Follow-up to Helicopter from Los Angeles to Maskachusetts, Part 1…
We actually did this before landing in Tucson and enjoying Sonoran hot dogs at “EGC”… an orbit of Davis–Monthan Air Force Base. The military wasn’t doing any flying at 5 pm on a Friday afternoon, so I figured that the tower controller would either tell us to stay out or invite us to come in and do whatever we wanted. Instead, the controller approved one orbit of the famous boneyard. Why not two orbits? I should have summoned the courage to ask!
Here’s the part of the base that supports actively flying aircraft:
And then your choice of aircraft for any size family:
Note the A-10 Warthogs at bottom right if there is any need for domestic violence.
Here’s your fearful narrator enjoying the scene:
(Note the T-shirt from this year’s Sun ‘n Fun)
If you believe in “Peace, the old-fashioned way”… the B-1 bomber (sad about the reflection; it would have been better to land and take the door off and then take off again and yet better if Robinson would add a sliding photo window to the piston-powered machines that are now up to $750,000):
Not sure if this one is coming in or going out:
An overview…
And another wide image…
Tune in next time to see what we did about the following:
Cars may be the future toy, but Greenspun always smiles the most in an R-44. Would be interesting to compare the boneyard of today to the boneyard of decades past, as regards what the gubment can afford.
Wow, how many billions of dollars that all represent, loved the wide angle shots. Surprised Adobe’s AI hasn’t figured out how remove sun flare/ghosting yet, probably pretty close. Thanks again for these reports.
Even more interesting/unexpected: Davis–Monthan Air Force Base is smack-dab in the middle of Tuscon, not some remote isolated location. Its surrounded by residential housing, with houses literally a stone’s throw away from those aircraft.
Jealous – I did the ground tour before they ended them, but a helicopter tour would be great.