Parrothead Jeff & Friends » Airshows

From the past

Glenn Mark Cassel AMH1(AW) USN Retired — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:00:47 +0000

The following are some pics that I took in 1980 with a Yashica TL Electro 35mm SLR. I scanned the prints so they are not the best. But these few pictures are representative of a life that I chose so very long ago. The Black and White of eight of us Argonauts is an official Navy Photo. We were young…………….once……………and our bond was as strong as any.

The Day I got my Air Warfare Designator. The (AW) you all see.

Me, first row, middle. AMS2 Tim Lobretto, middle, second row. AQC Ed Zwick to Tim’s left and then the CO, CDR Jim Oliver. This was when I was in VA-147, The Argonauts out of NAS Lemoore, CA and embarked with Carrier Air Wing Nine in USS Kitty Hawk CV63.

The following are from the Long Cruise of September 1980 to May 1981 aboard USS Ranger CV61 when I was in VA-145, The Swordsmen. We had the A-6E and KA-6D. Pinch will fill you in on the K version. Tomcats had to plug in after launching!

Prowler shooting off the waist of Ranger. The Rooks of VAQ-137

The above shot also has NE 505, NE 621 and NE 400 in it. 505 is a Swordsmen bird. NE 400 is from VA-25, Lex will know it as VFA-25. I got a few years on ya, there, Lex.

NE112. The Wolfpack of Fighter Squadron One. OK Three Wire.

Above is a Tomcat of Fighting One, The Wolfpack. This outfit was consigned to the history books even before I retired!

The F-15 is a bad ass fighter but there is nothing on this earth quite like a Tomcat. Any Time, Baby!

USS Independence CV-62 to Port

This is a shot of the first ship I served aboard. The guy in the green jersey to the left is AD1(AW) Darryl Hinkle. He was in VAQ137 at the time. We had made two cruises together on Independence when he was in VAQ132 and I was in both V-1 division as an elevator operator and AIMD Hydraulics shop as an AMH3. We go a long ways back.

KA-6D trap. NE 522. Swordsmen. VA-145.

KA-6D. An A-6A re-manufactured. The avionics and LOX converters were removed from the aft equipment platform and moved under the radome. The radar was taken out for this. A hose reel and plumbing was installed in the aft platform and we had a tanker. Full fuel on this puppy was 26,000 pounds. Off a deck. Check with Lex and Pinch. They know.

The prop job with it’s wings folded back is the E-2C Hawkeye. Think AWACS for the Fleet. Still in production in it’s latest version with those cool eight blade scimitar props! Still a Grumman Iron Works product on Deck in the Fleet!

Passing Gas!

That is us. Passing gas to VAQ137′s Prowler! Not the best shot but it is all I have. Other than memories. And the occasional cheap shot in the general direction of Pinch and Lex. With out us and these birds……………………………..

The point of the sword goes..........BOOM!

Mark 82, GP, 500 pound bombs. Showing off for some dignitary, I guess. We didn’t get to go to Tehran and use them for keeps.

VF-2 Bounty Hunters

On a flyby. The Bounty Hunters now fly the F/A-18E Super Hornet. Out of Lemoore. CVW-2 is a whole lot different these days.

Wolfpack Tomcat off the waist

The Wolfpack is gone. The Swordsmen of VA-145 have been gone since six months before I retired. The Rooks of VAQ137 will be transitioning to the EA-18G Growler. A plastic jammer! The Fisties went plastic in 1985, as one of the first two operational Hornet outfits at Lemoore. For a short period of time, CVW-2 was a Grumman Air Wing, per se. Two Tomcat squadrons, two Intruder squadrons, one Prowler squadron, one Hawkeye squadron, in addition were the S-3s and H-3s. Now the Carrier Air Wing is dominated by the epoxy rocket from Saint Louis. The McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet in it’s various versions including the new Growler Electronic Attack platform. I will never call it a Boeing. To old for that, now. Like a T-2 is still North American to me, not Rockwell.

I went to sea in January of 1974 aboard the Good Ship Independence. The primary Fleet Fighter was still the F-4 Phantom II. When I retired the Tomcat was looking at it’s end of service. The A-6 was being stood down by then. The A-7 was completely gone shortly after Desert Storm. VA-46 and VA-72 on USS John F. Kennedy stood down almost upon return to the States. JFK is gone, as well. There are no oil fired carriers in the Fleet. And even Enterprise is slated to be decommissioned in a couple of years and by then she will have served over 50 years!

