The weather was gloomy and not so promising early in the morning but it cleared in time for the main event, the Air Force precision flying team, the Thunderbirds! Sometimes good fortune smiles upon me and an officially estimated 75,000 others.
The air show featured about 20 performances - ranging from precision formation flying to acrobatic dare-deviltry to head-rattling fly-bys. By mid-day the gloom was starting to break up and there were occassional glimses of sunshine.
The US Navy was represented by two performances - one by a WWII vintage Chance Vought F4U Corsair of impressive agility and one by the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A Super Hornet. I was told F/A stood for Fighter-Ground Attack.
If you have seen the movie Topgun and looked at the airplanes instead of Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and Tom Skerrit or Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan (in my case) you know our jets can really fly!
Here the Super Hornet does a high-g turn in front of the crowd and lights up its afterburners in a head-crushing roar.
I dont know this pretty young woman's name...I do know she had a Nikon Coolpix P80 camera with 8 Gig of memory. :) It was kind of funny how things go sometimes. Firstly, in this picture she was holding her friend's camera while the friend tended a fussy baby in a stroller and secondly, she turned away just as I took her picture. Errrrgh!
Anyway, I was looking at her camera with what must of been obvious envy when the Super Hornet screamed past, I instinctively and with reflexes honed by hours of Charlie hunting - took a picture with my point and shoot. Looking at the picture I had just gotten I said outloud, "Oh yes! I nailed that shot!" and she overheard me and asked, "Can I see?" hitting me with this big smile...so I showed her and she said "OMG!! You nailed it!!!"
The shot I nailed. The Super Hornet just about to break the sound barrier at around 760 miles per hour as it zooms by creating a shock wave bubble around it - the humid air after the rain made this bubble have a spectacular prismatic glow.
I turned to the young woman and said, "Someday I'd like a camera with a real lens like yours!" ... and after that I just admired how her hair looked in the sun in total mental obliviousness.
Just for the female readers of this blog (and a certain one in particular) I took a couple of pictures of some sharp looking aviators. Meh, he doesn't do anything for me.
I didn't intentionally take this picture with the thought in mind, but knowing some of you like your tushes, I cropped out some of the interesting supporting equipment used by the Thunderbird flight team for your, umm, enhanced enjoyment.
Being an open house for the base personnel, they were out in force to enjoy the show. I decided this guy didn't really have a case of the sour grapes - he was just telling it like it is!
The sky has finally turned blue when I heard this stirring announcement on the PA system, "Ladies and Gentlemen! The US Air Force Aerial Demonstration Squadron! The one and only, Thunderbirds!"
Zooom! F16 Fighting Falcons, so close together they could ask their neighbor if they had any Grey Poupon and reach out to get it if they did!
I think sometimes they just like showing off. Like, by flying upside down. I said to the young camera toting woman, "I don't think anyone would ever catch me doing that!"
She replied, again with the big smile, "Oh I so want to do that!"
Then the F16 pilot turns the plane around while still upside down and flies the other way. Gulp.
The show over, the F16s landed one after another in perfectly spaced and perfectly timed order.
Dover Air Force Base is the home of the Air Mobility Command, tasked with flying supplies and equipment to our fighting forces anywhere in the world with only a moments notice. Doing so requires some mighty big airplanes, such as this C5 Galaxy coming in for a landing.
This aircraft is huge!! They had one on display with both forward and stern loading ramps open so people could walk through it. You could easily get 6 school buses in there!
The show over, the sun starts to set over the big transport planes on the flight line.
For pictures that other people took - go to the Offical Dover Air Force Base web site (here)
Tomorrow I'll try to post some movies so you can experience the Sound of Freedom for yourselves. I hope I captured some good videos.
15 comments:
Wow what a fantastic day..... Im always a little scared at airshows (not that Ive been to one for years) just incase something crashes.....
One also gets a stiff neck cos of all the sky gazing lol.... our formation team here are called 'The Red Arrows' and are quite fantastic....
Me thinks you was smitten with the 'young lady' you should slipped her your phone number and said, oh I would so love to disgust length of lenses a little more with you' lol.... dam, boy, you need to jump in when these things hit ya :)
X
Thanks so much for taking pictures for us ladies! I have a thing for bootycakes.
Great post! (you know i've been waiting) :) I love air shows and loved those pics. I have lots of photos from the shows I've been to over the years, but they were all taken using 110 or 35mm film.
I'll be looking forward to your video. I spent 3 hours last night trying to upload video from our trip and Ryan's escapades to my computer. I think I got it all in there. All I gotta do now is figure out how to work with it now that it's in there. And yes, the video we talked about is finally on my computer.
Again, great pics. The precison flying teams of the Thunderbirds, Blue Angels and the Snowbirds (from Canada) are awesome to see. You did good with the pics. :)
I've seen this show many times, at bases all over the world. It NEVER fails to impress!!!
Awesome, awesome shots!!!
So, did you get the pretty young lady's name and telephone number? They have the air show here occasionally and I shy away from them because of the crowds. I need to suck it up sometime and go. Those are awesome pictures. I'm looking forward to the videos.
Heh heh heh...~LOVE~ that t-shirt! Great pix.
Ooh, so she's a daredevil, huh? I'd say you should've just gone for it, but then I'd be a hypocrite now wouldn't I? Glad to see you had a great weekend and thanks for taking us along.
Wow! What a great day you had there. I loved all the pix. Thanks for thinking of us ladies too. He's OK in a pinch, but not really my type.
I love air shows. Just looking at the photos brings tears to my eyes. I'm a sap for things like that and the star spangled banner...well, anything patriotic.
oh man..memories of my childhood ...grew up on airbases and have seen the thunderbirds fly so many times and never get tired of it..love all the planes..thanks for a trip down memory lane for me..
So which did you enjoy most? The planes or the young woman? ;)
That show sounds awesome. I've never been to an air show, but my brother has. People seem to think that people of the female gender don't like things like that... We do though! And I can't wait for those videos! :)
I love me a man in uniform!
Great pics. I love the first one. Amazing.
Super pictures. I love air shows and especially the old planes.
Great pictures. My husband loves to go to air shows. I admit I get a little bored after watching the third aircraft blast through the sky.
Awesome pics. I love the percision flying tricks and such...very nice.
And thanks for the airmen photos...you're so sweet to post something for us chicks. :-)
Awesome pictures! Reminds me of when I went to the air show at Edwards Air Force Base in S. California years ago.
How thoughtful of you to post a picture of a HOT aviator. There's something about a man in uniform. Mmmmmmmmm.
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