OT / Watching Thunderbirds practice

Count DeMoney wrote in news:1180381370.846045.240750 @d30g2000prg.googlegroups.com:

When I was in the Navy I used to enjoy watching the Blue Angels practice, especially when I could do so from an area where I could listen in on the radion traffic.

cd

Now that's a tight schedule!

They performed two shows here on Long Island, Saturday and Sunday. The Sunday show at Jones Beach wasn't over until 3 PM...and here they are practicing Monday afternoon in Colorado.

kc

...I was on a night det once and had the joy of having the T-Bird diamond rattle accomodations with their low level practicing after I'd come off shift at 0400 and just settled in to sleep. For a week.

One more reason I don't do airshows...I guess.

There is an excersise on at the base where I work atm ,hornets and F111"s ,as old as it is the F111 is still an awesome aircraft, both on the ground and in the air.

Many years ago I watched a flyover at the Academy - very impressive - especially the SR-71 throttled all the way back as it made its pass.

The high point was the flight of F-105s that hit AB over the Academy. Seems as though they blew out a whole lotta windows with their enthusiasm!!

If I remember correctly, it was the same year that JFK spoke at the graduation.....and then later died in Dallas??

~"Old" Rick

An acquaintance helps run the local Maritime Festival, and a couple of years ago was host to the senior USMC guest, ensconced with the rest of the dignitaries at the end of the West Pier, and this gentleman was holding forth about how superior the Blue Angels were to other display formations. He continued on this theme until the Red Arrows pair did their low level opposition run, crossing directly before him; at which point he rather lost his thread, gave forth of several expletives and tailed away into silence... The Red Arrows usually do their thing on the Sunday but they're busy this year, so they're turning up on the Friday to get the weekend off to a good start. So if you're in West Cumbria on the 15th June, it might be worthwhile passing by Whitehaven...

The craziest flying I've seen outside an airshow (and even then only exceeded by Ivo Nuttorelli, who I thought was going to land on me as I was close to the end of the flight line at an IAT at Fairford - this about a year before he did cremate the crowd at Ramstein) was by a bunch of Danes at an execise over the Spadeadam EW range - I say "over", but they were significantly lover than the most elevated terrain - flying a mixed bag of Drakens and F16s. They were constantly changing formation position, altitude (but always very low), attitude (at least one went inverted at bugger-all feet) and no aircraft seemed to be in the lead of the formation for more than a few moments. It looked daft, until someone suggested it would probably give an automated threat-prioritization system fits...

Cheers,

Moramarth

I don't think the SR-71 had been announced yet at that time. IIRC, it was Johnson who announced the existence of the beastie.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Way back in 1983, I was TDY to Aviano AB Italy. They had put us way out by the NATO Tab-Vs and buildings one afternoon we were treated to a 2-hour practice session of the Frecce Tricolori. They were flying MB-339s and their low level maneuvers were absolutely breath-taking, particularly the reverse bomb-burst...they all had HUGE brass ones!

This, of course, was well before the Ramstein accident.

Bill Woodier said the following on 30/05/07 23:08:

If ever anyone finds themselves in the Bristol, UK area and the Balloon Festival is on then pray for the Red Arrows to turn up.

It is easy to become jaded by seeing them at so many shows but it takes on a whole different meaning when there is no flightline, the display area being a bowl and everyone gets to look up inside the Bomb Burst, Arrows flying downwards at you and outwards in all directions. Not to mention the crossing pair as you stand under them where a runway usually is at other shows and with crowds usually a few hundred feet away.

It really does make your toes curl.

Richard.

I was in Aviano on 20/05 this year and the Frecce were practicing over the NATO airbase. Apparently the Ramstein rules only apply to airshows and not to practice sessions... the road that leads to the base was right beneath their flightpath and I found myself face-to-face with the pilot a couple times - they were low enough to count rivets. Better than any airshow I've ever been. Best moment: a cyclist passing by and shouting to another one who had pulled aside and was watching: "D'you know Senator Menapace is lobbying to suppress the Frecce?" "Yeah, that UGLY B***H!..."

Ciao Bone

Bill, we'll have to compare "manufacture dates" to see who is the real "MFE Sr." - - - My assembly date was 28 Feb 43. Yours?? ;-)

Going back to the earlier post: You're right! The flyover I was referring to most likely took place in June of 1965 - and in looking at my slides, the miniscule image is that of a YF-12 doing the flyby!! I know it wasn't in

1964 because I got married that year. And it wasn't in 1966 as I was on my way to 'Nam about then. So it had to be 1965!

The YF-12 has always been a favorite of mine as I was working in the Commander's Conference Room at HQ Air Defense Command on the morning after Johnson announced the existence of the "A-12" aircraft. All of a sudden I was showing movies and slides of an airframe I had never heard of......and the briefings were being given by officers I worked with on a daily basis......but there had never even been a whisper about the blackbird family's existence!! Sure was a lotta excitement that morning!!

I spent the next year or so as part of a traveling dog and pony show, flying all over the states giving briefings on the YF-12s capabilities. As I recall, something like 12 squadrons would have provided total coverage for the entire USA - as opposed to the 50+ squadrons of F-89s, F-101s, F-102s, F-104s and F-106s of the Active and Reserve/ Guard units tasked with Air Defense at that time.

Unfortunately, the SECDEF, McNamara, did not want the bird as it did not meet his "one size fits all services" ideas of the time period. This also signaled the beginning of the end for Air Defense Command, certainly one of my all time favorite duty assignments.

So thanks for making me open up a musty old locker to look for a few more memories.........

Now who's the oldest??

~Rick

I'm not sure of the date assembly commenced but the product made its debut 16 Feb. 1949. Management was worried as scheduled arrival was to be 27 Jan. I started out 2 weeks late and have been losing ground since. I started adding the Sr. when I ran into several young ladies who referred to me as 'Hon'. I'm now at that awkward age of being too young for Medicare and too old for women to care. ;) Thanks for the info on your publicity tour. When the Revell kits came out I built the YF-12 first. It doesn't surprise me about Macnamara. It's just another reason to spit in his general direction. I remember a story in Collectible Auto about him at Ford. He had this brainstorm to save money by putting the same dashboard in every car. Fortunately the designers talked him out of it.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

I believe he announced the SR-71, it was just a pity that all the drawings said RS-71. The result was a lot of paperwork. Read the story in a book about 10 years ago. Can't remember what book thou :-(

A reverse bomb-burst: I see a bunch of aircraft coming in low and pull up to the vertical to meet along a imaginary vertical axis. That sounds almost impossible to time and rather risky because they couldn't see each other, so I think it's something else.. Please explain!

Rob

My models:

Me 163B site: AQM-34 site: