wfooshee
O, Woe is me!!
A few weeks ago the three of us began trading text messages about metting up for this weekend's air show in Pensacola, the final show of the year for the Navy's Blue Angels. It's to be me, Patriot, and Majicmaker. Patriot is shooting over Thursday night from New Orleans and staying with a friend in town. Majicmaker is leaving from Palm Beach on Wednesday and splitting the trip up into 2 days, probably to reduce the amount of crud that builds up on his bike, making it easier to was every night.
It took us a week to plan out the meeting place where we'd find each other on Friday morning. How about breakfast at a Waffle House? Weel, Mike wants to use one way the fark on the West side, Vic wants one close to his hotel, and I'm gonna have breakfast at home before leaving Friday morning. No way I can ride 2 and a half hours without eating first! But we eventually settled on a centrally-located Waffle House to meet at. They would be there and eat, and i would arrive just as they were finishing up, and we'd proceed from there. We had the address and even a Google Maps image of the location, and everybody agreed.
I called to check in, and Mike was there by himself. He called Vic, who answered "Where are you? I've eaten and nobody's here!" Vic went to the wrong one. But when I called Mike it was to report that I was running late, as the bike wouldn't start when I gassed it up, had to wait about 30 minutes for some reason to get it going. When I tried it, it backfired and stopped cranking, reset the clock, and then on trying again would crank freely without catching, with an occasional cough and pop through the exhaust. WOT didn't help. I stopped trying as the cranking was getting slower, and let the bike site a while. After 30 minutes it cranked smooth and fired right up. (I think I have a sticking injector, and it floods sometimes when I shut it off. If it sits long enough the flooding evaporates and nothing's wrong. If I don't, though, it gets mean.)
So since they each had separate breakfasts, they decide to go ahead towards the base and meet up elsewhere. I got the coordinates on my next check-in and found them easily enough. We expressed hopes that the rest of the day went much more smoothly.
We rode onto the air station and were directed by the friendly folks to specified motorcycle parking, way closer to the show than cages could go. Yay, bikes! As we were putting away gear and gathering up to go in, this ugly thin dude walks up and asks if we're on fjrforum. He sees three FJRs and does a quick bit of math in his head, and takes a chance. Turns out the guy was evilmedic13, there with his family. He's really not that ugly, I guess, but too young and too thin next to the three of us, so that made him . . . ugly.
Mike and Vic. That's Vic on the left.
All three bikes. Vic's in front, obviously having been washed the night before, mine under the half-cover, and Mike's at the back, where we tried to hide it.
We walked around a bit, found this ugly flying thing called a P-3. This is how Mike spent his days in the Navy, behind the controls of one of these beasts, flying around finding commie bastards trying to sneak around in our ocean.
It wasn't open to crawl around in, so I guess they have to protect all that top-secret 1950's technology.
The show started with a boatload of early trainers and then some warbirds flying circles around the field. These Stearmans are the Navy and the Army version, from between the wars. Mike claimed that he was too late to learn in one of these, but I don't believe him.
An A-10 performed a demonstration, and had some "strafing" passes and a "bomb" run, assisted by some on-the-ground pyro, canisters of diesel lit up by dynamite.
One of the Stearmans and Skip Stewart's Prometheus then did a show called "Ten Sticks of Dynamite," joined by the jet truck. I think they used more than ten.
The Navy's Tailhook Legacy flight, led by a Helldiver, with a Corsair and a Super Hornet.
There was also a replica of the Ely-Curtiss pusher, the first airplane to take off from a ship's deck. This happened in November of 1910. The Navy is celebrating 100 years of naval aviation at this year's air shows, and this is the guy that started it all, the world's first naval aircraft.
As the Tailhook Legacy formation circled the field, the Curtiss circled closer and they timed it to get all the aircraft in the frame together.
Lots of rudder!
The smoke shows the flight path, but the airplane's not pointed that way!!
A Bearcat painted to match the early Blue Angels team.
Fat Albert
And the stars of the show:
It took us a week to plan out the meeting place where we'd find each other on Friday morning. How about breakfast at a Waffle House? Weel, Mike wants to use one way the fark on the West side, Vic wants one close to his hotel, and I'm gonna have breakfast at home before leaving Friday morning. No way I can ride 2 and a half hours without eating first! But we eventually settled on a centrally-located Waffle House to meet at. They would be there and eat, and i would arrive just as they were finishing up, and we'd proceed from there. We had the address and even a Google Maps image of the location, and everybody agreed.
I called to check in, and Mike was there by himself. He called Vic, who answered "Where are you? I've eaten and nobody's here!" Vic went to the wrong one. But when I called Mike it was to report that I was running late, as the bike wouldn't start when I gassed it up, had to wait about 30 minutes for some reason to get it going. When I tried it, it backfired and stopped cranking, reset the clock, and then on trying again would crank freely without catching, with an occasional cough and pop through the exhaust. WOT didn't help. I stopped trying as the cranking was getting slower, and let the bike site a while. After 30 minutes it cranked smooth and fired right up. (I think I have a sticking injector, and it floods sometimes when I shut it off. If it sits long enough the flooding evaporates and nothing's wrong. If I don't, though, it gets mean.)
So since they each had separate breakfasts, they decide to go ahead towards the base and meet up elsewhere. I got the coordinates on my next check-in and found them easily enough. We expressed hopes that the rest of the day went much more smoothly.
We rode onto the air station and were directed by the friendly folks to specified motorcycle parking, way closer to the show than cages could go. Yay, bikes! As we were putting away gear and gathering up to go in, this ugly thin dude walks up and asks if we're on fjrforum. He sees three FJRs and does a quick bit of math in his head, and takes a chance. Turns out the guy was evilmedic13, there with his family. He's really not that ugly, I guess, but too young and too thin next to the three of us, so that made him . . . ugly.
Mike and Vic. That's Vic on the left.
All three bikes. Vic's in front, obviously having been washed the night before, mine under the half-cover, and Mike's at the back, where we tried to hide it.
We walked around a bit, found this ugly flying thing called a P-3. This is how Mike spent his days in the Navy, behind the controls of one of these beasts, flying around finding commie bastards trying to sneak around in our ocean.
It wasn't open to crawl around in, so I guess they have to protect all that top-secret 1950's technology.
The show started with a boatload of early trainers and then some warbirds flying circles around the field. These Stearmans are the Navy and the Army version, from between the wars. Mike claimed that he was too late to learn in one of these, but I don't believe him.
An A-10 performed a demonstration, and had some "strafing" passes and a "bomb" run, assisted by some on-the-ground pyro, canisters of diesel lit up by dynamite.
One of the Stearmans and Skip Stewart's Prometheus then did a show called "Ten Sticks of Dynamite," joined by the jet truck. I think they used more than ten.
The Navy's Tailhook Legacy flight, led by a Helldiver, with a Corsair and a Super Hornet.
There was also a replica of the Ely-Curtiss pusher, the first airplane to take off from a ship's deck. This happened in November of 1910. The Navy is celebrating 100 years of naval aviation at this year's air shows, and this is the guy that started it all, the world's first naval aircraft.
As the Tailhook Legacy formation circled the field, the Curtiss circled closer and they timed it to get all the aircraft in the frame together.
Lots of rudder!
The smoke shows the flight path, but the airplane's not pointed that way!!
A Bearcat painted to match the early Blue Angels team.
Fat Albert
And the stars of the show:
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