A Show Of Power

I'm not sure that I've ever seen a military plane in action before today. Spent part of the day up at Vandenberg AFB at the Centennial of Flight airshow, and it ended up being well worth the trip. I was under the impression it was irght off the 101 north of the tunnel, but it turns out once you get off at that Vandenberg AFB and Highway 1 exit, you have another 25 or 30 miles to go before you actually reach the base. That puts the travel time up to around 45 minutes to an hour, but still not all that gigantic a trip. They had just a ton of stuff on display, and there was always something going on in the sky overhead. My personal favorite was the demonstration of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, a jet very similar to the F-15 Eagle that I'll be shooting for. They had it do all sorts of stunts, but I was most impressed by it just buzzing the flightline at what apparently was only half its top speed of Mach 2, and making enough noise to vibrate the concrete under your feet. Earplugs were a common sight, and believe me, they were generally necessary. You see these things on TV and you don't really come to understand how loud they really are. When a jet flies over your head at 700 mph, you take notice in a hurry. I wasn't intelligent enough to bring a camera, but it was very cool to see the planes up close, they're suprisingly not much bigger or smaller than I expected. That is, unless you're talking about the B-52. That thing is just monstrous. My neck is a tad sore from staring at the sky for so long, but it was worth it, I have very few memories of airshows as a kid, and there definitely weren't any F-16s involved.

Theoretically next week is the last of the waiting game, but we'll see whether delays are involved. I'm gonna hit the sack early, I've gotta be up at 7:30 to pick some people and gear up and drive down to Ventura and move everything onto the boat for the SCUBA trip. Apparently it's staying out later than usual for a night dive, but since none of my group are night dive certified, we're gonna spend the time relaxing in the jacuzzi on board. Doesn't sound like all that bad a deal. :) Looking forward to dressing up like a black and blue penguin and taking a whole lot of pictures. ;)