Family day at the local air base

[rufrdr]

My younger daughter is a SSG with the Air National Guard. Each year they have a family day at the base and usually my wife and I will visit to see the aircraft displays. These pictures are from several years ago when they had a great fly over from WW2 vintage aircraft. There were two B25s there and when they fired up to taxi out and then did their runs over the airfield, it was quite spectacular for a round engine fan like me! The C130s are J models; the aircraft with the orange number is configured for brush firefighting with a slide in tank and pump unit that dispenses a slurry that smothers the fire and contains fertilizer to help new growth after the fire is out.

[Dellboy]

nice pics

[20series]

Very nice pics :goodjob: thanks for sharing

Alan

[rufrdr]

Thanks! Here are some more from another air show at the Navy airfield that shares the same runways with the NG airbase that my daughter works at.


An actual Zero fighter, not a replica. When we arrived at the airshow the Zero was being pursued in the air by the F6F shown in the next photo


This one looks familiar! Got to love the B-25.


The C17 was amazing. The short take off and landing capabilities of the aircraft are something to be seen and a low level pass from the aircraft will blot out the sun as it goes overhead


The infantryman's best friend. The pilot horsing this plane around that day could make it to manuevers that I thought only a fighter was capable of. Wow! And to think the AF wanted to scrap all of these in the late 80s in favor of the F16. Only the Army demanding that they be turned over to their control kept these in the inventory. I read this week that the AF plans to mothball over 100 of them. What a waste.

The Missus and young son with a Humvee that some recruiters from my State Defense force brought to the air show to drum up business. Neither enlisted.

F/A18 Hornet which replaced the F14 for the Navy and Marines.

[20series]

Fond memories of the A10's buzzing around near where I live until they withdrawn from the UK.

My Dad was convinced they used to use his tractor for practice gun runs :lol:

Alan

[ovenpaa]

Great pictures, I cannot get over the colour of the sky, it looks warmer than the warmest summer day here. I was working in a clay pit one afternoon and can remember a pair of A10's flying over and then dipping into the pit so they were below my level and then climbing out the other side. The shocking bit was just how quiet they were until they were on top of me.

[kennyc]

great pics, in the late 70's early 80's I worked at RAF Upper Heyford and went to a fantastic open day there, the A10 demo was probably the most impressive flying I have ever seen, we could see the Red Arrows on the ground before and after their display, and even a Vulcan! the USAF flew a Galaxy down the runway as well, pretty impressive!

[Watcher]

I remember watching A10s at the Warminster Fire Power demos. You see teh target disappear in a cloud of dust then you hear the gun. Interesting to watch them jinking around to get on target.

[rufrdr]

Great pictures, I cannot get over the colour of the sky, it looks warmer than the warmest summer day here. I was working in a clay pit one afternoon and can remember a pair of A10's flying over and then dipping into the pit so they were below my level and then climbing out the other side. The shocking bit was just how quiet they were until they were on top of me.

the A10 has a very unique sound not at all like a high performance fighter. I used to get buzzed by A7s when I was in the ARNG and they had a much louder roar to them. The A10 as you said is a lot quieter. The smoke in the picture of the A10 on the ground was a grass fire started near the runway from some pyrotechnics dropped by one of the aircraft, kind of like giant flash bang bombs. The A10 had to hold for about 20 minutes until the fire got put out.