Edwards Open House

[MMPerk]

Re: Edwards Open House

Good on ya Lonnie! Have fun, it's raining here....

No rain in sight. Beautiful sunrise in the making! The last time I paid a visit to Edwards AFB I was still active duty...it's been a long time. But....we gots us a B-1, B-2, B-17, B-25, and a B-52. Not too mention a flightline full of other goodies. A-10 demo, F-16 demo, F-22 demo, and we'll get a looksie at the F-35 as well, plus another bird that still be developed. Lots of goodies...not too mention the rail years right outside my Motel door!!!

LP

I'll be looking for 4 sleepy peeps....

[bikenutty]

Re: Edwards Open House

Was hot. found out I have debris on my lens.. couple pics here. too tired to write all about it.

My son with Spitfire.

[SpinB]

Re: Edwards Open House

found out I have debris on my lens..

Holy Carp! I been at Eddie's for over 24 years and never realized I've been breathing giant amoebas all that time!!!!!

Thanks for posting those!

The only place on the planet were all three US bombers can be found in flying formation is Edwards AFB!!! We worked VERY hard to get ALL three ships up! I had test data on ALL three..
For that matter WE ALL worked hard to pull this off. I'm glad you folks can see the fruits of our labors!

America! F**k Yeah!!!!!

[MMPerk]

Re: Edwards Open House

It had to be one of the best shows I've ever been to. Wayyy back in the 80's I got share a flightline with both the B-52H, and the very first B-1's. It really brought back some memories seeing and hearing those 'old' great birds. It's absoutely amazing the work that goes on at Edwards AFB to breath new and extended life into some of the greatest machines ever built to fly.

I was very happy to see the scientists, engineers and program people talking to the kids. Those kids are the future "Kelly" Johnson's and Lillian Todd's and other pioneers that will lead us to Mars and beyond.

A really BIG THANK YOU to all at Edwards AFB that made this event possible. It was an amazing event, and I had the best time.

LP

[BUD_XXX]

Re: Edwards Open House

A friend of mine took his family there. They got there early so they could leave mid day. After a five hour wait in line in the car for the Security check and parking, Then they had a five mile walk with two little kids, and no bus in sight....and even though they only caught a couple of flight demoes before they had to leave, they swore they would never go back...

Same way I feal about Travis!

[supercub]

Re: Edwards Open House

How does Edwards compare to the airshow at Miramar? Miramar was a 2 hour wait to get in due to traffic on Saturday. Friday just drove right in....however they were wanding everyone after checking bags....there were two lines of several hundred people at the gate....the way it was going, they would have NEVER been able to get to every one......so after waiting in line for 45 minutes Friday Morning and being next one to be checked with the wand (MMMMmmm that doesn't sound good LOL) anyway, they shut the checking down and opened the gate and everyone walked in........same thing on Saturday. I was surprise there was no Osprey at Miramar this year. I'm still waiting to see one fly.....and no Raptor this year either........otherwise it was a great show, as always, the night show and fireworks, plus the WALL OF FIRE......are great.
Brian

[WASP-kid]

Re: Edwards Open House

A friend of mine took his family there. They got there early so they could leave mid day. After a five hour wait in line in the car for the Security check and parking, Then they had a five mile walk with two little kids, and no bus in sight....and even though they only caught a couple of flight demoes before they had to leave, they swore they would never go back...

Wow Bud, that doesn't match our experience at all. Our version of arriving early was rolling unobstructed through the North Gate @ 8 AM & being parked on the playa and opening a beer by 8:15. Our group of 4 Edwards virgins were awestruck just being there. We caught a trolley at the end of the aisle we parked in that took us right up to security & 3 minutes later we were on a full-size charter bus headed for the line.

We were able to really enjoy the show and get lots of good pics of the display a/c before the crowd got too thick. It was fantastic to see several of NASA's testbed planes out with engineers & pilots to answer questions and provide background. The air show & flight demos were all outstanding.

We took advantage of the F-22s technical delay to catch an early ride back to the car and watched the demo & the final formation flight from there. We were out the gate & on the freeway within 15-20 minutes of the final pass. If there was one shortcoming, it was that they could've used more food stands as those lines were quite lengthy from about 11:00 on, preventing me from getting any protein to go with the beer, water & ice cream, but we had sandwiches in a cooler in the car & all survived.

I will say that there were still cars driving in as the show was ending. I can only guess that the line coming in through the West entrance was huge. I did overhear a guy on his cell mid-afternoon saying they were in line for 3 hours. Not our experience though.

We drove 5 hours each way & were extremely pleased. Thanks to everyone involved for putting together a great event! It's no small feat putting together a one-day event for 100k people & overall, I think they did a fine job. We WILL go back!

[MMPerk]

Re: Edwards Open House

I give the overall experience an A+. Even though it took two hours to get off of the base, it was my own fault...after the final formation, I just had to stop and ask a couple of pilots a few more questions. I think I left Mojave at around 8:30PM and got home just before 3 in the AM. I didn't spend as much as I thought I would, and I look forward to going back. Like the man said, there were things there at Edwards that you're only going to see at Edwards. I've got some pictures, but I'm still sorting through pics that I took for an event before the races, so it may be a few before I get them up.

I can't help but think there was few more than 100,000 people out there, but even at that...that's a whole lot of peeps.

LP

[bill_f]

Re: Edwards Open House

Here's a good photo link for followup -- hell of an eclectic display!

http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1a/Edwards09/Edwards09.html

________
Honda CMX450C

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Edwards Open House

Great photos.

I found the Lockheed YO-3 'Quiet Star' especially of interest. They use to fly it at the airshow at Moffett in the late 70's, and I swear it would pass right in font of you not 150 feet away, and you did NOT hear a thing. The hand-carved wooden paddle-blade prop would turn so slowly that you could almost count the blades while in operation.

Years later, all the NASA aircraft at Moffett/NASA AMES were sent to Dryden.