For the last 4 years has sort of become a tradition that my Dad and Grandpa come to Vegas to see the Air Show at Nellis AFB every November. My grandpa always loved planes; as a kid he had dozens of models hanging from his bedroom ceiling. When I was really small I remember him taking me to an airshow in Pocatello. And I always like spending time with my dad. Dad likes watching them fly, and he gets a kick out of Me and Grandpa getting excited.This year my uncle "Post" came along too.
Normally we park out at the speedway, and ride one of the free shuttles to the base, but it is always a hassle when its time to leave to wait and wait to finally get on a bus. Last year, we literally walked 2 miles in line just to get on the bus at the speedway, and waited almost an hour for the bus to take us back, so this year we decided to see if we could park on base, and just walk onto the flight line. All they asked for was Grandpa's military ID and we were in! It was so much better. No waiting, the walk was very short, and this year we had a scooter for Grandpa, so we didn't have to mess with getting that thing on and off the bus.
The show was already in full swing when we got on base, and these old WWII planes were zooming around, dog fighting, and making mock bombing runs down the runway. The Red Bull MiG was there and performing all kinds of stunts
The interesting thing is that the pilot of this plane actually flew super sabres in the war against these MiGs!
The Patriots are a private demonstration team, and fly the Russian version of the t-38 jet trainer 
They were great , and performed for a pretty long time.
They were very skillful, and performed difficult maneuvers like this knife edge pass:
The air force showed off some of their heavy lift capabilities with the C-17 Globemaster III. Here they are showing a combat take-off, at nearly a 45* angle
and they showed the plane's slow speed abilities:
Gear out, and flaps fully extended an officer from the North Las Vegas Police Department clocked the plane at 71 MPH! I thought it was pretty interesting to see how the landing gear got folded up for flight
coming in for landing they showed more of the C-17's STOL capabilities. It should be able to land in 3,500 feet or less runway
and then it landed:
and with the thrust reversers deployed it stopped, and started to back up!
The Royal Netherlands Air Force had an F-16 demonstration, but they went through like 3 planes to get one to perform, and they said it was their last flyable plane in North America. I'm glad we don't have to count on them!
One of the Last F-4 Phantom's flying:
The Phantom is a supersonic jet that saw major service in Vietnam, and most F-4s have reached the end of their life cycle. They've flown so fast, and so hard that they aren't safe. Many were scrapped, or used as target drones. This one has been completely equipped to fly by remote control, and one day will be used as a target for some fighter jock to shoot down. 
The F-4 was used by the Air Force, Marines and the Navy. Here they showed the landing configuration for a carrier landing, with the hook extended. When the plane landed on an aircraft carrier, the hook would grab one of 4 cables strung across the deck of the ship, and get dragged to a halt. 
One of my favorite demonstrations was the A-10 
The A-10 looks goofy, but it is designed for close air support, helping soldiers on the ground fight the enemy on the ground. It can drop bombs 
And it has a monster Gatling gun in the nose, that fires Depleted Uranium bullets and can pierce the armor of a tank. The gun is so big, the front landing gear is installed off center to make room for the cannon. They showed how the plane can evade small arms fire and Anti -Aircraft guns by jinking around the sky, and maneuvers they use to keep enemy forces under almost constant fire when working in pairs.
The engines are designed to be very quiet to keep enemy forces from knowing they are in the area.
Another part of the show I look forward to every year is the Heritage Flight. They have planes from different eras fly together in formation, so we can see the past and present. 
This year a P-38 Lightning, f-86 Super Sabre, f-4 Phantom, and an A-10 Warthog flew together, representing WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the gulf war-Iraq/Afghan war. 
The P-38 was called the "forked tailed devil" by the Germans, and "two planes, one pilot" by the Japanese
It was in production from pearl Harbor, all the way through V-J day 
And finally the Thunder Birds performed. The Thunder Birds are based out of Nellis, so they finish their year performing for the home crowd.
I love how they take off together, and immediately get into formation. And you can see the absolute power of the jets obscuring the landscape behind them. 
It was pretty cool to see all 6 jets fly in formation
And they're signature move, the starburst:
You can see we were all having a pretty good time
After the Thunder birds performed we wandered around and looked at some of the static displays. There was a B-52 bomber:
and a B-1b Lancer
I never knew they were so big! An F-22 the Air Force's high performance stealth fighter/interceptor
an old Russian SA-8
Russia's first mobile air defense missile system with its own engagement radars on a single vehicle. It seems so wierd to have Russian Anti-Aircraft weapons on a US fighter base doesn't it? Some cool nose art
We were looking at some old WWII bombers and we were looking pretty hard at this B-25j when one of the plane crew saw Grandpa's hat identified him as a Korean War vet, so he let us in under the rope, talked to us for a while, and then took our picture under the nose of Executive sweet! There were a lot of Law Enforcement agencies showing off their cars, and planes and helicopters
Sunday we had planned a little drive up to St George, but Grandpa was feeling too sick to go anywhere, so he stayed home, and Dad and Post and I went to the Imperial Palace to see the car show. I was a little disappointed that there weren't many American cars there this year, but there were a ton of one-off Rolls Royce's, Ferraris, and Jaguars. One Rolls Royce had a toilet installed under the back seat, but the sign said it had only been used to keep the champagne chilled! We went downtown to Freemont Street to see the light show, the huge gold nugget at the Gold Nugget, and to eat fried oreo's. It was a pretty good time.
After we got back to my apartment, I started showing off some of my photo gear, and pretty soon I was snapping pics of Posty and Grandpa.
You can see who was into it,
and who wasn't!
The next morning, my Dad was feeling left out, so I snapped a few of him too 
We went to breakfast 
and then it was time for them to Leave : ( 
I think we all had a great time, and we've already started making plans for next year. Oh, and Post, I found your note under the dish soap. It took a few days, but I found it-and it was completely unnecessary. Come again soon!
1 comment:
Way cool photos BJ. I love how you documented the day in the manner I can understand it!
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