US trip (photo) westcoast day 1 Palmdale (quick visit)

[stipjes]

3 of the others are 86-0263, 86-0286, and 86-0301. 84-1244 is a Nellis aggressor, not an AK.

Oeps, sorry.

Monday the 14th we visited the "Snipers" @ Yuma (Thanks Ronald). 8 out of their 10 Tigers where flying. They hope to stretch the life expectancy of the F-5N's to 10.000 hours. We where present at a briefing, the leader explained the tactics of attacking AH-1's and H-53's in de desert. It sounded very complicated....... (and looks so simple)











Strange to see more and more activity of the F-35..... and less AV-8's.







VMX-22 is based at Yuma now. They should fly AH-1's UH-1's and V-22's.







Als the Harriers where active. A pic of a full marking one I cannot find back at the moment .



On our way to Luke we passed Buckeye Airport, two Twin Otters where dropping parachutists.



I posted some pics of Luke yesterday but this day the sun did not disappear behind the clouds so the light was great.

[Reinold]

Patrick

I guess tomorrow more Luke pics?
Regards Reinold

[stipjes]

Patrick I guess tomorrow more Luke pics?
Regards Reinold

Haha, no, I am trying something different . Posting backwards....

On Sunday the 13nd we got up early to arrive at the gate even more early then we got up (forgot to change the clock to AZ time). We got in via the gate near the scrapyards and where able to spot some lines of stored a/c (like the OH-58D's) .
The static contained a lot of aircraft, here are some of the participants:









When we passed the flightline on our way in we got some stress in the fear that we would not be able to photograph all the a/c there. Besides other stuff 40 A-10's where parked there. After a while a friendly pilot took us .
















This was the order the outside (non sheds) A-10's where parked:
empty empty 79-142/DP empty
empty empty 81-947/DP empty
78-651/DM "12AF" 80-278/DP 79-145/DP empty
81-991/DMbl 80-146/DP 79-120/DP 79-180/DP
81-956/DMbl 81-997/ 79-094/DP 80-171/DP
81-965/DMbl 79-147/DP 79-197/DP 80-232/
81-981/DMbl empty 79-145/DP 79-210/
81-992/DMbl empty 79-105/DP 78-582/
646/DMbl empty 79-154/DP 79-146/
81-983/DMbl empty 81-944/-- 81-939/
empty empty 80-280/DP empty

The show itself was not what we hoped, the Air Power Demo was the best part:














Besides the APD an AV-8, F-22 and the Thunderbirds performed:












On our way out a C-17 arrived and at Tuscon two Army Dash 8's where parked outside:



On the platform near the tower at Tuscon the USCS(BP) was present with about 10 aircraft.

[Bennie]

Patrick I guess tomorrow more Luke pics?
Regards Reinold

Haha, no, I am trying something different . Posting backwards....

The static contained a lot of aircraft, here are some of the participants:

Is it just me who thinks this aircraft looks b*tt ugly from this angle???

Nothing personal Pat, the report is flawless!!

[raameagle]

Nice report Patrick. Did you check the MSN for the CV-22B please?

Regards

[stipjes]

Nice report Patrick. Did you check the MSN for the CV-22B please?

Oeps, sorry, did not check
And Ben, I agree, it is an ugly plane.... flying Bathtub....

We went to El Centro on Saturday the 12th. This was the only day El Centro was open (DM held a two day show). The show of the blue Angels was great and close-by but one aircraft had to abort the show and its replacement (#7) broke down too. One of the organisers told us that they have to much maintenance problems. There where 3 numbers 7 present at El Centro.....
On static there where much more (operational and warbird) aircraft present. Some of them left after the show.

This was the first time I could really try my "new" lens and body and after some PS I am very happy with the results (I still have to lean a lot with PS but I have to work on the lics a lot less then with my Fony A77).

[Stephan Lodewijks]

Quite a trip again, Pat...! Ton was happy as well?

Best regards!

Stephan

[GerritsFinest]

Great shots, all types, nice wx, need my Ray-Ban!

[stipjes]

Great shots, all types, nice wx, need my Ray-Ban!

Oeps, let me know if they are too bright, I am using my girlfriends iMac now for PS, here screen is very bright and I might be a bit to enthousiastic .
And Steef, I know Ton is happy, I wanted to take it more easy but he had no limits on the miles .
Here is Nellis, the RF16-2 did not see many interesting participants but the weather was good and most aircraft landed on the right runway:

[SquAdmin]

Looks like an awesome trip Patrick, lovely light at Nellis!

[CR-74050]

Nice reports!

Cheers, Dick

[Oscar01]

so what did you do on day 1? :-p

[Javindo50]

Very nice stuff Patrick!

(goed bezig jonguh!)

[stipjes]

so what did you do on day 1? :-p

Haha, almost forgot .
Thanks for all the other nice comments.
Day 1 is the last day for this report. After leaving Schiphol on time around 10.00 we arrived @ LAX around 12.00. Everything went very smooth and 45 minutes later we ended at the end of a long queue with Avis. It was worth waiting because we received the Turbo Beetle .
By the time we left LAX it was 14.00 so only Palmdale was an option enroute Nellis.
We saw 3 operational aircraft. A NASA Gulf and 747 and a Saudi F-15SA.
The 747 was beautifully parked in front of the NASA hangar:


Sorry for this bad pic but I hope for some confirmation that this is the 0012? (the only one with a long pitot tube?)


The closure of my report is not spectaculair but I hoped you liked it!
Sunday I leave for my next trip, I hope it will work out......

[Edsard]

Thank you for sharing this trip report !
I like the NASA 747