MCAS...Marine Corp Air Show

Yesterday was the FREE air show on the Marine base. This was our third time going; we really enjoy it. Yesterday morning about 8:30 we left with our neighbor in the pickup, took the 6 mile shortcut through the desert to be one of the first to enter the base. There is always a big crowd. The lines on the two streets used to get to there are always a mile or more long. Then the young Marines drive shuttle buses from the parking lots to the show alongside the airfield.

There are all kinds of aircraft to look at...a B-52 bomber, a huge cargo plane (it has six wheels on each side...whew), a F-16, a F-18 Hornet, a F-5 (made like a Soviet fighter), a Blackhawk helicopter, oh dear, and many more planes and helicopters which are either on display or can be walked through. Some of the planes did flybys for us. A fuel plane did a flyby with a Harrier and a F-18 attached to the fuel lines. Darnit...I missed this demo because I had just sat down in the 'blue boy' and couldn't get up at that moment...lol. But, WE STAYED TO THE VERY END TO SEE MY FAVORITE PLANE, THE HARRIER do a flyby, land and take off like a helicopter and fly sideways.

We also got to watch several stunt planes do all kinds of tricks. Two of my favorite tricks are the hammerhead (they fly straight up until the motor stalls) and when they go straight up and fall end over end. We even got to watch a wingwalker stand on the upper wing of a stunt bi-plane. As the plane did loops and flew upside down, she would wave to us. Now I don't think I would be comfortable doing that even though there was something holding her on.

Oh...then there were all the vendors. I tried to win a t-shirt from an Indian casino nearby, but just got a little purple sack of freebies. And I got some free wings to send to our grandkids. And I had a lady take my picture behind this cardboard cutout with my cellphone (forgot the camera).