Kristen, the boys, Louise, and I went to Hill AFB on 6 June along with a zillion others to watch aircraft of the past and present. It is a bit belated to write about our day at Hill but it is still worth it. I love anything to do with aircraft so spending a day watching airplanes in the air or on the ground is a good experience. OK, so I grumbled a bit when we got there later than I wanted to but I finally lightened up and enjoyed the experience. There is a certain length of time that 4, 7, and 9 year old boys can "enjoy" looking at airplanes so the timing was just fine. A mild temperature helped make the day a pleasant experience.
My preferred type of aircraft are the WWII vintage (the sound of the motor is soooo cool) but if you want power, the jets are certainly king. I get a new appreciation of engineers every time I am up close to flying machines and see how they have been assembled and then to see them fly with such grace is something to behold.
In the past airshows there seems to have been quite a bit of stunt planes but this time there was that but also flying of the C-17, F4C, F-86, F-15, F-16, F-18, and the Mustang. The USAF Thunderbirds in their F-16s were the highlight of the show. Those pilots have nerves of steel and a steady hand on the stick.
This photo was taken from the bay of a C-5. Quite a crowd!
P-51, F-16, F4C
This C-17 kicked some skydivers out -- see next photo
Soren and Anders up close to an Apache.
The Thunderbird representative told me this F-16 is a model that folds up and fits in a crate. It was a neat display anyway.
Power and wonderful precision! The smoke -- it comes from oil that is piped into the rear of the engine and gets burned and forms smoke. The aircraft can be converted into a combat ready machine in less than 72 hours (remove oil tank and piping, inserting guns and ammo box). They did one in only 22 hours.
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