A Day for Planes

A clear sunny morning when we woke up, it was still cool enough for the heating to kick in for a while, but the temperature is on its way back up.

After breakfast we headed off to Naval Air Station (NAS) in Pensacola Florida, about 28 miles East of here. This weekend was the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Naval aviation combined with the last display of the season by the US Navy Blue Angels display team.

We got to the airfield around 11 A.M. and there were plenty of people ahead off us, but there was little delay despite the traffic. We got our exercise in by walking from the parking lot to the public area, about 1 mile. There was a static display as well as a flying display. We hadn’t been to a flying display for over 20 years, and things have changed a little. There was no BIG aircraft either on the ground or in the air, the largest we saw was the Blue Angels support aircraft, a C-130 Hercules called Fat Albert.

There was also the lightest US fighter on display, both on the ground and in the air, the    F-35 Lightning.

There were also a couple of new concepts that I had never seen, nor heard of, before. One was a glider, powered by a jet engine! This is the Super Salto, you can see the small jet on top behind the cockpit.

Next was a modified 1929 Waco Trimwing with a jet engine slung under it.

There were other older aircraft there in the form of Boeing Stearman

The star of the show of course was the Blue Angels Display Team.

Although the team was impressive from the point of view of sound and speed, I was little disappointed with the routine. I have been brought up watching the RAF Red Arrows and Canadian Snowbirds. Both these teams use slower jets, this means that the disply is performed in front of the audience for most of the time. The Blue Angels will do a fast, noisy manoeuvre in front of the crowd and then disappear off and regroup. The other difference I noticed was that the display would often fly low and fast over the crowd, which was good for effect, but has been banned in most countries as a safety hazard. There nothing like an F-18 on afterburner sneaking up behind you just under the speed of sound at 200 feet to get your attention.

All in all, a good trip out.