Nose section of a static B-1 display

Nose section of a B-2 bomber

Figure this one out yet? Front end of a Delta Dart

It was a *very* static display, but good to see this old gal represented

Seemed to be the ribbon of choice

My favorite aircraft - the F-16

There were more than just a few F-16s around

Business end of an F-16

Same aircraft, but this time the camera calmed down

The Army's Golden Knights Parichute Team did a drop. It was rather hard to make them out.

Same shot as the previous one, just magnified. The black object at 12 o'clock is the camera man

Getting ready for the heritage flight and demo - an F-15 and a P-51

F-15 pilots

F-16 with a P-51

F-16 pilot

The A-10 did a demonstration

Very nimble aircraft - made a great noise

The F-16 performing a high-performance take-off. Was just lucky to catch this unusual shot.

Just a quick 1/4 second later.

My daughter pointed this out as a possible optical illusion. It is flying away, towards the upper-left. She thought it was flying at me, towards the lower-left. Made her tweak a little with the placement of the after-burners.

NOISY!

This is my favorite F-15 shot of the day.

The Heritage Flight - a P-51, an F-22, and F-15 and an A-10

Almost looked like models in the sky

You'll see later why I almost thought we had goofed on seat placement, but it seemed like we were front-center for fly-overs.

The weather made for some very interesting shots this day.

F-22 strutting it's stuff

Dan Buchanan did a great hang-gliding demo.

The landing can be a bit rough, ...

... especially if you're a paraplegic!

Dryden flew their ER-2 -- a converted U-2 spy plane for environmental surveys

Another Heritage Flight - an F-18 and a Hawker Sea Fury

A B-25 also did a flying demonstration

It was great seeing this old gal up in the air

The Royal Dutch AF Precision Team did a dynamite F-16 demonstration.

Margaret Stivers was there to demo wing-walking.

I just thought this was a cool shot at flying from different ends of the scale.

A C-17 Galaxy did a drop demo and a few fly-bys

And a B-52 also participated in the show.

Because of the clouds, we had Sun Dog sightings all over the place. Thought this one was cool, with one of the Golden Knights

Here the B-1 roars by.

I have never, EVER seen a bomber execute a Split-S, until this day. This plane is incredible.

And the F-117 also did a few fly-bys. (Why is it an "F" rating if it had bomb bay doors?)

Then for the Dryden Fly By

An F-117, an F-16, a T-38, an F-18 and an F-22

Along with a B-1 and a B-52

And to bring up the back, a KC-135 and a C-17

Then the Thunderbirds got ready to show their stuff.

Like I said - we had a great location for fly-overs. Almost like it was set just for us.

I thought this was a totally cool shot with the moon.

Thunderbird #5 on top, #6 on the bottom. The #5 indicator was applied "upside down" so it looked right-side up in these shots.

Eyes behind you

Coming right overhead

One swings hard left, the other hard right, then *whew*

Another moon shot

I *really* like this one

We had the Thunderbird comm/PA station set up almost in front of us. Made for a few interesting “human interest” picts

In the 5 in a line configuration, they went up for a loop. One broke off, and the smoke formed a heart. Here they meet back up again.

Afterburner blazing

Here they do the flower. Then the four in the petals come back down, and ...

... meet. (This is about as close as I’ve seen them get.)

The audience was *wild* about their performance.

The B-2 nose. Again. (But the sun was at a different spot.)

I think it was cool that most planes have a tail identifier. Since the B-2 has no tail, they put it on the wheel well covers.

And the nose of a B-52. Why not?

At the end of the day, there was a HUGE line waiting to get out. On this shot, we haven’t even left the base yet (two base grunts helping to direct traffic here). But desert sunsets are some of the best.