Monday, June 30, 2008

The Blue Angels Graced Our Local Skies



This past weekend we had the phenominal Blue Angels grace our skies in Huntsville. On Saturday the hubby and I went out for lunch with my darling outlaws and afterwards we drove out the the airport to see if we could see the Blue Angels Airshow. We thought that we could park on the side of the interstate and see the show instead.
First let me give you a little history on the Blue Angels:

At the end of World War II, Chester W. Nimitz, then the Chief of Naval Operations, ordered the formation of a flight demonstration team to keep the public interested in naval aviation. The Blue Angels performed their first flight demonstration less than a year later in June 1946 at their home base, Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, Florida. Flying the Grumman F6F Hellcat, they were led by Lt. Cmdr. Roy “Butch” Voris.

Only two months later on August 25, 1946, the Blue Angels transitioned to the Grumman F8F Bearcat. One year later, the 1947 team, led by Lt. Cmdr. Robert Clarke, introduced the now famous “Diamond Formation.”

By the end of the 1940’s the Blue Angels were flying their first jet aircraft, the Grumman F9F-2 Panther. In response to the demands placed on naval aviation in the Korean Conflict, the team reported to the aircraft carrier USS Princeton as the nucleus of Fighter Squadron 191 (VF-191), Satan’s Kittens, in 1950.
The team reorganized the next year and reported to NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, where they began flying the newer and faster version of the Panther, the F9F-5. The Blue Angels remained in Corpus Christi until the winter of 1954 when they relocated to their present home base at NAS Pensacola, Florida. It was here that they progressed to the swept-wing Grumman F9F-8 Cougar.
The ensuing 20 years saw the Blue Angels transition to two more aircraft, the Grumman F11F-1 Tiger (1957) and the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II (1969).
In December 1974, the Navy Flight Demonstration Team began flying the McDonnell Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II and was reorganized as the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron. This reorganization permitted the establishment of a commanding officer vice a flight leader (Cmdr. Tony Less was the squadron’s first official commanding officer), added support officers and further redefined the squadron’s mission, emphasizing the support of recruiting efforts.
On November 8, 1986, the Blue Angels completed their 40th anniversary year during ceremonies unveiling their present aircraft, the new sleek F/A-18 Hornet, the first dual-role fighter/attack aircraft now serving on the nation’s front lines of defense.
In 1992 more than one million people viewed Blue Angel’s performances during a 30-day European deployment to Sweden, Finland, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain. This was the first European deployment in 19 years.
The 2007 show season brought out more than 15 million spectators. Since 1946, the Blue Angels have performed for more than 427 million fans.

Anyway I was so blown away by their show - it is pure synchronized swimming in the skies and with machine nogal!!!! We decided to come back on the sunday with deck chairs, camera and watch the entire show. We got there around noon and well you know I love flying anyway - but don't have any aspirations of becoming a pilot - I just love being in the air and taking off and landing always have always will.

But these guys are something else - from loop de loops, upright spins, hammer splint tunnel to 9 spiral downward spins and mirror image loops and flying. I found myself saying WOW quite often - we saw the Red Eagles Air sports team from Georgia do their display as well as the A10 warthog plane - I tell you this guy - Captain Brown, did a 1400 foot turn loop and those engines roared - he also showed the power of plane when doing a strafing run - Jaaa I had to ask the Man about that one too - basically a dive to strike - and then within 30 secs after the run he is ready and able to do another - thats quite phenomenal in an aircraft I would say.
Anyway what I know about the army and air force is really slim - I am just amazing at how these amazing pilots maneuver these planes like I do my hand when listening to a beautiful piece of music. ITS WOW!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWxqZfkEElc



This is the video we took of Captain Browns show...(JUST SOME FYI HERE The husband thinks he is Stephen Spielberg and has DISABLED the embed thingy on his You Tube - copyright issues he says - I still don't see the implications of it all - net n' groot pain in die gat if you ask me but anyway - so as a result until he changes it - you will have to click on the little square link under the URL now to view it - *&^%$#@#@ jaaaa well no fine


Anyway a tragic thing happened at the show yesterday - which actually canceled the rest of the show and the Blue Angels didn't fly. As you can see from the clouds in the above mentioned video - btw it just looked like a little rain storm would hit us - we of course came FULLY prepared........NOT - me in my new dress the hubby bought the day before - real pretty I must say - well when the storm started it reared up to a micro burst and winds of 48 miles an hour - which didn't seem bad at all until the gazebo's (in the video you see them to the left of the screen) well they were blowing like tissue paper in the wind.

These were all sponsored tents or Chalets as they called them - meaning all the VIPS - as my mother would say very important poopalls - but jokes aside - they were blowing around and 12 people were injured from flying debris and when the husband saw that he said WIFIE its time to waai and we ran - at this point - pap nat en vokal titsling - here I am running after the hubby with a deck chair on my head and flip-flops on - people were running and children were screaming it was a nightmare.

But shame a tragedy happened in all this mayhem a generator fell onto a 5 year old little boy and he lost his life - some of the smaller planes were blown over too - so it was a pretty bad storm - and I tell you by the time we got to the parking lot which was about a quarter of a mile away - the storm was over but there were 10's of thousands of people - and we were ALL LOOKING FOR OUR CARS.

What a nightmare - I eventually just sat and looked after the deck chairs while the hubby searched for our car and believe me we weren't the only ones - FINALLY we got home around 5pm.

It is very sad about the death of that little boy and I want to send out our condolences his family - shame when it happened the generator also hit the little boys father but caught his hand I think they said anyway - it is very sad.

I can tell you this next year when and if the Blue Angels grace our skies I for one will most definitely be going to see that show they are awesome!!!

This is a tribute to the Blue Angels I found on You Tube - it was created by Patrick (jpcullen70) and I got it from his you tube account - I think its the best of what I could find - they are truly amazing so enjoy - the pictures of the Blue Angels above were also taken from you tube pictures - the ones we took on the sat were with a cell phone so are not good at all - when the husband finally sends them to me ill take a look see and post them but for now these are much prettier - I will write again soon Ciao for now chinabeans

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stunning Doll..! I have the Deutsche Luftwaffe fly over here, and I always think of those lekker hot pilots behind the joystick...fills me with joy!