But I hope everyone enjoys the pictures. I enjoyed the times I was there to take them.

And we are our own Band of Brothers, Cold Warriors all of us.

Oscar Winner James Horner Writes Music For The Horsemen Aerobatic Team

Parrothead Jeff — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:00:19 +0000

James Horner has written the musical score for a multitude of Oscar winning films including Apollo 13 and Titanic. What I didn’t know until recently is that he’s also an avid aviation fan and a licensed pilot as well. Now he’s teamed up with The Horsemen after becoming good friends with the guys on the team. For those of you who don’t know, The Horsemen are the only team to fly precision formation aerobatics in vintage aircraft. Their usual mounts (there have been others at times) are WWII vintage P-51 Mustang fighters.

After much discussion, Mr. Horner has been tapped to write the musical score to which The Horsemen will fly their performances. The full video on that isn’t available yet, but this one tells the tale of how it came to happen and includes some great scenes and sounds of the Mustangs flying hard and gracefully while his new music plays in the background.

I don’t care if I have to pay for the video of this when it’s done – I know it’s going to be worth it

So kick back, click on the video, and enjoy some real aviation magic

23 January 2010 – Aviation Nation 2009 – Plane Pr0n!!!

Parrothead Jeff — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 08:56:12 +0000

So, I finally managed to get more (and I think the last) of the film developed from Aviation Nation 2009

How did I do this? Well, I was given a choice yesterday of whether I wanted to work Saturday or Sunday this weekend and I chose to have today off. I managed to do exactly what I wanted to do which was as close to nothing as I could possible get away with As it stands right now, I have no idea just how much overtime I’ll be working during the next week. All I know right now is that my next currently scheduled day off is two weeks from today and I’m already trying to figure out just what I’m going to do. There have been thoughts of social alcohol consumption in a building that costs more than a couple of aircraft carriers, but I’ll probably settle for making a ton of noise with some of my toys

No matter what happens in the next week, no matter how many days I go without posting, and no matter just how incredibly burned out I get, I do have to say thanks to all my readers and co-bloggers You guys go a long way to keeping me going when the going gets tough, stressful, and tiring 8) If I don’t get a chance to respond to your comments, I swear it’s because I’m either working, de-stressing, or sleeping right now

Anywho, on with the plane pr0n

There’s 41 pictures in this post, so I went with the idea of trying to get some actual sleep (which hasn’t been working so well this week) and letting y’all ask the questions in the comments There’s B-25s, a P-38 Lightning, MiGs, an F-86, F-16s, and some other rather cool aviation tech for all my aviation loving readers out there 8) I promise (you may still have to remind me) that I’ll come back and re-post these pictures with the appropriate descriptions. I just don’t quite have the time right now and I wanted to post something more worthwhile to look at than another snowy mountain

23 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2010

Actually, come to think of it, I have a request for everyone out there. I know which of these pics are my favorites and you might even be able to guess which ones those are, but what are your favorites and why? I’ve always been fascinated by the different ways people perceive the world and why they like different things (yes, I did even take some psych courses in college), so this would be something I’d really enjoy if y’all don’t mind sharing a bit

Thanks in advance and here’s hoping I come out of this next couple of weeks with at least some shred of the little sanity I have remaining in tact

Have a great Sunday, everyone

Picture(s) A Day – 16 January 2010 – Plane Pr0n – More From Aviation Nation 2009

Parrothead Jeff — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:57:17 +0000

Not too much to report today, so this post will focus primarily on some new images freshly developed at Wal Mart while I carried out a shopping expedition Yes, it’s more good stuff from Aviation Nation back in November of last year

I hope y’all like plane pr0n

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - Yep, it's an airshow alright

Some of the things I’ve found to be universal at airshows are airplanes (of course ), crowds of people, food and souvenir stands, and a section of rides and games to keep the really young kids from going bonkers. I wasn’t going for that in the image above – I was trying to get a decent picture of the snow-capped peaks around Mt. Charleston. Still, I like what I got out of this one.

