Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow, NAS Pensacola

A week or so ago we decided to take in our first ever Air Show and headed to Naval Air Station Pensacola for the Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow. We drove onto the base, found a parking space and hiked to the field along with 50 to 100 thousand other people. The price was just right, free.

We settled into our chairs and Dick started to take pictures. One of the opening performaces was a parachute team that came down with the American Flag while the drop plane circled.


We walked the tarmac viewing some of the 17 planes on display.

Walked through one of the smaller ones :>)

Just about the time the F-15E Strike Eagle flew by at close to 600 MPH the battery went dead in Dick's camera. A long trip back to the car to get the extra batteries only to find four more dead ones. Back to the flight line and missing the chance for more good pictures we found a booth that had some batteries. Great, just in time to get some shots of this jet powered glider perform. What a beautiful display of flying with smoke from both wing tips.

The Yak 52 Russian design built in Romania,

The star of the show was Blue Angels F/A-18 with a top speed just of 1,400 MPH and can still fly at 129 MPH with a sneak pass while you are looking at the rest of the planes just off the ground at 600 MPH. And the Blues performed for nearly an hour, keeping us on our toes wondering which way they would come from next.

You can feel the sound completely through your body as they fly what looks like just a few feet above your head. Click and blow up this picture and you can see the smile on the pilots face.

No we did not turn the picture over.

Four of the six in a slow pass with wheels down.

And a fast pass.

Straight up again at 30,000 feet per minute.

And finally a shot of all six.

All we could say was W O W a day sitting in the warm sun watching a fantastic display of air power and it was all free.

To be continued...