Sweet F-18 Picture

[Jason Tuinstra]

Since I moved into the new digs, I've become good friends with a bunch of Navy guys who live around us. One of the guys is a demo pilot who flies in various airshows across the states. He just sent me these pictures of his flight from this past weekend. I thought they were pretty sweet and that you guys might get a kick out of them. The cloud formation is him flirting with going through the sound barrier. I think he was Mach .9999 at this point. Anyway, pretty cool.

[John Hart]

Wow. I've seen pictures of them breaking the barrier....but never that good. Beautiful shots!

[Donnie Raines]

Love those fighter plane shots!!!!

[Dan Mages]

A week or two after 9/11 I heard a muffled boom and my desk shook. I think my heart skipped a beat and a serious "oh crap" went through my mind. I looked out the window and there were people rushing into the parking lot. After a minute or two I calmed down and found out that it was a couple of fighters breaking the sound barrier to intercept a plane with a roudy passenger (who turned out to be metally handicapped) that was about to land at O'Hare. Needless to say, it was the scare of a lifetime.

Dan

[Vaughn McMillan]

Very cool pics, Jason. Like John, I've seen several pics of planes breaking the barrier, but I don't think I've seen any as good as these. Must be one heck of a ride!

- Vaughn

[Dennis Peacock]

I'm an air plane freak any way........LOVE those pics.!!!!! :D

[Joe Pelonio]

Jason,

Ask him if he knows Nick Saunders, he's my godson and flies an F-18
based in Lemoore, got married last spring and they just bought a house in Hanford. Nick has offered to call me and maybe try to arrange a ride-along
if he ever flies up to Whidbey Island WA - not sure I'm up to that.

[Martin Shupe]

F/A-18 pilot, just off the cat shot: "Where's the tanker?" :D

[Andrew Ault]

The sound of freedom...always welcome over my house, a couple of miles from Miramar.

This is a Super Hornet. With tanks and fully armed, capable of a 390 nautical mile combat radius straight off the cat (four thousand lbs in bombs plus air to air missiles). Or, a mixture any of almost thirty different weapon loads.

I've been camping in the desert when C/D models were dogfighting. Even the little we could see was unbelievable.

At the airshow at Miramar a few years ago, the Blue Angels accidentally went supersonic during a show and the sound of the shockwave was amazing (and destructive).

Expensive and beautiful.

[Charles McKinley]

SWEEEEEEEETTTTT!

Thanks for the pictures!

[Rich Konopka]

Cool Video of a F-14 (http://www.users.qwest.net/%7Eintertwingled/sonic.mpg) (Need Quicktime Payer) and a few more (http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817-English.htm) I found on Digg.com. Really cool stuff !!

Cheers,

[John Hart]

Wow!! Cool Rich! Thanks!

[Andy Hoyt]

The Navy wanted me to re-enist really badly, but I wasn't interested. The problem was that I didn't know how to say, "No".

Instead I said, "Sure, but only if I'm in the back seat of a Tomcat at Mach 1.whatever when I say, "I do." ".

Buggers called my bluff. Helo'd over to a flattop, got suited, briefed, launched, went supersonic and put my right hand up in the air. That experience was certainly worth four more years. But the landing was the most terrifying thing I'll absolutely never do again.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Rich, pretty cool video. Last night we were at a get together at our neighbors and he was showing us video that he shot while he had to fly in the back seat. It was pretty cool as well. Nothing supersonic but they were flying pretty tight to the ground while they were going through the mountains. I'll see if I can get it and some how link it for you guys if you're interested.

Friday me and my two oldest boys went to the base and they got to flying in the flight sims. Due to security, we couldn't dog fight against migs, so we chased a flying aircraft carrier and gunned him down - or at least we tried. We had a total blast. Best video game out there! Then our neighbor flew the airshow demonstration while we took turns being in the back seat. You don't know how real it all is until you try walking around after a few minutes in the sim. It was a ton of fun! Guess what my boys want to do when they grow up?

[Jason Tuinstra]

Andy, two of the guys who live on the other side of us are former f-14 guys who now fly the Super Hornet. They love the tomcat - a real kick in the pants compared to the hornet. You launched off the carrier, right? How was that part of the ride? I think that would be the big thrill as well.

[Keith Outten]

I grew up about three miles from the main gate at Langley AFB in Hampton. During the late 50's and early 60's we lost more windows and glassware than you could imagine in my neigborhood. The damage got so bad the Mayor's from several of the localities had to visit the Base Commander and complain. They struck a deal and everyone agreed that breaking the sound barrier would be restricted to a major emergency.

Working at CNU we see the new Raptors flying overhead almost every day now since Langley has a new squadron. Just awesome, the noise isn't a big factor anymore, I guess we have just gotten used to it but visitors often are seen holding their ears :)

Personally I am amazed at the sight of these flying marvels, they are the coolest thing I have ever seen in the air. If for some reason we stopped seeing them I would be worried, the noise is a friendly reminder of the "Sound of Freedom".

Not to be upstaged the Navy has their big shows often enough, local bridges open and highways become parking lots often when the big boats come and go here. Watching the nuclear aircraft carriers come and go has become old hat now, even the subs don't raise an eyebrow anymore...just part of living near the big pond.

Back on topic, anyone of you who can make the trip to Langley they have an annual air show that is worth traveling to see. Air Show Over Hampton Roads is guarrenteed to be the best show in town every year with plenty of modern technology and the antique planes as well. When i was a kid we used to go every year just to see the Thunderbirds fly. They used to do a stunt called the "Star Burst" which has been outlawed by the Air Force for years, it was the most dangerous thing I have ever seen.

[John Hart]

...When i was a kid we used to go every year just to see the Thunderbirds fly. They used to do a stunt called the "Star Burst" which has been outlawed by the Air Force for years, it was the most dangerous thing I have ever seen.

Even though I'm Navy, I grew up as an Air Force Brat. Every year, we went to see the T-Birds and that's something I never got tired of. The Star Burst was a thrilling sight. One year, it was too cloudy for them to do the star burst vertically, so they did it horizontal. Not as grand and glorious looking but it looked more dangerous. The pilots of the T-Birds and the Blue Angels have my unwavering respect!

[Andy Hoyt]

Andy, two of the guys who live on the other side of us are former f-14 guys who now fly the Super Hornet. They love the tomcat - a real kick in the pants compared to the hornet. You launched off the carrier, right? How was that part of the ride? I think that would be the big thrill as well.

Yup. Off the flight deck. Cat shot nearly knocked the wind out of me. Scary part was the loss of altitude just after getting airborne. For extra lift they time the launch so that as you depart the flight deck the bow is heaving up from the swells. At least in theory.

Landing 45 minutes later was scary. That 1500 foot long ship/airfield is really really small and moving in a heading slightly different than your own. Oh yeah! It's moving! And the stern of the ship is a 100' high shear faced cliff. And it's moving too. Touchdown is noisy and stopping is , well, umm, somewhat abrupt.

These navy jet jocks are the best!