In a previous post I mentioned the Fargo Airsho and my day-before meet & greet with some of the stars. Today, you’ll see the photos I brought home from the actual event the next day.
Continue readingWalking in empty-handed
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Category Archives: Military
Like a kid in a winged candy store
Recently, some town east of here called Fargo held a little thing they call the Airsho. I went down the day before as part of a meet & greet with the Blue Angels, the A-10 Thunderbolt demo pilots, and the F-22 Raptor demo team. It was a fantastic day!
Continue readingA different type of fall photo
Not your typical fall photo, but since there are some golden autumn leaves I’m going to call it such. I was part of a search exercise which took me past this rural airport, and once our target was found I stopped for a couple of minutes to check out a surprise Phantom.
Continue readingFor once, I spent more time watching than photographing
We had a behind the scenes meet-and-greet with the US Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron Friday in advance of the Northern Thunder air and space expo at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, and it was a fantastic way to spend a Friday! The pilots and crew were gracious hosts, answering all our questions and clearly enjoying themselves when talking about their jobs and their aircraft.
Continue readingSentimental startup
I wasn’t able to see the warbirds which stopped in Bismarck this week (aside from a glimpse of them circling town), but I have been able to see them on previous visits. This is a video I shot with my boy back in 2013, as the B-17 “Sentimental Journey” started its engines and began to taxi out for a flight around the capital city.
Caught out of position
I haven’t had much time to get out with my cameras for a few months, but I tried to take a brief pause from my work day today to catch the B-52 flyby. I had been clued in about the flight path a little earlier, and wanted to shoot from the south, but I couldn’t find an angle I liked. I ran out of time and punted, shooting instead from the north.
Thunderbirds and God’s chicken
We got to spend a little time with some of the Thunderbirds last Friday, the day before the big Fargo Airsho, and it was absolutely fantastic. I’m not a huge fan of being in an airplane myself, but I can watch them fly all day. Then when the opportunity to see a fighter jet in action, well…I’m THERE.
Being fifty feet away from one of these when it spools up and taxis away is incredibly cool. The passenger in this photo was nominated in Fargo to receive a forty minute honor flight. Remember when I said I’m not a huge fan of being in an airplane? In this case, I’d make an exception. I did shoot some video, but I’ll post that another time.
Nice tail, huh? Since there are no weapons on these fighters, I guess one could call this the business end. I just love saying the word: afterburner. (No, not the ZZ Top album.)
One thing that’s kinda neat is seeing rather mundane tools being used to service these jets. They get a lot of attention. The crew that keeps these in tip-top condition is enormous. The support package for the Thunderbirds is large, and with the level of precision they require it has to be.
After hanging out for an hour or so, it was time to visit the Fargo Air Museum. That may have to be another post, as there was a lot of cool stuff there.
Oh, one other notable event on this trip: I tried Chik-Fil-A for the first time. Oh my goodness. Now I see what all the fuss is about. I can’t stop thinking about that Spicy Chicken Deluxe. We need to have one of those here, ASAP.
Why any submarines in Bismarck-Mandan were nervous Friday
I walked out of a lunch appointment on Friday and immediately noticed a jet on a very unusual trajectory over Bismarck, far out of position compared to the track usually taken on approach to Runway 13. It was a short leg, and they were still banking south of Main Avenue. Even better, it was a touch-and-go. Well, being the curious type, I had to see what was up. That’s when I snapped this shot and realized it was a Navy plane, not some wayward bus driver or something.
Just doing laps, as you can see. A few down the Runway 13 way, followed by a few down Runway 31. Cruising Main, almost. My flight app did give an ADS-B entry for this aircraft, but being a military plane that was all I got. The desktop app, however, was blank. No worries, it doesn’t take long with “the Google” to narrow down that this is a P-8A Poseidon. There’s a good chance it’s from Whidbey Island, home to those F-18s which stopped in for A&B Pizza about this time last year. AirSOC has an article about the P-8A at Whidbey Island, which you can read here.
This is a particularly cool aircraft (Wikipedia), even though it isn’t as exciting as a fighter jet. It’s a sub-hunter, and apparently a pretty modern one. Just like those F-18s last year, which are actually two-seater Super Hornets loaded with all kinds of electronic warfare equipment, this plane is chock full o’ goodies. First off, look at all the antennae on the top. The 737-800 this is based on doesn’t have those. It’s also capable of deploying anti-submarine weapons once it detects ’em. Sweet. Want to know more about some of the toys? Click on this link.
