 \u2013 4, just one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[310,1002,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-496415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-del-mar-times","tag-del-mar-times-opinion","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}