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
Great set of pics, Dave. Looks like it was a good day to be spotting at the JRB.
Bill U should have come…. a great Sat indeed. would have been perfect if 2 of those F35 would fly