Skip to main content

A good day to hear hard

Not unlike a loud Bruce Willis flick it was a very good day to be out by the waterfront and listen to some hard rock.  As in the loud booms created by the flying fighter aircraft of the US Armed Forces as part of Fleet Week celebration.  You cannot hear yourself speak as the display dazzles the million plus audience mere feet away from the screaming hardware overhead that costs millions.

So this being a fine autumn weekend a work colleague and I decided to check out the aerial acrobatics and air power display by the American and Canadian navies.  This is an annual tradition here in San Francisco where for almost 30 odd years the armed forces and public get a chance to interface and learn and appreciate some of the challenges of and awesomeness of the American military.

The air show is the most watched and admired part of the entire three day long celebration.   It varies each year in terms of overall hardware displayed but always ends with the grand finale of the Blue Angels squadron performing aerial feats with their F-A 18 Hornet aircraft.  F-A designates a fighter and attack aircraft used by both the Navy and Marines in operation.

Here are some muted glimpses from the event.

CF 18 Hornet buzzing the Coit Tower - Fleet Week 2016
Top Speed 1120 mph
Most aircraft in the fighter category were ones capable of flying close to Mach 2.0 or twice the speed of sound although for demo purposes the max speeds were probably close to 500 mph (almost reaching Mach 1).

Pier 27 also a Cruise Ship Terminal was my base camp to take these pics

F 22 raptor showing off its after burners (the orange glow you see)
F22 show off over Coit Hill

I found the lighter training aircraft made by an obscure outfit near Prague equally entertaining during their displays - two teams performed - a local US team consisting of former Navy pilots and a French team sponsored by a Swiss watch maker.
Local Retired Pilots performing in their Aero Albatross aircraft
Albatross in Diamond formation - pulling Gs instead of Zs

The Rock - if Alcatraz had inmates this would be quite a show!  More AERO dynamics.
Angels and Bell(e)s
Angel diamond over the Oakland Bay Bridge



Grey Angels - the Teachers


1 - 2 - 3 - 4 out of 6

United - 747 - now that is their best flight

Boyz will be Boyz

Fly Bye!



It was a day to remember.

Labels:

Comments

  1. $October 9, 2016 at 10:03 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Post a Comment
Read more

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Costa Rica

 Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry.   Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while.  Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...
Post a Comment
Read more