Blue Angels Visit San Diego!

Aloha Friends!

We had an exciting and quite loud weekend! The Blue Angels were in town. They performed at the Miramar Air Show at the Marine base just a few miles from our home. It was so much fun to watch their flying acrobatic moves! I look forward to them every year. On Thursday (their practice day in San Diego) they fly directly over our house causing our windows to rattle!

The Blues' McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets are former fleet aircraft that are nearly combat-ready. Just switched out the aircraft gun with the smoke oil tank that makes the pretty colors during shows.

These guys are so fast that they're difficult to photograph. Just about the time you hear them....they're gone! They fly up to 700 miles per hour at a show! Just as crazy is that they can slow the jet down to just 120mph!

A question that I had was how close do the Blue Angels fly to each other....it looks like they're nearly touching. And they nearly do. After checking the Blue Angels' website I confirmed that they fly as close as 18 inches apart!

Here's a quote from US Marine Major Dusty Cook...

"We advertise 18 inches, but I've seen how close they get," says Cook. Cook flies "Fat Albert," the C-130 cargo plane that supports the Blues.

But he's ridden shotgun in the F/A 18s many times.

"Sometimes it's about six inches apart," he says. "And they're pretty good, They're pretty stable."

What happens if those wings get too close? What if they accidentally touch? Cook says don't worry about Blue Angels careening out of control.

"Touching planes is all right," he says. "I mean, you don't want it to happen. Swapping paint is a terrible day. However, it can happen and everything can be fine. You just spread the formation apart and continue on."

Eeks!
OK.....I'd still take a ride if I could.

Have a good week All!
Thanks for reading!

PS I took these photos from our front yard...it was quite a show!