What I learned at the Air Show

Yesterday Angela and I took in the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends 2007, at Rickenbacker Airport here in Columbus.

I didn’t really know what to expect, other than the collection of WWII-era aircraft, and there were plenty of them.

There were also Air Force demonstrations of the F-15, F-16 and F-22. The F-22 Raptor is the most amazing plane I have ever seen in person. I watched this plane go vertical, into an inverted state, flip back around and stop. Literally, it had an airspeed of zero. It drifted downward ever so slightly while at zero airspeed, the pilot let the nose dip, rise, point to the left and then hit the throttle to accelerate, and was just gone from that spot before you even realized it. If I wasn’t there in person I might have thought it was CGI.

I also learned that getting photos of jets, in flight, can be a very difficult thing! Luckily the air force does this really nice Heritage Flight, where the modern day jets, fly in formation with the P-51 Mustangs, to display the history of the Air Force, slowed down to that speed, it was a bit easier to get some nice photos.

It was really a great day! You can see more photos of mine here, and Angela’s here.

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