I took off part of last Saturday(had to give up 6 hours pay and have been working since to get it back but it was worth it) to take Tiff and the boys up to Hill Airforce Base for the last day of Airforce week. I know what most of you are thinking, "Paul is one of those nerdy pilot dudes that loves everything to do with airplanes" and you are correct about the nerd part but as far as planes go I don't really go nutz over them. I didn't grow up wanting to be a pilot and I would much rather be kayaking than flying. That said, you don't have to like airplanes or even have a remote interest in aviation to enjoy watching the Thunderbirds. The Airshow was all day on Saturday but that is way too long to hang around with all the aviation goons. So we went to a Bbq with some other pilot friends and their families and let the kids play and then went to HAFB around 2:30 for the Thunderbirds show. There were around 25 million people there but we found a nice open area on the ramp for the kids to run and play and we settled in for the show. Unfortunately there is about an hour of pomp and circumstance crap before they fly but once the T-birds are airborne no eye leaves the sky. After the first pass Tiff was in awe, Noah had a huge smile on his face and Max just kept saying "Dad, dhoes panes ar SOOOOO past" all things considered the weather was great and the show was awesome and I had about as good a time as I can have around that many people.
Tiff, Max, Noah, and Tyler Lountzenhiser, and Tylers mom Karen walking out of the Picture. Tylers dad Bob and I went to flight school together. The plane is a C-130 Hercules.
looking up the afterburner of an F-18 hornet
Military Transport
C-5 Galaxy
This thing is, in your best scottish accent "friggin yuge"
Headed into the back of the C-5
The nose opens up too and you could drive greyhound buses through there.
click to enlarge this one and see if you can find the "problem" in this picture
then get a fork and gouge your eyes out!
Bob (byu hat) and Brett Wilson(another flight shcool friend) standing in front of the C-5 and thinking they are hilarious as they sign me up for the Air Force. The recruiter is just out of the photo.
F-16 Thunderbird on a low pass
Thunderbirds
Yeah, I can do that.
One of these things is not like the others,
one of these kids is doing his own thing!
All 6 F-16 Thunderbirds and the Wasatch
The view from where we were.
These 3 smiles are what made the day for me!
And that is it, I took about 250 pictures but I won't bore you with anymore. We all had a great time. If you ever have the chance to see the Thunderbirds I highly recommend you do it.
Tiff, Max, Noah, and Tyler Lountzenhiser, and Tylers mom Karen walking out of the Picture. Tylers dad Bob and I went to flight school together. The plane is a C-130 Hercules.
looking up the afterburner of an F-18 hornet
Military Transport
C-5 GalaxyThis thing is, in your best scottish accent "friggin yuge"
Headed into the back of the C-5The nose opens up too and you could drive greyhound buses through there.
click to enlarge this one and see if you can find the "problem" in this picturethen get a fork and gouge your eyes out!
Bob (byu hat) and Brett Wilson(another flight shcool friend) standing in front of the C-5 and thinking they are hilarious as they sign me up for the Air Force. The recruiter is just out of the photo.
F-16 Thunderbird on a low pass
Thunderbirds
Yeah, I can do that.
One of these things is not like the others,one of these kids is doing his own thing!
All 6 F-16 Thunderbirds and the Wasatch
The view from where we were.
These 3 smiles are what made the day for me!And that is it, I took about 250 pictures but I won't bore you with anymore. We all had a great time. If you ever have the chance to see the Thunderbirds I highly recommend you do it.
6 comments:
SO COOL!!!! I want to go next time, Ty would love that! Amazing! Those planes are HUGE!!!!!!!
Yes, I did have to shoot my eyes out after looking at the porker in the picture. Put a shirt on for heaven sakes.
Looks like you had a great time. Count us in for next year.
We may not have the thunderbirds but we do have crop dusters. It's quite a rush watching a plane rush toward you 7 feet off the ground then pull up right over your head just in time to clear the power lines by about 5 feet. The kids get a kick out of it in the mornings when we jog.
Pauly--found your blog through Tito and Nacy's (Greg had posted a comment there). Your family looks great--even your new baby biscuit. We're in Iowa now for school and definitely miss running rivers. Looks like you get to do it a lot, so we're jealous.
paul - my favorite comment on here is from grandma nancy - is that your mom or grandma? of course i know who you are! we need to add your blog and gregs to our list. you two seriously lead much more exciting lives than we do. Tyler ran the payette (only class 3s) with the YM, and he said several of them fell out of the boat a few times. Good thing they didn't do anything bigger than that.
Anyway, we're 50 miles from elko. We'd love to get together when you have some time there. Just let us know.
That is so cool. I liked the slide show. What a fun day!
Post a Comment