California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport (KACV) near Arcata and Eureka in Northern California, is widely recognized as the foggiest airport in the United States — an interesting factoid I wish I had learned prior to attending the 2026 Rumble Over the Redwoods Airshow in early August.
This year was the third occurrence of this young air show held in the northwest corner of California.
On Aug. 8, the first day of the show, hopes were high that the thick fog shrouding the airport would burn off by noon. Any such optimism was tempered with an announcement of a one-hour delay, although the fog did lift enough to begin flight ops shortly afterwards.
With country music artist Lee Greenwood on hand to sing the National Anthem, things finally got underway.
There is a Coast Guard station at the airport, so they did not have to fly far to perform their rescue demo. A CAL FIRE Firehawk also made an appearance, hovering and performing some taxi demonstrations before departing.
Bernie Vasquez then took to the air in “Goliath,” a highly modified, 1941 Super Stearman biplane for an abbreviated routine when the fog decided to return.
To their credit, the show organizers did their best to keep the crowd entertained, whether it was taxiing aircraft or an appearance by Sasquatch as he tried to scare the fog away.
Of course, the presence of fog did not impact the comings and goings of scheduled airline traffic, which the show schedule had to work around.
As the foggy afternoon wore on, a warbird “elephant walk” was conducted for the fans to see and hear some warbirds. An “elephant walk” is a large number of military planes taxiing in close formation. In this case, it included a B-17 Flying Fortress, P-47 Thunderbolt, F4U Corsair, AD-4 Skyraider, TBM Avenger, and a B-25 Mitchell. The parade of warbirds was punctuated by multiple pyrotechnic displays, including an eagerly awaited Wall of Fire.
Fortunately, on Sunday the fog retreated enough for planes to get some flying in. Being a smaller venue, the performances were more flight demos than aerobatic in nature.
The Erickson Air Collection in Oregon brought its B-17 Flying Fortress “Ye Olde Pub” and AD-4 Skyraider, while the Planes of Fame added a P-47 Thunderbolt, F4U Corsair, and a P-51 Mustang.
Greg Colyer brought his TBM Avenger and the Lost Coast Warbirds’ B-25 Mitchell rounded out the World War II warbirds.
There were two historic Mustangs on hand to celebrate the heritage of air racing. Vicky Benzing brought her P-51D Mustang “Plum Crazy,” best remembered as the 1970 Unlimited Champion, while Warren Pietsch brought his P-51C Mustang ”Thunderbird,” formerly owned by actor Jimmy Stewart and winner of the 1949 Bendix race.
Jet fans enjoyed a rare Cessna A-37 Dragonfly attack jet in South Vietnamese Air Force livery, along with a three-ship performance by the Patriot Jet Team that closed the show.
Those looking for something different found it when the Red Bull Air Force performed the “Pick and Flick,” where a Cessna 180 flies over and plucks a skydiver out of a vehicle racing down the runway and brings him up to a safe jump altitude.
A smattering of aircraft were on display for the 11,000 attendees to peruse. Aside from the warbird ramp, FedEx displayed one of its new Cessna SkyCourier cargo planes, while utility company Pacific Gas & Electric brought one of its ex-military UH-60 Blackhawks.
Vendor booths, food trucks, and even a Ferris Wheel completed the air show experience.
KACV was built by the United States Navy during World War II to test defogging systems. In December 1947 a Southwest Airways Douglas DC-3 made the world’s first blind landing by a scheduled commercial airliner at the airport.
For more information: RumbleOverTheRedwoods.com
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