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You mean everyone doesn't get to see this on their way to work everyday?
Sorry for the bad quality. Taken with my phone while going down the highway
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No; and I'm JEALOUS!
"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge
Due to the prodigious amounts of blacksmoke produced by the twin J-79 there used to be a joke about how the F-4 was the world's only woodburning jet aircraft.
Not as funny when it has to be explained.
They were truly horrendous in that regard. Before the F-4s were more or less entirely replaced by F-14s in the fleet, I swear they had to have been major contributors to southern California smog (not really, but it sure looked like it;)) while doing "touch and goes" at NAS Miramar due to those filthy J-79s.
I used to see some interesting airshows here in rural Southside Virginina.
Hit Google Maps and and type in Disputanta, Virginina.
I don't know if it is still there but there used to be an airbox out in the Shenendoah into West Virginia aircraft out of the idewater used to fly to by passing over our area....often at very low altitude. It was no unusual to here a Hummer go over at about 1,000 feet and about 40 minutes later here would come F-14s, A-7s, A-6s and F/A-18s. One time I was hitting a wedge into the 3rd green at Prince George Golf Course (about a mile NW up RT 460 from the middle of Disputanta) and I swear my ball went OVER an A-6 has it screamed over the course. I mean there were pine needles and pine cones blasted all over us.
At other times it would be F-15s, F-16s and as of late the occasional F-22. Leading up to OEF & OIF I saw B1s on the same route on numerous occasions.
My home is about 9 miles due north of the golf course on the map. I sea all kinds of rotory wing airfcraft coming through back and forth to the Tidewater to FT Pickett, FT Lee, etc. Their air route is right up the James River and they break off at the Harrison Bridge and head west. I see Blackhawks, Chinooks and Stallions ALL the time as well.
Yeah, golf at NAS North Island could be (and maybe still is) a similar adventure as one of the main runways used for doing "touch and goes" is right near the golf course, and airplanes practicing their carrier approach and landings were moving real low and slow. One even used to have to hold off playing for a couple of minutes because one of the taxi routes actually crossed the course, and one wasn't allowed to see if they could hit the airplane with their drives. I was looking at Google Earth (see below) and they've done some major changes to that part of the base since I left San Diego 21 years ago, and a taxi route no longer crosses the course, but you can still see how adventuresome it can be. If you look at the expanded view, you can see how that approach pattern runs more or less along that very expensive beach front property, including that of the iconic Hotel Del Coronado. When I was growing up there, it used to be kind of a blast to hang out at that beach while the S-3A Vikings (also below) were doing their touch and goes, because with their high bypass turbofan engines, they amply demonstrated why they were affectionately known in the fleet as "Hoovers." :hug:
I was there for school back in 88. The Corps being cheap had us assigned to the transient barracks. We were TAD from Camp Lejeune.
The fine folks at NWTGP changed the orders, got us a few rental cars and put us up at the Hotel Del Coronado. One of the best stateside TAD trips I had.
Between the school, where no study material could leave the building, Trophys Lounge and the obligatory trips to TJ, my team had a blast.
Just a side note for all those looking back and down at North Island. Found this rather chilling when I looked "down" of their version of mid air collisions.
Back in 1990s, the Luftwaffe sent a F4 to the RAF Leuchars airshow. As it was taking off, it passed by where I was standing with my nephew who was 14 at the time. You could feel the vibration and the noise. My nephew said when it had taken off, "that was good!"
I used to see some interesting airshows here in rural Southside Virginina
I was stationed at Damneck for a while for C schools and we used to sit under the route from Oceana to VACAPES. Endless streams of F14's, F-4's, A-6's. F-15's Kfir's. A-6's. A-3's. This was the 80's and the Navy had a different plane for every mission on every different day of the week. CAS on tuesday?-A-7. Air superiority on Saturday?-F-14 Sunday? F/A-18.
We started school very early, so we got out early afternoon and would go straight to the beach. Body surf with dolphins and watch the planes. On gunline day we would sneak down the beach and sit just under the dunes in front of the guns and watch outgoing rounds.
When that got boring there was always the water moccasins, deer, and racoons creeping around for fun. Oh, and cheap beer at the EM club.
Those must be G's with the old J-57 engines; they'd use water injection when they were taking off and that made a lot of smoke.
"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge
Just a side note for all those looking back and down at North Island. Found this rather chilling when I looked "down" of their version of mid air collisions.
Tamara, I was there, and by "there" I mean REALLY there. I was working as a volunteer assistant freshman football team coach at my high school alma mater, which was literally a quarter-mile from where the 727 hit the ground in the middle of that neighborhood. My school is an all boys Catholic high school and it was immediately pressed into service as the triage point (see here), and then when it quickly became apparent that there were no wounded to triage, an emergency morgue. In addition to me being on campus, my Mom was the school nurse, and all of the staff and volunteer assistants on campus got "volunteered" to do various administrative things for the first responders, as well as help carry body bags into the gymnasium whereupon they were placed neatly on the brand new wrestling mats (that were then discarded after that one time use). It was a very unpleasant three days, for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was that we were seeing things no one should ever have to see, and that it just so happened that it occurred during one of our infamous Southern California Santa Ana winds, and it was triple digit time when any more than 80 degrees in September (or any time of year for that matter) is unusual. So one might imagine how things began to smell. In my own particular case, I had already enlisted in the Navy and was due to report to OCS in Newport, RI on October 13, 1978. Let me tell you, flying only three weeks after being involved in something like that was not a comfortable experience. I made it, but I wasn't enjoying it. Every little bump and odd noise in the cabin automatically became some worst case scenario in my mind. Regardless, it was all very sad.
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