F35s

[abraves]

There were some F35s in Wilmington over the weekend. My daughter who works at the FBO that has the military contract for them got some pics. They were doing all their flights when she wasn’t there so she wasn’t able to snag me a patch from one of the pilots who gladly give them to her. Sometimes they ran out of extras and will remove the one off their shoulder to give her. She always tells them it’s for her dad. She wanted to get a closer look but can’t when they aren’t there. She’s gotten some real close looks at the F18s and been inside most of the helicopters and other fixed wing that come in. They like giving her a tour. My wife heard them come into town Friday late afternoon.

 

[Chuckman]

That's awesome! They are a Cherry Point training squadron.

 

[abraves]

So my question is why do they spend the weekend in Wilmington? Why not fly out of their own place. Just curious. They get planes all the time that stay there. Now alot of times they are not local. I thought my daughter said these were from not local.

 

[NCLivingBrit]

Thought this was going to be a PSA new product thread....

 

[Chuckman]

So my question is why do they spend the weekend in Wilmington? Why not fly out of their own place. Just curious. They get planes all the time that stay there. Now alot of times they are not local. I thought my daughter said these were from not local.

Oh, they fly all over the country. But they will do a lot of local flights with the new pilots to familiarize the local air corridors.

Also, I was wrong, that one is out of MCAS Beaufort (SC). There is also a squad in Cherry Point, but not that one.

 

[Mathieu18]

They seem to have really popped up over the last year. Couldn’t see but they were up out of Oceana last week again doing night flights. Looked to be half the hangers at Elgin as well but that was my first trip there.

 

[Beef15]

So my question is why do they spend the weekend in Wilmington? Why not fly out of their own place. Just curious. They get planes all the time that stay there. Now alot of times they are not local. I thought my daughter said these were from not local.

I know when I worked at an airport we'd get diversions from the Air Force base fairly regular, even minor mishaps on the runway could result in planes staying the night or longer, needing maintenance (takes time to get crews there), fueling (takes time to arrange with civ companies), whatever, cool to see them, glad I wasn't the security guy spending the night in a pickup babysitting them, also glad I never lucked into fueling them, p.i.t.a. dragging hose for a bunch of top ups. Too bad cell phones had crummy cameras back then, red flag brought planes from all over.

 

[Mathieu18]

The Ospreys do hot refuels at KSUT occasionally. The airport boss is a former Air Force One Chief Steward. Was there meeting once which was cool to watch. I’m sure the pizzas he sent out for lunch didn’t hurt to sway the flight crews too.

 

[abraves]

Whenever they call in for fuel or whatever they always ask them if they can get them food. They do hot fuel for ospreys and F18s quite a bit. Most of the time they know days ahead when they are coming.

 

[Chuckman]

They seem to have really popped up over the last year. Couldn’t see but they were up out of Oceana last week again doing night flights. Looked to be half the hangers at Elgin as well but that was my first trip there.

They just declared a squadron at Cherry Point operational, and they will transition two Harrier squadrons over the next couple years. Oceana has...4 squadrons? I imagine we'll see more and more.

 

[Oneofsix]

So my question is why do they spend the weekend in Wilmington?

Better tata bars in Wilmington?

 

[rufrdr]

Nice! An F117 stopped at the Air Guard base that my daughter works at several months ago. They are still flying!

 

[Exspiravit]

Maybe the most aesthetically pleasing aircraft belly of all time.

 

[Djstorm100]

Like the F-35 but the F-22 is just sexier to me.

Surprised the navy went with the F-35 as they have a long standing history of using twin engine planes.

 

[Chuckman]

Like the F-35 but the F-22 is just sexier to me.

Surprised the navy went with the F-35 as they have a long standing history of using twin engine planes.

The A-4, A-7, F-8, AV-8B (Marines), the much older F-9 were single engine, too. I have read that when they bought the F-4 that was the first AC that was going to eventually phase out the single engine AC, but the A-4 and A-7 flew well into the 80s.

As I understand from reading the Navy and Marines preferred dual-engine because of reliability and redundancy, but seem to really dig the F135 engine.