Airpower Over Da Hood

Bettina got some nice pics this past week. I wish I could post more but it is what it is and I'm glad to have the time just to do this. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Bird Watching

We don't have trees in our backyard anymore. Our two remaining trees were deseased and had to be cut down last year, but that hasn't stopped Bettina from getting some nice photos occassionally. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Dove

Northern Flicker Woodpecker

A black-&-white rendition from Google's Auto Awesome feature

Female Great Tailed Grackle 

Raven in a straffing run

No clue - thinking it's a female Brown Headed Cowbird, this is the time of year for them to start showing up again.

Hummingbird

Valkyrie

Ertl Diecast Rockwell B-1 Lancer Bomber

The swing-wing, supersonic B-1 heavy bomber is one of three strategic bombers in the USAF fleet (along with the B-2 and B-52). Designed and built by Rockwell (now Boeing) it first entered service in 1986 in the former Strategic Air Command and is now part of Air Combat Command.

Sometimes it's hard to find more toy-like versions of modern aircraft  but I did come across this used B-1 from Ertl on eBay. It didn't have the packaging so I don't know when it was made and it shows some play wear but is still a fairly decent shelf display. The legs retract and the wings unfold into the variable wing configuration and measures 10" (25.3cm) L x 6" (15.24cm) wingspan (with wings tucked in) or 9" (22.86cm) wingspan (wings deployed) x 2 5/8" (6.66cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

A few shots of B-1's over Da Hood

When these fly overhead the whole house just shakes and rattles!!

The only image I could find of the B-1 in all-white livery was on the Aviastar website which apparently shows the prototype from 1983  that would indicate to me that perhaps Ertl made this version in the mid-80s - just speculation though until I can get one in the original packaging

Nellis AFB Aviation Nation Air Show 2014 - Pt 1

This past Saturday Bettina and I attended the Aviation Nation Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base and had a blast. It's her first air show in many years, while I had tried to make them every year. Last year due to budget constraints there was no show but they made up for it this time. For me personally, I go for the vintage aircraft as the modern stuff buzzes around the skies like flies here all the time and this year there were a couple of treats. It took so long to get a blog post going because between Bettina and myself we took over 1200 pics and I've been trying to sort through them. Also, we did not get a photo of each and every single aircraft out there. Planes belonging to the Civil Air Patrol or other civilian organisations like the police simply didn't make the cut and we would have ended up being there a lot longer. It was taxing enough for us as is.  Without further ado - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

From the Nellis facebook page is this parking diagram. The far left represents the south side of the runway where we started our tour.

B-1 Bomber

First seen as you enter the flightline area is the B-1 Lancer bomber

Unknown

Can't honestly say what these are. The parking diagram says this spot is for the 'Coffee Works' - these must be a new way of brewing coffee!!

Unfortunately the free base newspaper handed out at the entrance which covers the air show doesn't go into detail on all the birds appearing at the show.

B-52

One of the oldest aircraft in the inventory, the venerable B-52 bomber

HH-60

Many of the static displays allowed people to go inside the cockpit and/or cargo space but we were loaded down with gear and doing that would lengthen our day considerably.

MiG-15

 Gorgeous! The MiG's tend to make an appearance at every show. This was not a static display but was actually flown during the show

F-4U Corsair

 It's been a while since one of these appeared at the show. This too was actually flown during the show

T-33

Developed from the Lockheed  P-80/F-80 I love seeing these birds strut their stuff in the skies overhead

P-51

Another venerable Warbird

F-4

 German Tornado

Typhoon

T-6A Texan II

 

T-38

T-33

A View of The Flightline

Only about half of the flightline is used for the public viewing area but it is still one heck of a long walk

Looking south. The b-1 towards the back right is where we came in

Looking north. Waaaaay off in the distance is the end point for the displays

To Be Continued