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View Full Version : Local air show this weekend..preview.



Jim O'Dell
05-12-2006, 11:39 AM
The JRB here in Fort Worth, formally Carswell Air Force Base, has it's annual air show this weekend as a thanks to the community. I work about 3 miles from the south end of the runway, so we get a preview yesterday and today. So far the only thing flying has been the Thunderbirds. I swear yesterday you could tell what color the pilots eyes were as they flew over the dealership! :D :D
Come join me if you're not doing anything! Jim.

Martin Shupe
05-12-2006, 1:38 PM
The JRB here in Fort Worth, formally Carswell Air Force Base, has it's annual air show this weekend as a thanks to the community. I work about 3 miles from the south end of the runway, so we get a preview yesterday and today. So far the only thing flying has been the Thunderbirds. I swear yesterday you could tell what color the pilots eyes were as they flew over the dealership! :D :D
Come join me if you're not doing anything! Jim.

Uh, Jim, if you saw the same planes I saw when I was in Ft. Worth yesterday, they weren't the Thunderbirds...they were the Blue Angels.

F/A-18's painted blue and gold, instead of F-16's.

Unless, of course, they are BOTH going to be at the show, which would be highly unusual.

Aim Higher, Fly Navy!:D

Jim O'Dell
05-12-2006, 2:26 PM
Blame it on public education, I guess. Of course it's the Blue Angles, it's a Navy base for pete's sake.
Thanks for the correction. Don't know when the Thunderbirds got into my head. I've been reading the Blue Angle web site since Wed. at work. Would love to see Fat Albert take off with the rocket assist. But they won't do that here. Jim.

Mike Ramsey
05-12-2006, 2:53 PM
Jim, I lived in Ft Worth for 10 yrs. I did some work at Carswell back
in the 80's, we were on top of the AFES building when the T-Birds came
in the day before the show and they did a preliminary kinda show for
the base & I didn't know about it, when they came across the top
of the AFES I almost fell off the building! Seemed like I could reach
up to touch the bottom of the planes. What happened to Carswell?
It was still going strong when I lived there. Is General Dynamics
still there?

Lee DeRaud
05-12-2006, 3:03 PM
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Carswell has closed: every other base my dad was ever stationed is now closed or, in the case of Danang, under new management :eek:.

Oh wait, the Pentagon's still open...I guess that counts.:p

Joe Pelonio
05-12-2006, 3:23 PM
My Godson was 5 when his dad and I took him and my daughter to see the Blue Angels for the first time. Nick pointed to them in the sky and said to his Dad "some day I'm going to do that." He's now an F/A18 pilot with
the Navy out of Lemore, CA, currently on deployment with the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Lars Thomas
05-12-2006, 4:16 PM
Joe, great pix. Nick really folowed through with his dreams, that's great. Lars

Vaughn McMillan
05-12-2006, 5:23 PM
Years ago when I worked at the Albuquerque airport, the Blue Angels were in town for a show, and like Jim, we were treated to some fun low-altitude practice runs. When they're low and fast enough, you can hear the wings literally ripping the air as the plane passes by. The day of the show, we took chairs and beer coolers to the roof of the then-incomplete concourse building and had the best seats in the house.

- Vaughn

Tim Solley
05-12-2006, 5:34 PM
Jim, if I were you I'd try to find out if "Shockwave" will be there. I've never seen it in person, only on TV. It's a Peterbuilt truck with three jet engines strapped to the back that does the quarter mile in just over 6 seconds and goes almost 400 miles per hour.

I've seen the Blue Angels before, but I'd REALLY like to see this thing in person.

Tim

Jim O'Dell
05-12-2006, 8:42 PM
Jim, I lived in Ft Worth for 10 yrs. I did some work at Carswell back
in the 80's, we were on top of the AFES building when the T-Birds came
in the day before the show and they did a preliminary kinda show for
the base & I didn't know about it, when they came across the top
of the AFES I almost fell off the building! Seemed like I could reach
up to touch the bottom of the planes. What happened to Carswell?
It was still going strong when I lived there. Is General Dynamics
still there?


Mike and Lee, I had this all typed up at work, then got busy and cleared the computer when I left without sending it. :mad:
Carswell went away about 10 years ago in the nationwide wave of base closures. We were lucky in that the Naval base in Grand Prairie also closed, but moved here. So now this is a Joint Reserve air Base. SAC base pulled out a few years before that IIRC. General Dynamics was bought out by Lockheed/Martin some years ago too. Maybe about the same time as the base closures. They still build the few remaining orders for F-16's, and will do some of the assembly and components of the 22 (F22? YF22? I don't remember) But gone are the B-52's and their supporting aircraft. I miss the windows in the house rattling as they took off, and I lived a good 8 miles from the runway at that time! The tankers were even louder.
I was on base about 2 weeks ago for a wedding (a friend of ours daughter married a Marine that was stationed there). I was surprised to see several buildings under construction. I hadn't realized how many "retired" aircraft they had on display inside the base. Some really nice birds from the 50' through 70's. Did you ever hear any of the scoop about the B-52 that slid off the runway and ended up underwater in Lake Worth off the north end of the runway? The guard towers and fencing out in the lake has been gone for a few years. Would love to know what really happened.
Tim, I haven't heard if "Shockwave" will be there or not. I rather doubt it as it's a free show to thank the community for it's support. It's really all military stuff. Two years ago they ended with an all out assault of the airbase to mimick an invasion. Paratroopers and all! (The F-16's were practicing their runway bombing again today, complete with the billowing black jet fuel fire smoke.) I didn't go, but I heard from several that it was a stunning display.

Bill Lewis
05-15-2006, 6:27 AM
Well I work for the Navy, and as such used to have access to one of the best viewing sites for the BA's. We had a Lab directly across the Severn River from the Naval Acadamy in Annapolis, MD where we could go to watch the show during graduation week. What made this site special was that it was ground zero for the show so all of the aerobatics occurred directly overhead, or just in front of us.

However, they built a high flyover bridge across the Severn River that restricted the flying so it wasn't the same after that happened. I say we "had" this lab because the base was "closed" (handed over to private industry) by the BRAC so I haven't been back since.

One year, just about when the show was to start, a little Cessna 150 came flying up the river. It was something to watch an F-18 to literally fly circles around it to get it to leave. Unfortunately that also cut the show very short becasue they wasted so much fuel for that idiot.