USA (2009)

USA 2009

A group of eight aviation enthusiasts had gathered on Monday August 31, 2009 for a 4Aviation trip to the West Coast of the United States. After a stopover at London Heathrow, a British Airways Boeing 747 brought us comfortably to Los Angeles.

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31 August 2009

At the airport our transport for the coming weeks retrieved, a 12-person Ford E-450 van. Everyone settled in its place and within minutes we were already at the first aircraft location, a school near the airport. We made pictures of, amongst others, a former Netherlands Air Force T-33 and some other instructional aircraft. This location was followed by “Proud Bird’s-restaurant, which offers a nice collection of aircraft, an F-23 and NASA T-38 in the works of Northrop Grumman, a nice collection was found at the Compton airport, a preserved UH-1H in a park in Long Beach and finally the Long Beach airport, where C-17s of the USAF, SAC and Qatar were seen and photographed. Then followed the long drive to our accommodation for the next few days: Las Vegas.

1 September 2009

We stayed two nights at The Stratosphere, the tallest in the city. On Tuesday morning, we went to the biggest attraction of the city early, Nellis AFB. On the different platforms we noted many participants for the Red Flag and Green Flag exercises, as well as the local residents. The last two were awake early and the F-16s (SW and WA) and F-22s (AK and WA) flew well. Only in the afternoon, the Red Flag participants started. There was a considerable variety of machines: B-52s, KC-135s, F-15 from the Missouri Guard, F-16s from Hill and the United Arab Emirates and the navy was present with some EA-6Bs and the Italians with ten AMX. Due to an accident with an E-3 on the southern runway a few days before our visit, we could beautifully photograph both landings.

2/3 September 2009

4/5/6 September 2009

We do not need to explain what our destination was. The next three days were for the Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Group near Davis Monthan AFB. After a short outside overview we visited the largest storage of aircraft in the world twice with a bus tour. We also visited the huge Pima museum, the various scrap yards in the neighborhood and we walked along the fence for a few more serials and pictures. On Sunday we visited Avra Valley, and overflew Davis Monthan and Marana / Avra Valley North in a Cessna 172.

7 September 2009

8 September 2009

9 September 2009

10 September 2009

Thursday morning we had a few hours to spend at Chino airport. There dozens of warbirds and a few beautiful museum collections were visited. It was time to step into the car to go north. On Friday, the open day at NAS Fallon was held, so we had a long drive ahead. Meanwhile, we also have time to have a look at China Lake. The show was good and we spent a nice day in the sun while enjoying beautiful aircraft and a few burgers. Afterwards we went quickly to Reno, where just before the darkness dozens of Warbirds were scored. In the dark we arrived in the capital of California, Sacramento. The Capitol Airshow was held that weekend at the former Mather AFB Airshow which attracted many aircraft of U.S. forces on the ground and in the air. The weather was unfortunately, for the first time in the trip, not great, but still acceptable.

11 September 2009

The days were then used to easily drive to the south. Many airports, museums and W & R were visited. Some of these are: McClellan, Sacramento, Stockton, Merced (former Castle AFB), Fresno IAP, Mojave. The above is a brief overview of the major sites visited. There were dozens of other destinations visited during this varied successful trip. But not only the beautiful aircraft and beautiful destinations make a trip successful. Very important is the atmosphere in the group and that was excellent.

USA 2009

USA 2009

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USA 2009

USA 2009

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