I work in Richardson, Texas and have to be at work most days due to the nature of my job. As it turns out, the Blue Angels flyover of the Dallas/Ft Worth area included a direct route over my facility. Appeared from the north, hit the smoke just before they passed over and banked to the right as they headed toward downtown Dallas.
Our facility has a large open area next door as well as a parking lot that’s pretty empty these days. As it turns out, it seemed to attract a large number of others who parked in our lot or on the side streets to see the show. Lots of people but enough space that everyone maintained proper separation.
All in all, a spectacular display.
Pretty mindless observation but worth catching if they fly over your area. I believe they will head to Houston and New Orleans later today.
Someone works at a place also known as “Training Institute”, I’m guessing the main campus, not Forest Lane?
I live about a half-mile or so east of there - at Abrams @ Forest. Saw them do their turn and flip on the smoke for a little bit- caught part of their southerly leg down the street as well.
What was dismaying is that a mile or so south (Abrams @ Royal), apparently **hundreds **of nimrods had gathered in the Wells Fargo/Walgreens parking lot because you can see all the way to downtown.
A bit further further north, Shiloh at Renner. I suspect they hit the smoke generators because of the hospital across the street. Forest was my stomping ground growing up, further west near Marsh
I live in east Fort Worth and was returning from getting critters vaccinated. Exited I30 and pulled into a parking lot that had onlookers and pretty much everyone from a little clinic there. The flight was south of us, probably to pass over the heart of the hospital district. They turned the smoke on as circled downtown.
I had pulled up flightaware, but I don’t think they were being tracked, at least I couldn’t pick their path out. I did see a lot of private aircraft stooging along the expected route to watch the flyby.
I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping they’d come screaming up I30 on afterburner at about 500ft. Woot!
I had the experience a few years ago of seeing the Blue Angels fly right over my head, and just barely over my head.
Every year there is a “Fleet Week” event in San Francisco, which includes a variety of festivities, often including an air show over the Bay, and often including the Blue Angels.
Some years ago (circa 2009) I lived in Sonoma County, second county north of S.F. The show was going to be on Saturday or Sunday (or maybe both?), with a rehearsal scheduled for Friday. I drove to the Marin Headlands to watch the rehearsal. This is a mountainous area just at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, with some trails and also some ruins of WWII-era fortifications overlooking the mouth of the bay. That’s where I went. Quite a few others were there too.
This turned out to be directly under their approach path for their flights over the bay. They screamed right overhead, so low that I could almost count the pilots’ teeth. That was quite a show.
I used to live on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. Every year the Blue Angels would go over our building two or three times during the practice runs and the actual shows. They seemed so low that one could have clipped one of the TV towers on the top if the hill if it veered a little off course. Of course, that never happened. Wish I could have seen them turn on the smoke from that close but they never did.
I saw the Snowbirds fly over today in Ottawa. They’re doing a sequence of flights all across Canada, with formation flyovers of all the major hospitals. We’re close to a large hospital complex and saw them almost directly overhead going low and slow in their 9-plane diamond. They also flew over the National War Memorial in honour of the 6 helicopter crew killed in a crash a few days ago.
