The Flight Deck

My ears are ringing with jet noise (I knew there was a reason I chose Norfolk over Virginia Beach) and my neck and face are glowing red, but it was a good day, because I spent it at NAS Oceana. Where there were airplanes. Many, many airplanes.

Lots of flight demonstrations – the usual assortment of aerobatic planes and parachutists and a couple of small jets. The junior service provided F-117, F-15E, and F-22 shows; the Eagle and Raptor also joined the Heritage Flight with its P-51 and F-86. First time I’d seen the F-22 demo – vectored thrust (and lots of it) is a good thing. The Navy put up a bunch of Hornets (big and little) to do a firepower demonstration and a 10-ship Fleet flyby formation. Later a Super went up to do a solo show. There was a Corsair on the flight line (and another in a hangar) but I did not see them fly. The grand finale was, of course, the Blue Angels – also a first for me.

Static displays included assorted helicopters, a T-6 Texan II and some T-38s, a T-28D, B-25J “Panchito,” two VMAQ-3 Prowlers, a Hawkeye, an E-3, a P-3, and what appeared to be a P-3 wearing a radome. Looked like the illegitimate offspring of an Orion and a Hawkeye. There were also plenty of Hornets, including a couple of VFC-12 aircraft (the East Coast aggressor squadron – I have to say, the Soviet look favors the Hornet. And there was a Tomcat on display, looking a bit sad, as though it knew that once it had been the star of this show.

Watched the Super Hornet solo from the shade of a Prowler’s wing and noticed one of the Prowler guys watching too. “Bet you’re looking forward to getting the G!” Disgusted laugh. “The Marine Corps isn’t getting any G’s…we’ll be flying these for the next 30 years.”

For the Hawkeye historians – the Hawkeye was VAW-121 “Bluetail 600,” BuNo.165304.

The Orion (BuNo.158922) was actually the highlight of the show for me – it was open to visitors, and I wish I’d noted the squadron, because it has good people. A lot of the airplanes were just sitting there without anybody to answer questions or even any signage explaining anything about them, but the P-3 folks had a table set up outside the aircraft, were giving souvenirs to the kids, and were extremely friendly and eager to show off their aircraft, inside and out. They deserve a big BZ.

Sadly, on Friday an SNJ crashed while practicing for the show. The pilot, Jan Wildbergh, was killed. He was 74.