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - T-33 'Ace Maker' flying past the crowd

Ace Maker is a privately owned and operated T-33 jet trainer from the Korean War era with some of the greatest nose art I’ve ever seen They had her up and flying in 2009 and I wish I could’ve gotten a few more pics. Maybe next year

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - T-28 Trojans flying as part of the trainer parade

Without trainers, we’d have one helluva lot more accidents in fighters One of the regular features at Aviation Nation is a parade of trainer aircraft and I for one really do enjoy it. Aside from the historic aspect of the aircraft involved, something tells me that the much lower cost of keeping these aircraft flying also factors into the reasoning for the longevity of this feature at the airshow. It’s something that’s borderline affordable for the organizers and the crowd still loves to see ‘em fly

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - A-1 Skyraiders AKA 'Spads' in hot on an attack run

If you’ve been lurking around this site for any length of time, you no doubt have seen these two aircraft from several different years of airshows Those are A-1 Skyraiders, also known as “Spads” or “Sandys” and they can bring a world of hurt to an enemy Between the bombs, rockets, napalm, and the 20mm cannons, they’re certainly formidable. They even shot down MiG-17 Fresco jet fighters over Vietnam

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - F-86 Sabre about to gun a MiG-15 Fagot

Watching an F-86 and a MiG-15 go at it in a dogfight never gets old, especially when it’s over Nellis at an already great airshow Watching these two jets, there’s really no way to tell the fight’s over Nevada and not the 38^th parallel

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - P-51 Mustangs in the hands of 'The Horsemen' aerobatics team

Something you really don’t see all that often is aerobatics being performed by WWII warbirds. Formation aerobatics are even more rare. The Horsemen are sponsored by Air Show Buzz – a great airshow website – and are a great act to watch

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - B-25 Mitchell bombers fly past

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - B-25 solo fly by

These two are for all the B-25 fans out there This was part of a Doolittle Raiders tribute and they sure looked like they were having a grand old time up there flying for the crowd

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - Parents giving a history lesson 8)

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - Cessna 0-1 Bird Dog on static display

The Jeep and Stinson L9 above are both owned by the First Composite Group of the General Patton Desert Training Center. The big rig you see in the background is their mobile museum. They’ve been going to airshows and other events for many years and showing several new generations quite a bit of history that they might never otherwise learn about considering the state of the public school system.

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - AT-6 Texans fly past behind a C-130 Hercules

I just thought this picture was pretty cool with the airplanes and the mountains and all

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - F-15E Strike Eagle and C-5 Galaxy

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - F-15E Strike Eagle, C-5 Galaxy, F-16 Vipers, RC-135 Rivet Joint

Last, but not least, we have a few more static displays. Gotta love those fast jets and the cargo haulers, too. Of course, my buddy who’s a loadmaster on C-17s swears that the C-5 ain’t near as cool as the Globemaster

So there’s your periodic dose of plane pr0n Here’s hoping you have a great Sunday

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(Archive) Picture(s) A Day – 9 January 2010 – More Plane Pr0n!

Parrothead Jeff — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:07:09 +0000

Folks, let’s just say that yesterday wasn’t the greatest in that I’m still not well. I talked to my sister today who’s a recently minted RN and she advised that I shouldn’t be too worried just yet and confirmed that I’m on the right path with going to see the doc again sometime early this week. I’m shooting for Monday after work, but we’ll see if we can’t work something out for Tuesday if that won’t fly. I don’t want to miss work, but maybe I can go in early and leave early as well.

With this in mind I hope you’ll be as understanding of my lack of photography yesterday as you’ve been supportive of me during this time of trouble. I really do appreciate it

Those new pics from Nellis a couple of days ago got a huge reaction, so I thought I’d say thanks for your understanding by going through and selecting some of my favorite pictures from Aviation Nation 2007 which you may or may not have seen depending on how long you’ve been hanging out around here I’ve freshly edited each one by rotating, cropping, and tweaking a few things like the brightness, contrast, and color saturation to overcome some of the washed out look they used to have as well 8) Oh yeah, I also found a few pics that were intended to be stitched into panoramas that I never completed, but they have been now! Be sure to check out the F-104 Starfighter (the silver jet with the red, white, and blue stripes) and the sunset pic at the end Click on ‘em for full size, too

One of the things I tried to do here was to get a little bit of something for everyone. There’s WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, and modern fighters and bombers along with at least one pic of everyone’s favorite Ryan from Aviation’s Golden Age

Without further ado, here’s the pics from 2007 I didn’t take the time to do individual captions as this is much quicker and the editing of the photos took quite a lot of time all by itself, so as usual, feel free to ask any questions you have down in the comments

9 January 2010 - Plane Pr0n from Aviation Nation 2007

So there’s a few pictures to tide you over until a bit later I’m doing a bit better today, but I don’t know how well that will hold up. I may head up to the shooting park for a bit of firearms testing and to go through the initiation safety briefing and video and if so, you’ll have at least a couple of pics from that excursion

Have a great day and thanks again, everyone