Ok! I'm the original poster, so here is my experience from yesterday! Yes, I did see a few people using tripods, but I wonder what they got. There were tons of people there, and a BIG problem was that many of them had unbrellas which were always in the way. They should make the umbrella carriers stand in the back! I took my Tamron150-600, but it was too much, and I mostly just lugged it around in its case. Very heavy! Good lens, but not needed for that event. I used the Tamron 16-300, and it worked well. Most shots were from around 200-300mm, hand held. I tried some slower shutter speeds on the V-22's. Wonderful propeller arcs--- wonderful shaky airplanes, too! Finding the right combination is a trick! Using a hot shoe reflex finder helped on those head-on passes. I'll try to post some pictures later, but maybe one this time.