Young American Day

Yesterday, we traversed to the Portland Military Air Base right next door to PDX (our local airport), for "Young American Day", where families and friends of those in the armed forces can come and check out some sweet aircraft. DH works with a man who's in the service, and he invited us. It was a BLAST. Literally.

First, we got to see 6 (count them, 1-2-3-4-5-6) gate climbs. Six different pilots took up six F-15 Eagles (not at the same time, but at different times of the day). A gate climb is where the plane takes off at full augmentation (akin to the afterburner), hugs the ground while they pass the crowd, then rocket STRAIGHT UP into the air. We're talkin' vertical here, folks. It was fricken' AWESOME. And loud. But I love the rumbly feeling inside when the jets streak by. Here's some pictures my hubby snapped of one of the gate climbs. Very impressive these pics weren't a blurry mess, since these planes were bookin' FAST.



Here he comes!~*~

Good Gawd, that's loud! (but SWEET!!!)

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There he goes!
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Keep in mind we saw SIX of these. :P It NEVER gets old, folks, I'm sorry. The power of these planes will never cease to amaze me.

The cool thing was they had an F-15 on the ground and you could sit in it. (Well, not me or DH because they don't make F-15's in Super Size lol) but the kidlets got to sit in it. Very sweet. We did, however, get a picture of us under the wing right next to the landing gear. Can't see much of the plane in this pic, but I think it's a good one of my family.



I think my son enjoyed the Blackhawk helicopters they had better than the F-15, as he keeps saying he wants to be a helicopter pilot when he grows up. The kids got to sit in a Blackhawk as well, the Oregon Coast Guard Rescue Chopper. :P Too cool. Unfortunately, it was cold, windy, and rainy this day, and we'd only brought light jackets, so we didn't stay too long. But we had fun none the less.

Oh, and one more thing, lest you forget who's kicking your ass:



:D

~~Becka