The largest aviation event in the world — so far in 2020 — was held online April 21-23, livestreamed over Facebook and YouTube.
The Socially Distant Air Show was a fundraiser for the International Council of Air Shows Foundation to help those who make their living through airshows during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We just wanted to raise whatever we could to help our family,” said Rob Reider, an airshow announcer who joined with other airshow announcers Matt Jolley and Ric Peterson for the three-day event. The three also host a podcast called Show Center.
The idea for the online air show came when the men found themselves out of work as air shows around the country are cancelled and postponed.
“When we found ourselves the victims of the coronavirus — as so many others — we thought, ‘we’re out of work,’” said Reider. “But there are some people in our business who depend on this in a big way. And without work, some of them could be in a world of hurt.”
The virtual airshow raised about $25,000 for the ICAS Foundation.
If you weren’t able to catch the airshow live, you’re still in luck. All three days of the fundraiser are on LiveAirShowTV’s YouTube channel, including all the chat messages that were streamed from viewers around the globe during the airshow.
In fact, for those who watched the airshow live, the chat messages were sometimes more entertaining than the show — especially on day two when airshow performers, including Michael Goulian, Patty Wagstaff and more, were chatting with fans.
Fans from around the world tuned in for the live broadcast, including Pakistan, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and more.
According to Reider, the broadcasts had 133,866 total views. Post-reach impressions — from Facebook, Instagram and YouTube — reached 582,966, he added.
“Possibly most importantly and most impressively, the average watch time was 21 minutes, 4 seconds,” he reported.
Another impressive number: More than 90 videos were submitted by airshow performers for the three-day fundraiser. Most of the videos were original content created exclusively for the Socially Distant Airshow.
“We couldn’t use every video that was submitted,” Reider noted, adding others had to be cut short for time.
Videos were submitted by the F-35 Demonstration Team, the SHOCKWAVE jet truck, a Belgian Air Force F-16 solo display, the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, Patty Wagstaff, Sean Tucker, the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team, Michael Goulian, Adam Baker, Rob Holland, Bill Stein, Mike Wiskus, the Patrouille Suisse, the Czech Air Force’s Grippen jet fighter solo display, the Patrouille de France, and many more. Closing out the virtual show was a new video from the Thunderbirds — which was highly anticipated by viewers.
Performers from eight countries were included in the fundraiser, Reider added.
Like anything else online, the first day of the event had some technical glitches, but for the most part ran quite smoothly. The three air show announcers credit LiveAirShowTV’s Jeff Lee and his son Bryan with that, noting they worked very hard to make the fundraiser a reality.
Shelter in place restrictions made the work even more challenging, according to Reider.
Jeff handled technical cues over Zoom with the three air show announcers — who were in Ontario, Canada, Ohio, and Georgia — while Bryan was at Fort Rucker in Alabama, which is on lockdown because of the coronavirus.
“So Jeff was talking on a separate Skype channel to Bryan and giving us our cues on Zoom,” Reider reported.
The fourth on-screen personality was Stephanie Stricklen, who is in California. She handled the social media aspects of the event.
Besides the viewers who donated during the three days, there were four companies that made donations to the ICAS Foundation, essentially “sponsoring” a segment of the virtual airshow: Lockheed Martin, Geico, Lucas Oil Products, and Skies Magazine, a Canadian aviation magazine.
According to Reider, 100% of the proceeds from the fundraiser will be used by the ICAS Foundation to help air show professionals who have been put out of work during the crisis. Foundation officials are in charge of distributing the funds in “as equitable a fashion as possible,” he said.
Missed your chance to donate? You can still donate online at ICASFoundation.org.
