Miramar Airshow

Now that Lisa is working at the high school she makes all kinds of cool connections. What makes it better is that she has the personality to make the most out of her connections. Westview has some navy commander who leads their ROTC program and every year when the air show comes around he can get you free tickets to a "Chalet" right on the flight line. This year Lisa got us some tickets. This is the way to do the air show. There were massive crowds all around us but we had a nice tent to stay out of the sun when we weren't watching anything or we could go into our own private viewing seats. We were literally as close to the air planes as you could legally get. Inside the tent they had all the drinks and snacks you could want. I love the airshow.

Sitting in the pilots seat of the Osprey I was ready to take off but I could find the key to start the engines. I then tried to fire the guns but that didn't work either. I don't think they trusted me.  

The Osprey flies over my work all the time. 

This gun shoots a 155mm shell up to 25 miles. The shells are GPS guided so they don't miss.

The Harrier has always been a favorite of mine. I love that it can take off vertically.

The F-35B Lightning may be my new favorite. It can also take off vertically but it is a stealth plane and completely computerized. Apparently it takes a pilot more than 6 months to learn how to fly the Harrier in vertical mode. The pilot said it is like dancing on a beach ball. All of the fancy controls on the Lightning are done by the computer. They say it takes a pilot about half an hour to learn how to fly it in vertical mode. All those flaps you see are doors to allow air to go in the fans when it is in vertical mode. 

A heart for my valentine.

I'm not sure I got the whole story but I think a bunch of pilots got together and created their own flying group. They are called the Patriots. The leader is a former leader from the Snow Birds. I think they just wanted to keep flying.

Grandpa Shaw's favorite plane, the Hercules. 

And what can I say, the Blue Angels are always the highlight.

Here are the pilots of the Blue Angels. They stopped to sign autographs and we were all excited until we realized that they were staying in the cheap seats because there were so many people. They never did come to our "Chalet" because there weren't too many of us. This is when you need a small child to sucker them over.

Lisa and I were walking among the exhibits when all of the sudden I saw a motorcycle in the air above me. 

Kind of freaky

The flyby of the F-14 was very loud

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Mammoths went extinct 1,000 years after the Egyptians finished building the Great Pyramid

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