USA II 2018
A small group went to USA in October 2018 to enjoy the Fort Worth Alliance show, the Wings over Houston show with the main event being the Hawgsmoke 2018 Exercise at Whiteman AFB.
From the very start of our intentions to visit the USA for the Hawgsmoke 2018 exercise we intended to go with a small group. Since the exercise was going to take place at Whiteman AFB (B-2s) we had no plans to take a large group and sit outside the base. Instead we chose to try and obtain permission to visit with five people. Of these five, two unfortunately had to cancel before we headed off. This resulted in the smallest 4Aviation group ever; only three people showed up at Schiphol for the trip on Friday 12 October 2018.
We took two flights to get to Dallas-Fort Worth (Amsterdam-Houston and Houston-Dallas Fort Worth). By the time we landed in Dallas-Fort Worth on Friday evening we had already found out that the Fort Worth Alliance airshow had been cancelled for Saturday (13 October). The rain, which had been pouring down for days in the Dallas area was the cause for this. So, by the time we ended up at our hotel for the coming days we had already drafted an alternative plan for the Saturday.
The Saturday (13 October) started off relaxed. While enjoying breakfast we could confirm that it was still raining heavily. This didn’t stop us from visiting two museums near Meacham Airport. The first one was the Fort Worth Aviation Museum. Focusing on the Bronco, this museum has quite a nice outside collection that we captured in the pouring rain (the show must go on). We then went to the Vintage Flying Museum. Their hangars were rather empty (with many aircraft off to air shows), but still an interesting place. The inside of the EA-3 Skywarrior was particularly interesting! In the afternoon we drove to the Fort Worth city centre for a visit to the Stockyards. That meant we were treated to, a somewhat disappointing, cattle drive of Texas Longhorns. The Mexican food in the evening was a nice end to the day.
On Sunday 14 October the show at Fort Worth Alliance was going ahead. Therefore, we had to get up early. We had bought the ‘sunrise photo tour’ (and photopit) tickets for Saturday and they were now valid for Sunday. This gave access to the static display from 07.00, before the event opened for the general public. The static display was quite good, compared to some other shows in the US, with the two former French Air Force Mirage F1s as a nice surprise. The day started very cloudy again, but without rain. During the day we even had some sunshine, resulting in quite a rewarding visit all together. The Snowbirds and the T-38 in Thunderbirds colours were nice participants in the air. In the evening the weather was deteriorating again, with lots of rain coming down.
The rain from Sunday continued on Monday morning (15 October). The Monday was earmarked as a ‘potentially very interesting day’ at NAS JRB Fort Worth. With the F-35s being built there, F-16s, F/A-18s and C-130s based there, it was a place to look forward too. Especially since the place offers quite interesting photo opportunities. We were not so lucky though… probably with the weather not helping, there was hardly anything going on. One C-12 took off and one C-130 returning from the Alliance static display. That was it. We stayed (in the car, because of the rain and the low temperatures) for a couple of hours and at 13.00 decided to drive towards our hotel for the night. The hotel was in Oklahoma City. Before we arrived there the weather had improved and we saw some activity at Tinker AFB and decided to spend some time in the approach there. The light was perfect and the shots made there (E-3, some T-38s) saved the day!
Tuesday 16 October started with a short visit to Will Rogers Airport. We found the spot where the MC-12s were parked, but since we didn’t want to spend too much time here, we continued towards Tinker AFB. We started with a visit to preserved aircraft in the airpark on the North Side of the base. We then parked our car on the same spot as the day before to watch the traffic approaching runway 36. Obviously, this base doesn’t get as many ‘people like us’ as the bases in Arizona for instance, so security was informed by locals about our presence. This resulted in a lengthy period of questioning on the spot. The conclusion was that we did nothing wrong and there was no obligation to delete photos. From Tinker we drove to Vance AFB where we were able to capture quite a number of aircraft (T-1s, T-6s and T-38s) that were active until late in the afternoon. The night was spent in Wichita, in a hotel very close to the civil airport.
