Airshow on a KAVU day!

By: Felicia Sturgeon - Additional photos by KT Peach

By KAVU

January 14^th, 2025

Last month, I got to do a demonstration jump into the 2024 NAS (Naval Air Station) Oceana Air Show, in Virginia. The NAS Oceana Air Show is the U.S. Navy’s largest open house event, attracting more than 300,000 visitors annually to the Navy’s East Coast Master Jet Base in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It's an incredible display of internationally acclaimed acrobatic pilots and military air power. The main event was the Navy's demonstration team, The Blue Angels.

My partner, Matt, was asked to assemble a team of 4 "Swoopers" for this demonstration jump. We were the opening act at the Air Show, along with some other local jumpers from Skydive Suffolk. He picked me, and two of his co-workers for the event. I had never been to Virginia before, so I was pretty excited to check it all out!

This demo was so fun!

It was crazy getting to do a skydive on a military base surrounded by so many fighter jets and military aircraft. Our staging area/gear up area for the jumps was surrounded by F-18's!

The jumps were thought out and planned so that we could fly together and execute a team landing with smoke onto the airfield in front of the crowd.

Where we were landing just happened to be right where the Blue Angels were parked on the tarmac. What a wild experience it was to be swooping past The Blue Angels!

After the jumps, we got to chill and enjoy the air show for the rest of this very "KAVU day".

Another part of the Air Show took place at sunset on Virginia Beach. We were tasked to jump smoke and pyrotechnics (fireworks), and to land on the beach.

The pyro always looks so cool at night!

After our jump, the F-22 Raptor team did a demonstration for the public over the beach.

Overall, this was such a fun event.... and incredible experience! If you happen to be around Virginia Beach next year for this Air Show, it's definitely worth checking out! We will likely be back jumping into it again next year.