Yea it was a blast...Scot, believe it or not the girl you see in some of the pics is still rachel! 2 years....
Anyways the weather for the show was great...Clear skys and a sun warm enough to give me a killer sun burn! haha...Highlights of the show were definately the F-15E demo and the F-22......The F-15E used tons of burner...The pilot also flew with a different type of style...Instead of very smooth control inputs, the pilot was very sudden and abrupt...Ive never seen a fighter flown like that, but it was pretty awesome to see a jet that big being thrown around the air like it was out of control....
The F-22 is hands down the greatest fighter ever...Atleast from what I have seen in person...With a brief flick of the stick, the pilot was able to move the nose of the aircraft 90 degrees in zero time during a turn, and during a climb to the vertical...This guy was flying level, and the next thing you know he is going vertical...It happened so fast it was like he skipped degrees 1-89 lol....He proceeded to climb in the vertical, gradually cutting power to the point where he bled off all airspeed that he literally was "hovering" and standing straight up with zero airspeed....He kept the aircraft like that for about two seconds, and once again flicked the stick, and was back in forward flight without loosing a foot of altitude...
If you have the chance to see the F-22 this summer make sure you do, it is well worth it....Plus 80,000 pounds of thrust aint to shabby in the noise department!
I gotta be honest....I was a little dissapointed with the Blue Angels this year....Ofcourse they are ridicously amazing pilots, and do some of the most insane flying, but it just didnt wiggle my chain like it used too in years past...Maybe its because its so early in the season, but I it looked like there was a significant amount in seperation in most maneuvers...They were also pretty conservative with the burners which sucked...oh well...Im going to see them again next weekend at Jones beach, NY....Hopefully I was be so critical! lol