Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Blue angels and Thunderbirds

Just got to watch the blue Angels and the Thunderbirds fly down to East River Manhattan, great site and great sounds. That’s a rarity Getting to see them fly together.

Daughter saw them fly over Stony Brook,Long Island,N.Y. bout an hour ago.

Some of the best recruiting tools ever invented. Super shows if one can see them perform at an airbase where then can put the show near ground level down the runways. Last saw them in Louisville Kentucky where they had to stay above 600 ft. Not near as impressive.

The best place to watch the Blues is on the beach at there home base in Pensacola.

Best of all is probably practice sessions when your old man is a fighter pilot and you are on the ramp listening to the team channel on the radio. At the time, the Thunderbirds were flying Phantoms. Number Four, of course, had the sooty vertical stabilizer. It was dirty then, later that year (early 1970s) at Great Falls, the tail was darn near black and you could barely read the number.

I spent six months at NAS Pensacola in 68. It was a frequent thing to watch them. My son was there almost 30 years later....one of those common experiences we've had across the generations.

They are great to watch, saw them years ago!

When I was a kid we could watch the T-birds practice over Vegas frequently; not so anymore.

Have retired Air Force neighbor who says one of the factors that contributed to the F4 retirement was that they burned dirty and were easy to visually detect. In my mind one of the most savage looking planes to ever fly.

I too recall a mention of frequent repainting for that vertical stabilizer.

Japan just retired The F-4 Phantom last month, pretty mazing.We retired them in 96, They retired them of drone duty about five years ago kind of sad used to shoot them out of the sky for practice. They had over 160 kills in Vietnam, the Israelis loved them. I think Greece and turkey still fly them, with modern upgrades I’m sure they are a formidable aircraft.Long live the Phantom

Iran still flys them too