So the Hornets and Superhornets, along with the AH-64's were staging out of NAS Willow Grove for the flyover. I was with a few guys waiting to photo them leaving and coming back, and got to hear some of the chatter on the radio. The freakin' thing almost didn't happen!!!
The hornets were on the ground ready to go, and the flight lead told tower they wanted to go VFR for the flight. Tower comes back and tells them they need a filed flight plan for that. The pilot tells the tower, "Can't come in and file, I'm in my jet now, with it running." They go back and forth, tower even giving a phone number for the pilot to call
to which the pilot said "Uh, It's a little hard to hear with a jet running." One of the pilots made a plea at one point, a female pilot, "Please just let us taxi out, if we don't get up in five minutes this flyby is not happening." Long story short, the one hornet is about to shut down to so he can file it, ends up shutting one engine down, they drive out the paper work, and then they are off. I couldn't believe that though!!! They left at about 205 for the flyover which was scheduled for 231 and 30 seconds. Here's a few pics:
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