A few more laps, and they were out of here. I listened to a little bit of the CTAF banter on my handheld transceiver, then went on with my day. I had put in a long week, and it was time to knock off early and play photographer for a while.
Global War On Terror Remembrance Wall
The Global War On Terror Wall of Remembrance made its way to Bismarck last weekend, and I was able to take my kids there and give it some context. One side features terrorist attacks on our country going back over thirty years as well as important points in history along the way. The other side features names of those who lost their lives due to terrorism or the war against terrorism.
I thought ND National Guard Adjutant General Al Dohrmann put it best when he said tht every name on this wall was the most important person in the world to someone. I sat in front of this wall with my kids and did my best to impress that upon them.
Click on the image for a MUCH larger version
After a long day at the Touch the Trucks event, and hungry as heck, my kids did a great job of patiently listening to me trying to give context to this traveling monument. On the way to get our Pizza Burgers Flyin’ Style at Big Boy they asked me about how I remember the attacks of September 11th, 2001, and it was good to share my memories of the day. I hope they don’t have a similar experience in their lifetimes, although I’m not too sure what the odds are on that.
Hornets visit Bismarck-Mandan in February (updated)
I got a tip that a group of F-18s were inbound for Bismarck yesterday, so I took a long lunch break to wait for them to arrive. I love few things as much as military aircraft, despite being afraid of flying myself.
Aren’t they breathtaking? There was a group of seven of them en route to Washington state, returning from a few weeks in Florida. A friend of mine who moved up here from Pensacola said he got to see F-18s in the air all the time. That’d be amazing, until you’re trying to take a nap with the Sound of Freedom roaring overhead.
Three of the planes stopped in Sioux Falls, but four of them were able to come to the Bizzo and tank up on fuel from Executive Air and pizza from A&B (of course). If you were only in North Dakota for an hour or two and wanted pizza, wouldn’t you pick the best too? I actually think it may have been complimentary for them. Awesome.
I watched as one truck was drained dry and another came up to finish the task. Perhaps it’s good that they weren’t trying to top off all seven!
Nice tail. Just sayin’. I’ve been told that these are F-18F Super Hornets, which are two seater models and used for electronic warfare. They’re part of VAQ-129, an Electronic Attack Squadron based out of Whidbey Island naval air station in Puget Sound, Washington.
These pods on the wings house antennae. Lots of ’em, apparently. So since it’s the navy, the wings gotta fold anyway (for carrier space limitations?) but I’m guessing they also want to protect these from damage. I forgot to ask if that’s a secondary reason why they folded ’em up when they parked.
If I was expected to fuel up visiting aircraft on a daily basis, I’d absolutely live for days when a pack of military jets roll in for some juice. I’d probably be humming the Top Gun theme, even though they flew F-14s in the movie.
Love the colors on that bubble. It takes a while to fuel four of these, which thankfully left plenty of time for conversation. A friend’s brother is one of the crew here, so we got to chat him up about the flight. They were all very nice and accommodating.
Joe gives an interview to…somebody. Since I don’t work in television anymore I have no idea who most of the reporters are. I haven’t seen any reports online, and the cameras these days are too small to slap a logo upon, so your guess is as good as mine.
Last one to get gas. Yes, they do actually have Navy credit cards they use to pay for their fuel, one per plane. How’d you like those bonus points?
Then it was time to fire ’em up. What’s cool about these is that they can start themselves; no need for an APU to power ’em up and get the engines turning. No remote starter, though, although we joked about that.
Then, with a wave it was time to roll out, one at a time. They didn’t leave close together, as you can probably tell from the open cockpit in the back. I suppose they bunched up later after everyone was in the air and headed westward.
I took a little ShakyCam™ (I haven’t trademarked that, but I should) video of the arrival and departure. Using a still photo lens not suited for video, I still got some passable results. I do enough video work with actual video cameras that I don’t care to do it with still cameras, but if I do more of this I’ll probably have to nab a stabilizer rig to have with me. Anyway, here’s the video. If you view it full screen it’ll be 1080p.
It has been a LONG time since I’ve been able to get out with my camera. This was incredibly therapeutic, even if it was dreadfully cold outside. Getting some photo time feels GREAT!