blues homecoming 2004

[kf4anm]

i had the opportunity ride down and see the blue angels homecoming show 2004 at the nas pensacola over the weekend. it was my biggest riding endeavor to date. i left indianapolis last wed and rode 500 miles solo to birmingham, layed over at my folks house (rain all day thurs) and finshed the last 300 to destin, fl with a friend from b-ham friday. we then made the 130 round trip back up to pensacola sat to see the show. sunday we left destin for the 300 back to birmingham, then yesterday i pushed the 500 back into indianapolis. with all the side stops and playing around i managed right at 1750 miles in 6 days. i must say my 83 gw ran like a champ. other than a weeping fork seal it gave me no trouble at all, and at times we were pushing hard on the freeway. i am using walmart supertech full synthetic 10w-30 and didn't use a drop with smooth shifting all the way. i have seen in the past that there are a few aircraft fans here, so below are a few pics of the blues in action along with a few others from the show. they were all taken with my new koday dx7490 5 megapixel digi cam. the sky was overcast so some may be a little dark. the blues flew there low show because of the deck. this was my 20th time to see them fly and it rocked every bit as the first. will add more pics in the next post.

[Materi]

Wow, what a trip. Thank you for posting the awesome pics. It is appearant that you have some pretty good epuipment. Isn't that a trip when Fat Albert lights the JATO bottles for the "jump-start". The C-130 really is quite an amazing craft in its' own right. Check out a film called the four horse-men if you can find it. It's about a C-130 demonstration team from the 60's, pretty neat.

Keith

[John]

You just gotta love them JATO bottles It's like horsepower in a can. Great pix too!

[UncleSpot]

I *KNOW* the XS11 is a fast bike, but,

....is it possible to mount some JATO bottles back on the sides of saddlebags?

[John]

JATOs on an XS? Hmmmm....

That would be one way for me to keep up with SWMBO's Damned FJ1100.
Any body remember a few years ago when some idiot strapped a JATO bottle to a 67 Impala? His car was found pancaked on the side of a cliff. He won the Dawin Award that year.

[TopCatGr58]

Yeah,

I remember that bit, have it on a Stupid News bit our local rock station does, and they put the best bits in there Charity Xmas CD they sell, hilarious story! Wish I had the word by word description at hand!! Something about they found the ignition point some 3 miles back from the cliff face, one mile of tire tracks where he tried to apply the brakes and essentially melted the tires off the rims for over a mile, and then the thing was airborne for the last mile or so, where the driver was essentially an insignificant occupant. They found shards of fingernails and teeth embedded in what they think was the steering wheel....all splattered into the rock face!

At least Wyle Coyote walks away from his disasters!!
T.C.

[Ken Talbot]

As you wish, TC, straight from the Urban Legends pages...

[kf4anm]

round #2

here are a few more

the f/n-18 super hornet hook down for carrier landing



the 3 jet turbine diesel truck



the salute to the usaf - f-16 falcon, a-10 warthog, and f-86 sabre



low and slow the a-10 warthog aka the thunderbolt



the big bad daddy f-14 tomcat

[dpotter58]

I live in Maryland near a Naval Air station and have also seen the Blues several times. I watched several years (pre 9-11) ago from the top of a water tower right next to the base. Saw about half the show before security showed up and "asked" me to come down. I was actually looking dow at the top of the planes. What a rush!!!When they went by, the whole tower shook.