In all my years of going to airshows, this is a sight that I've never seen and it is the first time that it has happened in 12 years...the Air Forces Thunderbirds and the Navy's Blue Angels are both flying at the same airshow! We had the pleasure of watching the Thunderbirds start the flying portion of the show and the Blue Angels were the grand finale. In this picture, the Blue Angels have started their engines and the crew chiefs are running around accomplishing pre-flight checks with the pilots. Even for show aircraft, the preflights are a necessary safety check and these crew chiefs turn it into quite the show as they run around enthusiastically squaring corners and carrying heavy wheel chocks out at arm's length.

Here is the KC-135, in a low-pass with its refueling boom deployed. This is what it looks like when aircraft approach it in the air to receive gas. There are actually two primary ways to inflight refuel, this is a flying boom and the other is probe-and-drogue. With this flying boom, there is a "boomer" in the aircraft that is actively flying the boom, such that the receiver flies into close formation with the tanker, and the boomer flys (or steers) the boom into the receiver's receptacle. Not all pilots are Thunderbird pilots, but the pressure's on when refueling. Even though they might be in the clouds, at night or in turbulence, they need to stay within a small "box" behind the tanker, or the boom limits will be exceeded, the boom will disengage and they won't get their gas. To assist, there are lights on the bottom of the fuselage (the lighter marks under the back line on the fuselage in front of the engines and again, below the wings) that will provide visual signals to the receiver when normal visual references aren't available (night/weather etc.) and the boom itself is color-coded to help with fore/aft positioning. You can see the red and yellow paint on the extended boom, which is marking the inner limits of the boom. Get closer than the red and the boomer will disconnect you to avoid letting you shove the probe into the boom. Just above the yellow marking is a green area that marks the ideal fore/aft location, then there are identical yellow/red markings on the probe to tell the pilot he is getting too far and might lose his connection. If you look at the blister just forward of where the boom connects to the fuselage, that is where the boomer lays on his stomach and looks out a window so that he/she can visually fly the boom. The KC-135 is also set up to add Md32B hose-drogue pods on its wingtips to allow it to refuel aircraft that use the probe-and-drogue refueling system.

The airshow provided a close up look at this DC Air National Guard F-16 Viper. In service since 1978, the F-16 started out as a low tech primarily daytime multirole fighter (air superiority and air to ground) and has evolved into a very capable, all-weather 4+ generation fighter. There have been over 4,600 built and they are in service in over 25 countries throughout the world. Though few remember this bit of trivia, the General Dynamics YF-16 was selected after a fly-off of against the Northrop YF-17 in 1974. About 10 years later, the YF-17 was re-engined with a more powerful engine, made carrier ready and was sold to the US Navy as the F/A-18.

This cute little birdie is a Stinson L-5 Sentinel. The Sentinels were utilized during WWII for reconnaissance, observation, liaison, artillery spotting and as air ambulances. The Gayle Ann looks to have been utilized for off-shore observations as it is marked with having spotted one Japanese ship and 15 submarines. This easy to fly aircraft could land almost anywhere and stay airborne longer than most pilots bladder could.

I consider the Echelon turn to be one of the most beautiful formation passes. While you can't see it, from this viewpoint, each aircraft is at the same altitude and flying off the aircraft "in front" of it. Before they start the Echelon turn and when they roll out, they are in a line abreast formation. This formation is utilized on a daily basis by fighters all over the world as they maneuver into overhead traffic patterns to come up initial and pitch out to land. Recovering as a formation allows quicker recovery times than individual aircraft (air traffic control treats each flight as if it were a single aircraft and don't worry about separation distances like they do with individual aircraft), which is important when you consider how much gas they consume.

The MV-22 Osprey was developed as a cross between a "normal fixed-wing aircraft" and a helicopter. As you can see the propellers are huge (too big to be vertical on the ground) and the engines rotate from basic level to up and down. This allows those oversized propellers to power the aircraft like a helicopter to take off and land vertically and then rotate the level to use the propellers in a more conventional airplane, providing much greater cruise speed and distance than a helicopter. The MV-22 can carry 24 combat troops at 350 mph and has a range of about 1,000 miles. Plenty to support the Marines amphibious mission.

Some things in life are worth doing it again.
The exactness of that feeling will never come again
But, the joy?
Does it matter when the joy is still there?

It is nice to have a fresh voice, day in, day out.
But the charm of elevating this day trumps finding another to take its place.
Have you seriously looked for a blue flower in this season?
Happy are those that did.

Thank you for visiting my post 💖 Because of you, I come back to post again and again, I am encouraged by you, for the time you take to visit, comment or even upvote. For all of these reasons, I am eternally grateful. Don't ever forget what a wonderful world we live in, people. Let's hold hands around the globe and make this earth really spin. Some days, it is not as easy to see, how wonderful it really is. Kindness counts. Wherever you go, whatever you do.

they set my aunts house on fire
i cried the way women on tv do
folding at the middle
like a five pound note.
i called the boy who use to love me
tried to ‘okay’ my voice
i said hello
he said warsan, what’s wrong, what’s happened?

i’ve been praying,
and these are what my prayers look like;
dear god
i come from two countries
one is thirsty
the other is on fire
both need water.

later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered,
"where does it hurt?"
it answered,

"everywhere"
"everywhere"
"everywhere"

warsan shire