USA 2016
Report of a group visit to a couple of the western states (Arizona, Nevada and a brief stay in California) of the USA in February and March 2016.
The first 4Aviation USA tour in 2016 was scheduled to begin on Sunday, 28 February, and so it happened. Unfortunately three people had cancelled due to personal circumstances. The thirteen other participants from Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom, were prepared for a beautiful journey through a part of the western US, Nevada, Arizona and a small part of California. Nine men were waiting at Schiphol airport at the agreed time for the short flight to London-Heathrow and were joined there by an English couple. A giant Airbus A380 transported us to San Francisco where we met our two German participants. At Hertz car hire, three minivans were picked up for the four hours trip to the hotel in Reno (Nevada), before we started the first night in a hotel.
Monday 29 February we got up early for one of the highlights of the trip, a visit to NAS Fallon (Nevada). Topgun calls this base home and we always try to visit when we are ‘in the area’. Our point of contact exactly knows what we want and almost always willing to receive guests. The visit began with a slow walk on the ramps, systematically from right to left and row by row. We saw almost all versions of the F/A-18s EA-18s, E-2, F-5s, F-16 and HH-60 in all colours of the based units, plus a good number of visiting F/A-18s (including a unit from NAS Atsugi in Japan). During the flying operations we were positioned along the taxiway and the aircraft took their time to be photographed. The weather was perfect and the possibilities endless. After that we visited the base museum and photographed the gate guards. With a big smile we got in our vans for the trip to Beatty (Nevada), where we spent our second night.
Tuesday 1 March we were looking for our seats in the vans again before the start of a very quiet but exciting day. After the many movements of the day before we now went to the top of a mountain in ‘the middle of nowhere’; Rainbow Canyon also known as the Jedi Transition. This is a valley in Death Valley where jets regularly fly through low and hard. You never know what to expect, it is really just wait and see. But the location you are at is breath-taking, the views are amazing and it is extremely quiet. Visiting us today were two F/A-18Es of NAS Lemoore an EA-18G of NAWS China Lake and an F-16D from Edwards AFB. Not a lot, but very cool. In the late afternoon our little convoy headed for Las Vegas (Nevada) for the next two nights.
On Wednesday (2 March) a small team left the hotel very early for spotting the tail numbers of the aircraft on the several ramps of Nellis AFB. The rest of the group came a bit later to find a place in the take-off/approach. During our stay an afternoon and evening Red Flag mission was flown. In the morning it was therefore fairly quiet. Moreover the runway was changed several times so it was hard to get at the right spot all the time. Fortunately, the large Red Flag 16-2 recovery came in rather nice over ‘the Speedway approach’.
On Thursday 3 March they was not flying well at Nellis AFB in the morning. Moreover, we still had a long drive ahead of us to Yuma (Arizona). So we left for the south early in the afternoon. At the airport of Laughlin-Bullhead (Arizona), a stop was made. For the second year in a row a detachment of Training Wing 4 of NAS Corpus Christi (Texas) was operating from here with nearly 30 T-6 trainers. There are a lot nice position from outside the airport to shoot pictures and part of the group also received permission to walk around on the platform. A very nice experience. The drive to Yuma was long and boring, but we arrived safely at our hotel which was only a few minutes from the Marine Corps Air Station.
On Friday (4 March) we were back on the road in time again. The plan was to check the civil part of Yuma first, but that was changed quickly when we noted four F-5s and four F-35Bs taking off. We positioned ourselves in the approach quickly and captured most, some F-5s were turning in short, on our digital cameras. After several hours, some of the group wanted to try their luck at NAS El Centro (California). This is an hour’s drive from Yuma. Once there, the Blue Angels appeared to be doing a demo. This team is always stationed here in the winter months to practice their display for the new season. After their landing nothing else happened, so we went back to Yuma. On arrival we saw a few AV-8B in the circuit and later on an Osprey. Then it was also the weekend for the Marines. We continued to Tucson (Arizona), where we would stay for three nights with a busy schedule ahead of us.
The first weekend of the month is a drill weekend for the Air National Guard in Arizona. Meaning the unit should be active this Saturday (5 March). About thirty F-16s, including Iraqi and Dutch aircraft, flew a lot during the day. There were also some visiting VMFA (AW)-225 F/A-18Ds which was very tasty. At the nearby Davis Monthan AFB we saw the Heritage Flight doing their thing. Herein, the US Air Force trains formation flying between contemporary and older aircraft. These are present during the various open days throughout the year. All in all not bad for a Saturday
On Sunday 6 March we did almost the same as on Saturday, only there was not much activity at Tucson. Therefore, a visit to Davis Monthan followed for the F-22, F-35, and various warbirds (including F-86, P-38, P-40 and P-51). These days most on the group also visited the great Pima museum. The day ended with a ride and walk along the fences of the impressive AMARG area.
On Monday (7 March) we first drove to the, unfortunately silent, Tucson. Then on to the Pima museum to ensure seats for the bus that makes the AMARG tour. The bus tour was slightly different to previous years as the gate to AMARG was closed due to budget cuts. The bus now went through the main gate, so we also drove past the beautiful collection there. Some people had planned to make an afternoon flight over AMARG while the rest would be in the approach of Davis Monthan AFB. But unfortunately not much was happening there. We are flexible and adapted the plan. Two cars went northward to spend several hours at Luke AFB. Plenty of F-16 and F-35s flew there. Four other participants made their flight of about an hour over AMARG and went to the hotel for that night via Avra Valley and Marana.
March 8, Tuesday was already the last day of the tour. It was only a fifteen minute drive from the hotel to Luke AFB and we would spend the whole day there. The traffic was a little slow at first, but then there was a constant stream of local F-16s and F-35s, as well as visiting F-16s from various National Guard units as well as a quartet of T-38s from Columbus AFB. At 17 o’clock the last fighter landed and we went to the international airport in Phoenix for our flight home. We said goodbye to our two German friends who were going to stay in the States for a few more days. The rest boarded an old Boeing 747 for the flight to London-Heathrow. There we had to wait only a little while for the last hop to Amsterdam where we arrived late Wednesday afternoon. The group enjoyed ten beautiful days in the US. We drove about 3200 kilometres through three different states. Temperatures at night close to the freezing point to almost 30 degrees Celsius during the day. Seen a lot, enjoyed a lot, on the next tour!
