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View Full Version : It's that Air Show time of year...

FairyChatMom
10-31-2002, 12:07 PM
This weekend is the 2002 Jacksonville Sea and Sky Spectacular (http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102802/met_10808679.shtml) here at NAS Jacksonville. As in years past, the participants practice before the show. The Blue Angels have been zooming back and forth overhead today. Sometimes they pass so low and so loud, all the car alarms in the parking lot are set off. :D

Some years back before this end of the building was refurbished, my desk was along the north wall facing out the windows. The runways are north of this building, so I could sit there and watch all the aircraft practice for the aerial demonstrations. Ah, those were the days. Since the remodeling, no one sits at the windows, and all the partitions are 5' tall, so we can't see out any of the windows from our desks anyway. <sigh>

Still, it's gonna be a great weekend for an air show - cool and clear. If I wasn't so jaded about the whole thing, I'd attend myself.
radar ralf
10-31-2002, 12:38 PM
Jaded? How so? It's still a great show, right? What are flying nowadays? F/A - 17s? Up here, we get mostly the T-birds. I haven't seen the Blue Angels in quite a long time. Dang, the first Blue Angels show I saw was when they were flying F-4 Phantoms. The J model, I think, or maybe the earlier B model. I was fortunate to be around the A, B, J, and N models.
FairyChatMom
10-31-2002, 12:56 PM
The Blue Angels (http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/aircraft/b-angels/blues.html) fly F/A-18s now. And I'm ever so slightly jaded because I've been going to these shows since 1974 - I won't say I've seen it all but I've seen a lot. And I work on Navy aircraft for a living, so seeing planes is no biggie to me.

Right now, the biplanes are taking their practice - it sounds like a scene from a barnstormer movie. Needless to say, there's not a lot of work getting done this afternoon. Everyone keeps running outside to watch.
radar ralf
10-31-2002, 05:21 PM
Oops... yep, I meant 18s. I understand what you mean by seeing the same show every year. What a/c do you work on?
FairyChatMom
10-31-2002, 06:01 PM
P-3s now, but I've done work on S-3, T-2, A-7, and some jet engines
radar ralf
10-31-2002, 08:57 PM
P-3s! I didn't know the Orions were still flying!
FairyChatMom
10-31-2002, 09:03 PM
Orions will be flying for a while longer - the powers that be still haven't decided on its replacement. I expect I'll be retired before they all are - the planes, I mean, not the powers! :D
Llama Llogophile
10-31-2002, 09:54 PM
I went to my first air show in August. Way cool.

Saw a guy loop a stock Cub at around 150 feet. Incredible. They also had an F-16 demonstration that was very impressive. Lots of guys doing aerobatics in Extra 300's and Pitts Specials.

It was interesting to me that the Cub and the F-16 were the best parts for me. Low tech to high tech.