Fleet week airshow - San Francisco
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 7:52 amI was lucky enough to be in San Francisco to catch the Fleet week airshow (well most of it anyway) that was conducted over the SFO harbour.
It was a clear, warm and sunny day with the usual marine fog layer over the Golden Gate Bridge. The F35 display was outstanding. It was quite a lengthy display and demonstrated the full range of it's manoeuvrability. This included slow speed high Alpha passes, vertical climbs, tight turns and high speed passes. The F35 does not have in-flight vectored thrust but very large control surfaces instead, however, it manoeuvred as if it did. The noise was incredible when max thrust was applied and it managed to set off most car alarms in the city several times.
Fat Albert and the Blue Angels did their respective routines. Although the formation flying was impressively tight, the routine itself was somewhat repetitive and disappointing.
Even United Airlines got in on the act with a B777 and did several low passes down the harbour, both clean and high speed as well as in the landing configuration. I'd loved to have given that a crack......
Unfortunately, I couldn't get any decent pictures as I was balancing precariously on top of one of those concrete median barrier blocks, in front of a wire fence that wouldn't have been too forgiving if I fell onto it. Plus, my phone camera just wouldn't have done it justice. Alcatraz island would have been the perfect viewing position.
A good afternoon that naturally required a lengthy discussion over a few beers at Fisherman's wharf.
It was a clear, warm and sunny day with the usual marine fog layer over the Golden Gate Bridge. The F35 display was outstanding. It was quite a lengthy display and demonstrated the full range of it's manoeuvrability. This included slow speed high Alpha passes, vertical climbs, tight turns and high speed passes. The F35 does not have in-flight vectored thrust but very large control surfaces instead, however, it manoeuvred as if it did. The noise was incredible when max thrust was applied and it managed to set off most car alarms in the city several times.
Fat Albert and the Blue Angels did their respective routines. Although the formation flying was impressively tight, the routine itself was somewhat repetitive and disappointing.
Even United Airlines got in on the act with a B777 and did several low passes down the harbour, both clean and high speed as well as in the landing configuration. I'd loved to have given that a crack......
Unfortunately, I couldn't get any decent pictures as I was balancing precariously on top of one of those concrete median barrier blocks, in front of a wire fence that wouldn't have been too forgiving if I fell onto it. Plus, my phone camera just wouldn't have done it justice. Alcatraz island would have been the perfect viewing position.
A good afternoon that naturally required a lengthy discussion over a few beers at Fisherman's wharf.
