JBLM Air Show 2012

I never had really thought about going to an Air Show with the kids but yesterday Carlie and I saw some of the planes and she was excited.

So, Rob and I talked about it for quite awhile and decided, let's go for it.  We read lots of Facebook about the traffic and the mess but we also read that they were going to open early at 7:30am.  So, this morning, Rob woke us up bright and early and we headed off to the base.  We arrived a bit early and were sent right back off base but that was OK.  After getting lost on base because they had not set up the people giving directions, we finally found our way out to the air fields.  The kids were so excited. 

We got down there and were part of the first row of cars parked.  It was cold and gray for a July day.  Much better then too hot though.  This plane is a C-17.  We went in quite a few C-17's.  This one was delivered to the base 3 days ago.

Snow Bird from the Canadian Air Force.

The inside of a C-17.

Peter was quite comfy.

First time flying a plane.  He got to do this many times.  All of the pilots and air crews were so sweet and were more then willing to answer questions.  The first pilot looked at Peter and said that he remembers his first time being in the seat at Peter's age and time sure has flown for him to do his dream.

This was an older plane.  Look at the difference of the seats.

B-1b Bomber

Nanchang CJ-6A

B-17G

AF Thunderbirds

Peter loved learning how the Chinook seatbelts worked.  You twist the center and it releases.

The Patriots are the ones that we had seen the day before.

Duct tape works well to keep people from dropping out doors.

The kids were really getting into going into planes.

Carlie finally climbed into the pilot seat.  She was scared of all of the ladders that it took to get up to the cockpit before this.  After this, she was willing to climb every ladder and set of stairs to get to a plane that she could find.

C-17

Helicopter pilot.

Seatbelt obsessed.

Transporter

Dispatching assistance.

Time to leave, it is getting too loud for us.  The F-18 was quite loud taking off.

 

We headed out at about 10:30.  We were all tired but quite happy about what we had seen for the day.  The kids loved climbing around the planes and trying their hand at being the pilot.  We will see when we are ready to stay for the full day.  JBLM did have some great online coverage of the show and we watched it as we could hear the jets from our house while they were zipping around.