USA IV 2023
For the first time in a couple of years, a 4Aviation tour to Texas was scheduled to visit as many training bases as possible. These are not the aircraft that normally get the most attention, but we think otherwise.
Texas and neighbouring Oklahoma have several Air Force and Navy bases that are well worth a visit. Moreover, the next few years will see the retirement of the Beechcraft T-1A Jayhawk and Northrop T-38C Talon, and the Navy is already considering a successor to the BAE/McDonnell Douglas T-45C Goshawk. We got dozens of these aircraft in front of our lens in fantastic fashion during the week of our visit. Below is the report of this enjoyable trip.
On Thursday, 4 May 2023, the six participants of this tour arrived at Schiphol Airport well in time for the start of the tour. Unfortunately, the airline had pushed us back a flight so we would now arrive in Washington late instead of relaxed in the afternoon. The flight to London was also late and with a little bit of rushing we managed to catch our onward flight.
Washington – but you were going to Texas, right? That’s right, we heard there was an air show at Langley AFB and our tickets allowed us to fit that in quite nicely. The participants were flexible so we left for the US a day early.
Arriving in Washington, it went smoothly through customs, picking up the car, driving for a bit and checking into the hotel. You are always on the road for some time for such a trip anyway, but it would be more than worth it.
It is already Friday 5 May 2023 when we set off early for NAS Oceana. Our plan is to read a few numbers here early and then enjoy the flight movements. The latter start slowly, besides, the wind is not ideal and we have to find a spot on the west side of the base. This works out very well and we are still able to note over 60 aircraft of which about 20 passed our lenses. Highlights were certainly the, unfortunately unmarked, C295W and several CAG Hornets.
At the end of the day we took a look at NAS Norfolk, where it was already very quiet apart from a single MH-60 flight. On the way back to the hotel, a quick visit to the beautiful Hampton Air Power Park where we were free to take pictures and the Newport News airfield where several ATAC aircraft are parked and a navy C-37B looks nice on the civilian apron.
On Saturday 6 May 2023, we are up early again because it’s airshow day! Transport to the base is by shuttle buses and this goes very smoothly. We arrive at the base early and are able to take good pictures of many aircraft on the static. Usually at a US show, these are without fences and the public can get very close by. Many stationed aircraft have been deployed to Europe and Alaska, among others, at the time of our visit, yet many uniquely black T-38As and F-22s can still be seen. The air show is not big, but nice to photograph with the sun at our backs and a taxiway in front of the audience.
After the show, we drive north again towards Washington for our flight to Texas. We stop briefly at Richmond where we see eighteen Blackhawks and a T-28 and T-45 that we can photograph.
Sunday 7 May 2023 we are up early again because our flight to Dallas leaves the runway as early as 07:05. Just before 09:00 local Texan time we arrive in Dallas where we pick up another minivan and immediately set course for one of those beautiful weekend airfields; Fort Worth – Alliance Airport, where we find two KC-135s, a T-1A and five T-38Cs, some of which will also fly. Via Waco, we descend further south. Here we are surprised by several sneaky MC-12Ws and Hercules as well as half a dozen former Jordanian Air Force Mirage F1s in temporary storage. Some of these we can properly capture. Next up is Austin Bergstrom where we encounter four Texas Guard C-130Js. Final destination for today is Corpus Christi and at the local civilian field we see two more T-6As from Vance AFB.
Monday morning, 8 May 2023, we start at NAS Corpus Christi where a lot of flying will be done by the T-6Bs and T-44A training aircraft. The Navy has already designated a replacement for the latter too, all the more reason to spend time here. Around noon, we move a little west for a base visit to NAS Kingsville. The Public Affairs person leisurely shows us all the T-45C training aircraft present at the base. So a few hours later, we drive off the base again with over 70 aircraft, most of them digitally captured. Via the Coast Guard at the civilian field, we drive a few hours north to San Antonio.
Also this Tuesday, 9 May 2023, it is not a far drive to the base, Randolph AFB in this case. We always try to pick hotels close to the next destination so we can have a nice dinner and drinks in the evening before and get to the destination quickly the next day. The weather does not look great for this day, it is quite cloudy. Randolph has two runways and we start at the eastern runway where the T-1As and T-38Cs always operate. We can capture quite a few before it starts raining. It does not look like it will stop for the time being, but at Lackland AFB, a little to the west, it still seems dry and that is where we go. On the flightline, we see, among others, a Mexican C-27J and C-130K-30, which we can capture well, as well as a few F-16s and other types, before all hell breaks loose here too.
We now have some choices to make, as the weather for the next few days does not look good for the planned route.
Originally, we would have chosen NAS Fort Worth on this Wednesday 10 May 2023, but the weather in this area has been bad all week and both a good number of Reserve F-16s and Marine F/A-18s were not at home. We will try our luck this early morning at Dyess AFB, home of the B-1B and C-130J. There are plenty at home, but no activity on the ramps. We had originally scheduled to visit Sheppard AFB on Thursday, we decide to leave earlier today and have a great afternoon at this training base. The T-6s and T-38s fly continuously and by the end of the day we have digitally captured over 50 aircraft with a beautiful sunshine, what a day!!!
Thursday, 11 May 2023 We start back at Sheppard, but the bad weather has followed us and after a few hours all hell really breaks loose. We head to the Walmart to take shelter from the heavy rain. At NAS Fort Worth, the weather is still bad so we pick up just one more state, Oklahoma. We escape the bad weather and arrive at Altus AFB in bright sunshine. This is the training base for large aircraft, such as the C-17, KC-46 and KC-135. We were a little worried that this would be very quiet, few flight movements, but how wrong we were. From the moment we arrived a continuously a number of aircraft were in approach, on the ground manoeuvring, touch & goes, plenty of movement all around! Both in the landing and on the side you can stand very nicely. Almost half of the 30 aircraft we saw were fantastically photographed!
Via a few small airfields we drove towards Oklahoma City where tornado warnings came through on the radio, fortunately they were far away from us.
Friday 12 May 2023 Again early to get to work to read a ‘few’ numbers at Vance AFB, another training base with T-1A, T-6A and T-38C, it still took a bit more time to list the 150 aircraft. Despite one of the three runways being under maintenance there was continuous flying and the beauty of Vance is that you can be somewhere very good at any time of day! You catch the aircraft in the air or taxiing on the ground, many possibilities. At the end of the day, we had a quick look at Enid’s small civilian field, where we came across a number of T-1As on the ground and a few coming in as well. These we were all able to photograph top notch. Another little surprise was the hangar that was opened for us containing a very cool B-26B. To end the day, we drove past Oklahoma City Will Rogers where half a dozen MC-12Ws were outside, unfortunately not photographable.
Saturday 13 May 2023 is already the last day of the tour and we start it with some Wreck & Relic locations in Oklahoma City followed by a look at Tinker AFB. Here we see several aircraft and are able to photograph a cool National Guard KC-46A in variegated colours. Via several more museums and collections along the way, we end up back at Fort Worth Alliance where there are now three KC-135s and about four T-6As taxiing in, a nice end to a cool tour.
The return flight went smoothly and we all arrived back in the Netherlands on Sunday.
