Warbird Information Exchange

Today was the first day of San Francisco's annual Fleet Week event.

On the advice of a friend who had visited last year, I booked a ticket on the boat over to Alcatraz Island and positioned myself there for this afternoon's airshow.

This turned out to be a mixed blessing. I was shooting into the sun for most of my photos and was quite distant from most of the action, but it did give me an unusual backdrop of the San Francisco skyline.

The afternoon started off with the final of the Red Bull Air Race series, which, being quite distant and missing the commentary, was quite hard to follow.



Next up was the F-16 'Viper West' display from Hill AFB, Utah.





Which later joined up with the incomparable Steve Hinton in an F-86 Sabre for the Heritage Flight demo.



Strangely enough, I've been to 3 airshows in the US this year, Sun 'n Fun, Reno and now today in SF. All 3 have featured Hinton, each in a different aircraft (plus of course his annual 'Flying Legends' appearance at Duxford)

There was also a demo by a Coastguard HH-65A Dolphin.



This was followed by the 'Patriots' team of 3 Aero L-39s, whose display included a couple of tailslides from the solo, the first time I've seen this done with an L-39. Sadly, shooting black-painted jets against the light meant that I had no worthwhile photos of this display. Maybe tomorrow......

After Sean Tucker in the 'Team Oracle' Challenger aerobatic biplane came the main event. Firstly a series of flypasts from 'Fat Albert'. Sadly, being at an off-airfield location, we weren't treated to the JATO take-off.

Still, it was quite a sprightly demo, between some of the taller buildings in the SF downtown.







Then came the jets........



















This was the first time I'd seen the Blue Angels, and I must admit to being most impressed. They certainly use the power of the F-18 (I still can't get used to calling it a 'Boeing F-18', whatever it may have painted behind the cockpit) to advantage, with several zoom climbs by the solos.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll go back, fight my way through the crowds around Fishermans Wharf, and see if I can get some better shots with the sun behind me.

Those are some fabulous shots!

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Scott Rose
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I'm surprised the current anti-military leadership in San Francisco, who recently stiff-armed the USS Iowa, would stand for a military airshow like this.

I'm always impressed by just how much the F/A-18 wing flexes in tight turns!

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Awfully nice aeroplane piccies available

I WHOLE HEARTEDLY echo Mr. Haskin's sentiments, I am STUNNED the city of San Fran would actually ALLOW such a military display after voting 8-3 NOT to allow the Battleship Iowa to be permanently moored in San Fran...I am still so pissed off about that decision that I can't see straight when the topic comes up...

M

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Mark Morris

Balking at the IOWA shouldn't be too much of a surprise from this city. They don't deserve her anyway, hopefully Stockton or someone else will get her.

Nice shots Mike. THX!