Since we were close to the airport, we didn’t have to drive a lot to have a peek at the Textron facility at the airport on Wednesday morning (17 October). We did the same at the Beech Factory Airport and McConnell AFB. We couldn’t spend too much time here, since we were expected to report at Whiteman AFB at 15.00 for Hawgsmoke 2018. The ride towards that took us a little under four hours. At Whiteman we were met by very friendly people of Public Affairs and extensively briefed on what not to do (point camera’s at and take photos of B-2s). A small group of photographers was present on the first day to capture the opening ceremony of Hawgsmoke 2018. Besides ceremonial activities on the ground this included a lost man formation and a performance of the A-10 Demonstration Team. This could have been the best performance the team ever flew. After this we went to our hotel in Clinton, where we would spend three nights.
On Thursday 18 October the actual Hawgsmoke 2018 competition (at least the bombing and the strafing) would take place. We were asked by PAO to be at the Cannon range around 13.00, but not wanting to be late we arrived at the entrance well in time. Before we were able to go in (when there is no aircraft bombing or strafing) we saw two teams of four A-10s doing their thing. After going in, we saw another six teams performing precision bombing (using small BDU-33 practice bombs) and strafing the target. The sound of the A-10 gun in action is just awesome and we were able to witness this over 64 times today… The sun was shining very brightly throughout the whole day. The position we were in wasn’t perfect for photos, but we enjoyed our stay very much anyway. We also enjoyed the ride to and from the range. That part of Missouri offered a particularly nice environment.
When we showed up at the meeting point for access to Whiteman on Friday (19 October) we saw only clouds in the sky. It appeared that the planning, to do the shooting the day before, had been great. Today we were allowed on base to take photos of a 303d Fighter Squadron A-10 that was carrying invasion stripes. This one was parked inside a hangar, and would be part of the Awards Banquet in the same hangar later that day (during which the winners of Hawgsmoke 2018 were to be announced). After that we paid a visit to an on base Minuteman ICBM Launch Control Site. No longer active, this facility is open for viewing (on appointment only and after you manage to get access to Whiteman AFB) and the tour we got was very interesting. The scale of what once was, was simply amazing. In the afternoon we spent some time outside in the approach (not much happening really), before we headed back to our hotel for one more night in Clinton.
The Hawgsmoke participants were scheduled to go back home on Saturday (20 October), so we were eager to be at the meeting point for access to the base in time. The weather couldn’t be any better. While inside the hangar for some extra shots we heard to first A-10s starting up, after which we quickly went outside. We were able to capture around 35 A-10s departing while being quite free to move around. Very good! The only A-10s left on the tarmac after a couple of hours where the ones of the winning team 74th Fighter Squadron from Moody AFB (and the locals obviously). Not that they waited especially for us, but we were able to sit down with the airmen for an interview. After this it was time to thank Public Affairs from the bottom of our hearts for four days of very good access and cooperation! Our hotel for the night was quite close to Kansas City Airport.
On Sunday 21 October we had an early departure from the very boring Kansas City Airport to Houston. This al went according to plan and after collecting our rental car there we drove straight to Ellington Airport for a visit to the Wings over Houston airshow. We got there ahead of our own ETA. The show offers a large number of warbirds and is, among others, home to the F-4 and F-100 of the Collings Foundation. An enjoyable afternoon was spent while the various participants of the flying display performed. While the show almost came to an end we met a resident that also joined 4Aviation on this year’s bus trip to Fairford. This resulted in an enjoyable evening meal with him and an agreement to meet again at Ellington the next morning.
Monday morning (22 October) we checked out at our final hotel of the tour and drove to Ellington to meet up with Gabe. Since everybody drives a pick-up in Texas, we didn’t need a stepladder to be able to capture the flying stuff at Ellington over the fence. In addition to almost all static aircraft that departed (including the EA-18Gs, AC-130 and B-52), we were able to capture a couple of NASA T-38s. A very nice end to a nice tour!
In the early afternoon we drove to Houston Airport for our return flight to Amsterdam. We ended up at Schiphol on time on Tuesday 23 October and said goodbye to each other!
