May 6, 2014 NAVAL AIR STATION, Pensacola, FL
Today we visited the home of the Blue Angels. We have been here on another trip a year or two ago so I have not posted pictures of the inside of the museum. We didn’t get to see the “Angel’s” then since we visited over the weekend. They practice for the air shows on Tuesday and Wednesday at 11:30 and it lasts one hour. Today we went just to see the practice and it was well worth it. The skies and weather were perfect with a slight breeze. We arrived at the air strip at 9:45 and they opened the gate at 10:30. There was already a pretty long line. We were still able to set our chairs in the front just behind the flight line. There was 5 – 6 thousand in attendance, but during the summer months and holidays they get 10 to 15 thousand on an average. The March practice had 28,000 since it was the first time since the federal government budget cuts cancelled them that the Angels flew again.
As you can see we are very comfortable in the front row of the flight line
The Blue Angels C-130 Cargo plane carries all equipment
to and from the Air Shows.
This plane and the set ups are done by the Marines
and this plane is fondly named "Fat Albert" after the cartoon
character because the yellow nose looks like
Fat Albert's belly.
The gargantuan transport plane starts each show by accelerating to 200 mph
only 6 feet off the ground. They they pull up at a 45-degree angle, and it pulls
2 G's to do that.
By the time the plane is a good ways in the air, there is a short period of zero gravity
sending everything floating, if it wasn't strapped down.
The
pilots fly F/A –18 A Hornets (which costs approximately $21 million apiece
without any extras). The team flies as
fast as 680 miles an hour and as slow as 120 and as close as 18 inches during
the Diamond 360 maneuver.
You can see them coming together - one right side up
and the other upside down.
Above, the look almost attached
and then separated again
Straight up
fantastic precision no matter the maneuver
The museum and air
practice shows are totally free and well worth going to if you are in the
area.
We enjoyed every minute of
it and you watch training practices before the main Blue Angles practice show
begins.
4 comments:
I would love to see this - glad you were able to take it all in. Thanks for the new link, hope this works. I've been with you each step, just couldn't post. Love you.
These pics are really cool. When they came to Lakeland they flew REAL close, but I didnt get any pics nearly as nice as these. Time to get a real camera! lol
Thanks Betty and Jon for your very nice comments. I' glad the new link worked. I had no problem in seeing everything as they are very well set up for the crowd. Handicap parking was very near by area, and the golf cart which held six passengers - took all disabled visitors to the air strip itself. The show was amazing. Face book pics were from my I Phone and the blog is Ton's camera.
Wait till we are home and you see the movies
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