Still the Gloomy Saturday and in NAS Ft worth or Navy I was there for the Drill weekend for the 301st FW or the Spads.  I have been missing the Spads since last Summer when JRB was repairing the runway. Finally get to see them in action again since knowing they have all those newer ( lower time) F-16C Small mouth GE from New Jersey Air Guard .  I was really glad that I catch a few Spads F16 that has the bird slicer. even the 457th tailed F-16 has the IFF bird slicer.  I got to the west spot and met a fellow Spotter from College Station Joe.  Just pull my car into the driveway and there comes a  C-17 coming in for landing from Charleston. We get quite a bit of haze and non ideal lightning but I shoot anyway. Going over to the Loop we got 6 Spads came out for their 2nd sortie of the day. All of them in clean Air to Air configuration AIM-120 and AIm9x.  Waiting for the 1hr sortie for the Spads and  they came back like 30 minutes which makes that a pretty short mission. All landed safely. Our bonus came with another Heavies (C-17) from McGuire AFB  Came in for as and go. So get to shoot the C17 land and take off.

So far we did not get any LMT ( Lockheed Martin ) traffic except 2 F-35C was out doing engine run and keeping our finger cross for a late afternoon launch that did not happen. NJ tail code.

We quit right at 1700hrs and headed over to the east side for some chow when C-130 and  few VMFA-112 Cowboys F-18A came back to land.. They did a carrier break and landed right at about 1800hrs when the light was just way too dark.  I tried at ISO 3200 but they do come out quite grainy and noisy . Clean up ” acceptable ” but not up to my normal standard. Well you guys do the judge.

Will be posting stills and I have some videos I took . will post that later since as everyone knows… Video just takes 10 times more effort .

All in all a great Sat in KNFW and with so much jets flying I cannot more than appreciate these men and women that serve this nation so proudly.  Go Airforce, Navy and Marines.

Written and pictures from Dave Chng