Hey guys,

Went to the Fort Worth Alliance Air Show this past Saturday. You couldn’t ask for better weather too – it was perfect! We sat about 30 feet behind the fence line right in front of the Blue Angels.

As far as flying exhibitions were concerned, I had seen all of them over the years, so I opted to spend more time looking at the displays and talking to the pilots and crews.

First thing I did was get to sit in the pilot’s seat of a Marine King Air C90 from NAS Corpus Christi Talk about cramped. I could only get one leg over the seat to sit down as there was a console between the seats. Talked to the student pilot who’ll complete his training in February. He's hoping to fly C-130s. He was a bit apologetic about the plane being dirty on the outside as that was the plane that was given to him.

Next up I got to sit in the pilot’s seat of an Embraer 145. Nice avionics!

I passed on waiting to tour the AA 777 and instead spent $3.00 to go inside the oldest flying DC-3 (1937). It has 50,000 flight hours.

After that I went over to a Navy Sabraliner and noticed how clean it was on the outside. I mentioned the dirty Marine C90 and the pilots pointed out that they take better pride with their planes at Pensecola.

Talked to a B-52 pilot out of Barksdale AFB, LA.

Saw the inside of both a Caribou and an Osprey 22.

Got to tour the inside of an E-3 AWACS. Talked to the pilot and crew.

But the best was the P-3 Orion. Waited in line for an hour, but it was worth it. Prior to going on board, I talked to one of the navigators who was from Germany, Leutnant zur See Muëller. She’s training in Jacksonville, FL. Sat in the pilot’s seat while talking to one of the navigators who had 15 years experience. Could have fooled me because he looked young enough to be just out of flight school. Has about 2000 hours flight time and flies 2 times a week.

At about 2:30 I made my way back where we had set up our chairs, weaving in and around the crowd. Saw Fat Albert do its JATO run. BTW it was announced that since most aircraft today don’t need it, JATO is no longer manufactured and is in short supply.

Then of course, the Blue Angels. I don’t remember the routine on one flyby, but it gets the audience’s attention away from the two of them who sneak up from behind us catching everyone off guard. Just as you catch your breath after the first flyover, the second one comes out of nowhere. It was a crowd pleaser!

Well, that was my weekend. There’s another air show this weekend in Houston (Wings over Houston, much closer than Ft. Worth), but the Blue Angels will be there