I got copilot seat, but was just passenger

The flight ended with the double/triple Wailua Falls close to the airport:

cool to see the parking lot I had just driven to a hour prior

And after that it was time to head back:

as you can tell, pretty localized weather

Thanks to Ralf for joining me, it was a lot more fun together

I was specifically excited to the the F22 again, my first time seeing it at fleet week:

As usual, some people came better equipped than me :)

The last bit we got lucky to see F35 demo:

Unfortunately after that, fog rolled in and weather went to shit:

too more planes flew

and fat albert was the last one to fly but by then the weather was too low for blue angels to perform

that's all, folks...

On the plus side, I have seen the blue angels many times, I was most excited by the F22 and F35 which did get to perform, so it was all good.

I joked that I would drive the rover and fly the helicopter, but of course, that's not how it works with a 8mn turnaround time for communications:

Control center:

They also have a rocky area they can do real world tests on:

It was an awesome tour, definitely worth it, thank you :)

I remembered how much of a clusterfudge it was to drive there and park last time, so I didn't try too hard to get closeby parking, and after picking up Ralf who was happy to join me for the show, parked fairly far from the waterfront, but with the bikes, it was a quick enough ride, even if I was kind of loaded with the big foldable chairs :)

this time went directly for an advance front row seat

cookies help :)

nice water cops came to chase the jetskis that weren't bothering anyone, yeah to silly laws

we were in time for the show this time

good climb power without passengers :)

pelicans tried to compete :)

that's some low flying

the middle plane is facing the wrong way :)

more competition :)

And finally came time for the F35-B Demo:

slowing down for hover

Then it went back into forward flight:

More planes and demos:

Last, but not least, the thunderbirds came back:

oh noes, two of them are out of order :)

Nice show overall, even if quite similar to the one 2 years ago, weather was perfect (not so much the day after), glad I was able to go despite the crappy SF traffic and parking. Thanks to Ralf for joining me.

Flying to BM this year was a bit tricky since the plane I've been renting in past years, was not available and no other planes were available. I ended up finding Juan who was interested in flying to BM, as well as potentially attending in the future.

The Comanche is an interesting retract plane. It doesn't have as much power as a C182, but being retract it's fairly fast, and had decent payload. It is a bit challenging to fly though, given that its controls are not what most pilots are used to, including a hand brake instead of foot brake. That was not an issue for Juan though :)

pyramid lake

Arrived at BM before long, not a huge line of cars, which was unexpected:

ticket chek and vehicle check

We did 2 circles around the city with pictures:

center camp

the bee man

temple

gas station for art cars and official vehicles

edge of 10 & K

line of art cars getting their DMV credentials

Shots of the Airport:

flying around razorback before joining downwind

nice control tower

great to see my friends at the airport, and thanks for helping run the show

The departure was tricky since most of burning man was delayed by 2 days due to the big rain storm. Runway opened monday, but too late for my friend to come and fly back that same day, so we left on tuesday, after the delayed burn. Seeing the cars drive out was interesting, there were 2 paths across a somewhat wet spot that was left over a river that got created and blocked off the road:

this was the literally river that was blocking the road but by monday, had dried off enough by the exit point

The city itself was a bit sparse by tuesday, understandably:

temple was still there and meant to burn tuesday night

not too many planes left by tuesday

Uneventful flight home:

safe and sound in Palo Alto

After SFO, on to SF:

Finishing up with Alcatraz, Golden Gate, and the Coast:

Half moon bay:

back to PAO

2007

2017

2022/03

The boneyard was still there of course:

2023/04

First time landing there:

FOG members had a good time in the FBO Million air:

golf, even :)

obligatory group picture

Then it was my group turn's for the van tour of the grounds (it's big). During the tour, I found out that indeed part of the airport is used for scrap, planes that exceeded their safe design limits, and that can be used for spare parts, or recycling of the metal. There are also boeing planes that are being parked there until they can find a new customer (planes that were ordered during covid and then the orders cancelled).

so long Victorvile, it was a very cool visit, thank you to Million Air for the private tour.

that was more than 20mn into my walk in, at least by then I was in the base and going towards the visitor entrance

The flight line and displays were interesting:

first time I see a B1 outside of a museum

cool to still see snow in the background

It was definitely warm and sunny, thankfully I found a tent to hide in :)

The airshow was quite good, here are some pictures:

had never seen a B1 fly before

So happy to see a F35 fly for the first time, both an F35B (vtol) and F35C:

short field takeoff

Nice to see this performer again with precision flying, including landing on the top of a van:

And the show ended with the thunderbirds:

All in all, a good show, nice to see some planes I had never seen outside or in flight