Well this last weekend was the Rocky mountain Air Show at Rocky Mtn Regional ( Jeffco airport for us natives) And as a student in the industry related field I was asked to volunteer in the show. so I did and picked upp discounted ticket for Friday and Sunday (Volunteered on Saturday) I have never been to a civilian air show and boy was that amazing! It put an entirely new perspective on what an airplane can do, besides transport ppl or blow things up.
Hercules C130 (Built after my service dates)

This is a Air force training aircraft. If I remember right it is a TC7

F18 Hornet! Absolutely NASTY!

Ill put some more on here, or you can scroll through the few pics I took
F16 is one bad azz mofo!

P51 Mustang "EVIL STANG" I have always loved these planes!

This is Rotors on the rockies Training Heli. I picked up a coupon for one hr 30min on ground 30 in the air with some hovering time. for about 150! I cant wait to go!

And this video is a fly by with simulated Bomb Drop. He flew over at Mach speed a few times and showed off some awesome flight characteristics.

Zilla, thats really cool.
Something I forgot to mention was the B2 Stealth did a fly over on Saturday, I didn't take pics because its a real pain with my phone on flip, the back lens is so scuffed up its just foggy. That would be the second time ive seen a Stealth Jet, first time for the B2. If you were anywhere north on Jeffco (RMNR for the new colo residents) you would have seen him. Definitely wouldnt have heard him. What an amazing plane.

Some of the other stuff I was impressed with is a "cookie cutter" plane out of Tuscon AZ. Very similar to an old fiberglass street beast hot rod but with a tail and wings of course. Family ran business and can build one in about 6 weeks.

then there was the mercedes of the small planes with Cirrus, man those babys are sweet!


Thats the interior cockpit of one of those! Better have some serious cash to own something like this!

Yeah they are, I went inside that one on Friday night and glad I did the line was a mile long on Sat and Sunday. This one was made after I got out. I remember running the air field at FT Lewis and the props would blow me off the path as I ran by, The Rangers were normally loading up for a mission. I had no idea they had made newer ones since I ETS. the crew that pilots this one said there was even newer ones than this one. And actually this one has worked on several colorado fire suppression missions. Which reminds me, I signed up for civil air patrol while I was there.

Did they happen to have any OV-10 Broncos at the show? I'd give my right arm to get a ride in that P-51.

you know an idea for next year would be to have the Colorado classic bronco club show up. They did have a car show with a local Mustang Club. Just an idea, not sure who to contact about that either.

No OV Broncos that I know of, I dont even know what that is. LOL
Each day they had something new in the show, but the coolest part was it was a tribute to WWII and they had atleast 50 WWII Vets show up, and THEN! They had toro toro toro come here from Cali and the Jap Zeros did a simulated pearl harbor bombing with pyros and everything. The entire strip was covered with smoke and the skies full of jap zeros!

I think one of my favorite parts of the Air Force football games are the fly overs. Especially the fighter jets!!

As the child of 2 private pilots I have been to quite a few air shows. By far the best one was the weekend before they opened DIA. My parents plane is a 1953 cesna 180 - completly polished aluminum and absolutly gorgeous. My Dad was asked to put his plane on static display at that show. He is one of the few private planes to land at DIA ever. He was one of the first 10 to land. There was so many expensive military planes there that the national guard had to push the plane to its tie down by hand.

That first night, because I was working on the airport at the time and had a badge that allowed me access to most areas, I took my dad and uncle around. The guys who helped push the plane were very cool and told us that the B1 was being stored in the united hanger. That was the first time the B1 was on public display. I took my dad and uncle to the untied hanger and we got to get up close to it. 6 armed guards with M16's watching closely. That is one cool plane. And by far, that was the very best air show I have been to.

On the second day of the show my dad asked if I had any baricades because so many people were crawling around his plane leaning against it etc. I drive my work truck logo's and all, right up to the plane and parked it on the front line of the show -between it and the stealth bomber he was parked next to.

Amazing stuff.

I wish I could have gone last weekend, just to busy.

I have had some awesome military aircraft experiences as well.

Most recently I was involved in the sale of a pair of track mounted rock crushers to the US Air Force for use in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

First pic is an LT200HP which is a track mounted cone crusher.

Second one is an LT106 jaw crusher.

More details here. http://www.metso.com/miningandconstruct ... BA003DB92F

One of our field service techs, who is in Air National Guard Reserves, got to go to the Air Force base to help load them in the C5 Galaxy. He tried unsuccessfully to get permission from the company to travel with them for delivery.

The other experience was back in the day when I still lived in my hometown of Spokane, WA where each year they would have an air show at Fairchild Air Force Base. This is where the guy crashed the B52 bomber which everybody has probably seen the video of.

Anyway, the day before the air show the military (I assume Air Force, but not sure) were practicing for the show using a local municipal airport near my office. I could hear these two jets at full throttle and I was searching the sky for them but couldn't find them. Turns out they were Harrier jets which I didn't know anything about. Needless to say I was freaked out when I finally saw them coming out sideways from behind a building. I went down and watched them take off and land vertically and move around back and forth.

I was awestruck !

Its really hard to imagine an aircraft could haul something so massive and heavy. Then im sure if your next to one the pure perspective of the aircrafts size has to be mind blowing. How heavy are those crushers? I wonder how long it takes for the crew to calculate the location for balance of the A/C for the weight. I just learned a little bit about that this last week.

finished my first course with a 89% That is a major feat for me. I have never been so good with testing and schools. I have to apply the factors age and determination into the reasoning now.