Another Weekend of R&R

The Northwest Mission Aviation Fly-In was a large success, but I am regretful that I didn't get any pictures of the event to share with you. We arrived Friday evening and stayed until Saturday evening, enjoying the seminars and meeting lots of new people from the mission community. In addition, I also got to log 2.3 hours of free flight time giving rides to prospective young mission aviators. I got to give them a real taste of what it's like to perform short field takeoffs and landings, and for some of them, it was their very first flight in an airplane! We returned to Vancouver Saturday evening in order to attend the Hillsboro Airshow, hosted right at the airport where I work.

The Navy's Blue Angels demonstration team gave a spectacular performance (as always), dazzling the crowd with precision and perfectly timed maneuvers that require years of practice to perform safely. Here they are performing one of their maneuvers. What a spectacular show!!

An F-117A "NightHawk" also showed up and performed a couple fly-by's. This $45 million dollar aircraft is unique not only in its strike capabilities, but also in its design. Not a single rounded surface exists on the aircraft, making it practically invisible to enemy RADAR. It is equipped with laser-guided weapons and can destroy enemy targets from hundreds of miles away.