The US Navy’s demonstration flight squadron, the Blue Angels, have a winter training ground just outside El Centro. Since January, they’ve been practicing for their series of air shows. That means we can see their trademark blue-and-yellow F-18s soaring overhead. We spent a few minutes watching them practice last month, and were excited for the official show. We’d seen them back in September at Miramar, but this time it would be only a few miles away!
As a bonus, part of our family decided to join us! Tara and Trent flew in from Salt Lake City, and Dave and Jeanele drove out from Phoenix. Our apartment isn’t big, but we made it work. This morning we headed out. It started with a picture on the flightline:
In the back are our friends Carlito and Margie, senior missionaries who drove out from San Diego. In a crazy coincidence, it turned out they knew Trent as a young man, something like thirty years ago!
Before the show we walked around the “static displays”, where we could climb into active-duty aircraft like this V-22 Osprey.
The Ospreys frequently fly overhead in El Centro, landing in a small airfield in Imperial just north of town to refuel before continuing on to San Diego or Yuma. We grabbed some food and settled in for the show. It’s really cool to see fighters zip overhead at transsonic speed, only a few hundred feet off the ground. Here’s an F-18 doing a flyby:
The final act of the day was the Blue Angels squadron, and as usual they didn’t disappoint. Their aerial discipline is impressive– the distance between wingtip and cockpit is less than two feet.
They also perform multiple head-to-head maneuvers, including one where all six of them come screaming in from different directions.
It was a long day, with plenty of sun, and by the time we walked off the base we were looking a little pink with sunburn.
But it was worth it! Good times with friends, family, and fighter jets.