In 2015, I realised one of my many aircraft spotting dreams, that of visiting the West Coast of the United States of America, home to world famous military aircraft exercises and military air bases. For two whole weeks, I travelled to various military air bases and took as many pictures as I could of United States Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy aircraft.
The highlight of the trip included the visit to Naval Air Station Fallon, Red Flag 2015-2, a visit to rainbow canyon, a visit to Davis Monthan AFB, a visit to Grand Canyon and a visit to NAF El Centro Airshow. Besides these venues and locations, we also visited other airports and air bases such as Luke Air Force Base, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport, Sacramento Mather Airport, Fresno Yosemite Airport, and Naval Air Station North Island.
The trip was very intensive, and we spent hours on the road from one location to another, however in the end we met our expectations as we managed to capture great shots in equally splendid weather. On with the pictures, these are some highlights of my trips across each air base.
Monday: Naval Air Station Fallon, home to US Navy’s Famous Top gun! We spent half a day at this fantastic air base, home to the training of the US Navy’s fighter pilots. Access to the ramp was amazing and we could get up close and take as many shots as we wanted of the various aircraft taxiing by prior to their mission. We were also lucky to witness a carrier wing of navy and marine F-18s present for training exercises, as well as a deployment of 8 F-16s from Luke AFB that came to train for some days with the US Navy. This was the first outing of the trip and also one of the highlights.
Tuesday: Fresno Yosemite Airport, home to California Air National Guard F-15C/D. We spent an afternoon at the approach of this airport and managed to capture 4 USAF F-15C CA ANG Eagles launching and returning back from their mission. In addition we also spotted a USAF Beach King air 350, as well as a US Army Blackhawk.
Wednesday: Rainbow Canyon/ Death Valley – Low Level Flying for Military Aircraft. We set out early in the morning to find a good spot and hope that some fast jets would come by this amazing world famous canyon where fighter jets practice low level military flying. After seeing so many nice photos on the internet of jets buzzing through the canyon, I was eagerly anticipating to try and capture some shots. To our great surprise, in one day we managed to capture a US Navy F-18E Super Hornet, 2 RAF Tornado GR4s and 1 USMC AV-8B from VX-31.
Thursday and Friday Nellis Air Force Base, home to Red Flag 2015-2. Red Flag is one of the most demanding and realistic air combat military exercise in the world, that prepares US air crew with valuable experience that they will eventually use in combat. The exercise attracts several foreign US allies and this year Norwegian vipers had travelled to the US to participate in this exercise. In addition, much to my joy, another exercise had initiated during the same week at Nellis i.e. Green Flag, which attracted UAE Air Force Mirage 2000s! Overall, I had a very enjoyable time capturing various takeoffs and landings of aircraft participating in these exercises, despite some challenging conditions such as runway changes and sharp turns for landing. However, it was another highlight of my trip to the states.
Saturday and Sunday were spent travelling to various museums and touristic locations, such as the world famous Grand Canyon and PIMA Air and Space Museum