The Sound of Freedom

On Saturday, we took a trip with a visiting GeeGee and PaPa and Uncle not-enough-homework-to-do Tim to the Ft. Worth Alliance Air Show, which only narrowly beat out the other option for the day's activity--the Dallas Pumpkin Village (for those of you in Rio Linda, no, the decision was not at all difficult at all, especially with a 3 year old who transforms any semi-flat object into a fighter jet). What better way to spend a beautiful, late fall day than with 100,000 Americans and a few less, but just as exceptional, peices of American engineering? The sunburns and 90 minutes spent navigating an exit from the parking lot were a small price to pay for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The stunt planes redefined the word "flying" for me. I always thought there was an amazing force called "lift" created by the air moving over and under the wings of the airplane. Aparently, I have been lied to all my life, because these pilots were keeping the aircraft in the air going sideways, backwards and at complete standstills.

No, I cannot take credit for the pictures. As always that goes to my awesome wife.

Early in the show, a motorcade with full escort made its way to a "private area" of the airport. We were all convinced that, since he lives in Dallas, W and his family were there. I wondered if there would be a safer place for the former president to be than at a military air show with all branches of the military present... and in Texas?

The highlight for PT, I think, was the chance to go "inside the belly of a tilt-a-rotor."

There were plenty of old and new aircraft on the ground to explore, which created a few more photo ops.

Yes, that is the 50mm gatling gun on an A10 Warthog pointed at Dad's head.

None of this, however, prepared us for the last 2 hours of the show, which featured a F-16 Fighting Falcon, an F-22 Raptor and, of course, the Blue Angels. I CAN claim credit for these videos:

Standing in the near vicinity of this F-22 monster, one cannot say that he has "heard" it fly by, but that it impressed itself onto every sense besides taste. At this low altitude, the smell of jet fuel is awesome, too.

This display of seven decades of global air superiority sent a tingle down my leg.

Finally, not that any video can afford them justice, but this post would be sadly lacking without including some frames of the Blue Angels.

Just a few more reasons why I'm thankful I'm not Taliban.