This show was held on March 29th and 30th right after a cold front passed through the area, leaving temperatures in the 30's with a cold strong wind out of the west. Unfortunately it was overcast most of the weekend and the sun only started coming out immediately after the Blue Angels concluded their great performance at the end of Sunday's show. This show had free admission and only a $5 parking charge, a real bargain compared to the Florida International Air Show at Punta Gorda the week before. Traffic control was excellent with minimum waiting times for entrance at the peak arrival time for the public on the Sunday I attended.

Like the Florida International Air Show in Punta Gorda the weekend before, this air show used only portable plastic barricade fencing to separate the public from the performing aircraft. Numerous aircraft including NASA's Super Guppy and a new Navy F/A-18J Super Hornet were on static display for the public to touch, climb in, etc. Since the war in Iraq was well underway and the country was under Orange alert status at the time of the Huntsville Air Show, one can only wonder why Bill Sherry, A.A.E., Airport Director at Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL), kept the public view park on the west side of FLL closed to the public during the 2003 McDonald's Air & Sea Show the first week of May, when the war was all but over and weeks after the national alert status was downgraded to Yellow. The public view park has a permanent seven foot tall metal chain link fence with barbed wire on top, yet the park was deemed a security hazard by the TSA, Broward Sheriff's Office and Bill Sherry? This questionable, illogical and non-sensical closure denied the public the only chance this year to see warbirds, military fights and the Thunderbirds taxiing out, taking off and returning after their performance along Ft. Lauderdale beach.

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