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Author Topic: One of my favorite things about where I live...  (Read 1703 times)

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Jaypack44

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One of my favorite things about where I live...
« on: October 04, 2012, 12:48:34 PM »

...besides the scenery, climate, and people, is the fact that I live directly under the traffic pattern for McChord AFB in Tacoma, Washington. As such, I get to see all manner of airplanes circling overhead- McChord is normally a C-17 base, so I usually see at least 10 of those on any given day, but there are also some others. I try to keep my camera nearby at all times, just in case, especially since I've missed out on some awesome stuff, like:

-a pair of C-130s flying extremely tight formation, and extremely low
-Several V-22 Ospreys, also extremely low
-Waking up to a trio of A-10s (you have no idea how much I regret grabbing my camera before I ran outside...)
-A C-5
-one of the two 747s used as Air Force One (though it was not Air Force One at the time; it was just visiting for maintenance...)
-two (what appeared to be) An-124s
-The occasional KC-135
-very rarely, an F-16, or F-18 or two (though I mostly just HEAR the F-18s O.o)

However, I've managed to snag a few shots of some cool stuff, too:

C-17s:



My favorite (other than the A-10s), the F-15:





Another common sight is P-3 Orions- I assume they're typically based at NAS Whidbey, but they seem to come down and do touch-and-gos here fairly often:
This one was painted in a 1950s P2V Neptune scheme for the Centennial of Naval Aviation last year- I'd seen it several times before, but had never gotten a picture of it until last night- it was circling around for almost two hours!




This "normal" P-3 has been going for about as long this morning- I snapped these about a half hour ago:
The view from my usual spotting platform- the roof!




This one's heavily zoomed and cropped, and my camera failed to focus, but I believe it was an A-4, painted in an "Aggressor" scheme:


An L-39- seeing this was the impetus for me to actually download the L-39 mod and do some skins!


We also get the occasional UH-60 and OH-58


A T-33- I believe this one's civilian-owned, because it has a N- registration number:


Apologies for the low quality of some of the photos- my camera's pretty old, and only has a 3x optical zoom, so most of the photos have been heavily cropped. The exceptions are the C-17s and the T-33; I happened to be borrowing my girlfriend's Nikon D3100 that day, and she's got a 200mm lens. There's been a lot of joking about me "borrowing" it, and never returning it! ;P

Also, McChord had its annual airshow this summer, and I was SO excited to be able to go. However, my family ended up being in Michigan visiting family at the time, so I had to settle for seeing all of my friends' facebook posts, which were mostly about being annoyed by the noise. Some people... haha. Next year, I'll be there for sure!

Anywho, hope you like the photos, and I'd be very interested to see any you all might have taken!
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SAS~Bombsaway

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Re: One of my favorite thigs about where I live...
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2012, 02:56:20 PM »

Living here San Antonio Texas we have the C-5 Galaxy overhead a lot. Here are a couple of videos from the web. I didnt take these vids but they give you an idea of how loud they are. I dont live too far from the base. You can be inside a crowded store like Wal Mart and you can hear these big guys go over.






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Jaypack44

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Re: One of my favorite things about where I live...
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2012, 03:13:20 PM »

Very cool! the C-17s are cool, but I'd much rather see C-5s overhead! I've only seen one in flight once, but I'll never forget the sound of it! I've got a friend stationed at Lackland, and he's sent me a few texts and messages about all the cool stuff he gets to see...
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SAS~Bombsaway

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Re: One of my favorite things about where I live...
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2012, 03:28:09 PM »

Yeah we get a lot of planes in san Antonio because this is a military city. We have Brooks Airforce Base too but I live kind of far from that one. The best thing I've seen was years a got when President Clinton flew into Lackland and I was working on a roof up and Airforce One flew right over me. Two F-19s just broke off as Airforce One was on final. That was cool. :)
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BravoFxTrt

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Re: One of my favorite things about where I live...
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2012, 07:23:30 PM »

I flew in a few C-5's, once extremely hung over, the seats are positioned facing aft, so the whole ride you think your flying tail first lol ???. The bad thing was they never served drinks.  :(
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352nd_Hoss

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Re: One of my favorite things about where I live...
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2012, 07:35:05 PM »

I stayed in the Sherwood Inn for 10 months while the ship was in drydock at Bremerton.  In fact we had the entire hotel, and most of them around it.  Army boys down at Lewis didn't like us in the area at all.....

I was stationed at Whidbey for 6 months back in 78/79 going to C schools.  I work at Lemoore Naval Air Station since I retired so I get an air show every day too.

Joberg

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Re: One of my favorite things about where I live...
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2012, 10:41:55 AM »

Nice pics, I do my flight training in Illinois and we occasionally do touch and goes there. Nothing like sharing the pattern with a KC-135 while you're in a Da20!
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CorsairKira

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Re: One of my favorite things about where I live...
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2012, 10:47:42 AM »

Very nice!  How often does the local paper run the article "Why all these airplanes are overhead" for the benefit of the idiots that move in next to a pre-existing airport and then complain about the airplanes, especially military traffic?   ::)  Ours did maybe a month ago.
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