In October a trip to the USA was made. The airshow at Edwards appealed to me, as it did to many other spotters. As Frank was not available I chose the „easy way“ this time, and joined the organised tour by 4Aviation. I travelled with them many times in the past, and again I was not disappointed at all. A very recommendable bunch! Here is the log of our trip.
As always everything in my log is actually read off unless between (brackets).
The problems with waiting lines for security at Schiphol are well known, therefor we had to report at the meeting point very early. Our flight to London went smooth and also the next flight to Los Angeles went without problems. Immigration went well and despite our fear of lost luggage (London Heathrow is infamous….) all suitcases showed up on the belt. When we were collecting our rental cars a C-17 arrived right over our heads.
Los Angeles IAP
(07-7169) C-17A 436 AW, 3 AS
We could only make out it had Dover markings, but thanks to ADS-B we got the serial. We still had some driving to do, but we wanted to take a quick look at Point Mugu on the way, even knowing it would be dark by the time we arrived.
NAS Point Mugu
C-130J, 115 AS: 01-1462, 02-1463/6, 05-1465/6, 05-1466, 06-1467/4
157259/XF-2 F-4S pr, VX-4 mks, marked as F-4J
158623 F-14A pr, VX-30 mks
A nice score for the time of the day. The two preserved aircraft were in the dark but were photographed using the headlights of our cars. Luckily at the Hercules platform some lights were on. And yes, two of them wore code 6.
It had been a very long and tiring day, but we safely made it to our hotel. I realise this is not much of a log yet, but see it as a teaser for things to come
That’s all folks!
Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation