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This weekend, I went to Andrews Air Force Base to the Joint Services Open House to watch the airshow. I originally went on Saturday but my Dad and I weren’t able to get in because apparently the shuttle buses to AAFB stopped running abruptly at 2pm. No one was notified of this and their website said nothing about it, so that was disappointing.

Instead, we went to a shopping center to watch The Blue Angels fly. They were amazing from the shopping center and we decided to come back today to actually get on the base to see the show up close and personal. We arrived around 1:30pm and saw a Harrier jet in the distance while were on the base but still sitting on the bus. The jet was showing off for the crowd and was “flying” still in the air. It wasn’t moving forward or backward. It was a pretty amazing jet. Then the pilot decided to put the Harrier in reverse and fly backwards for a bit. Then he came back to a stand still, hovering in the air followed by a 360 degree stationary turn. It’s something you’d have to see it person to appreciate the coolness of it all.

Once we got off the bus, we walked around the base for a bit to look at all of the grounded planes. The first one we saw was the Stealth Bomber which as pretty amazing up close. Then we walked around a bit more and saw the Presidential helicopters as well as a U-2 Spy Plane, which was a really cool sight up close, too. There were a few more helicopters and cargo planes around, as well as WWII planes. All of the planes were still in amazing condition and really neat to actually be able to touch a part of history.

Then we started to watch part of the ongoing airshow. There was an F4, an F15E Strike Eagle, and a P-51 flying in formation for a bit. It was all part of The Heritage Flight. Then the F4, I believe, decided to race a jet car and it was a really close race but still fun to watch. The pilot of the F4 even flew upside down for the entire race just to have fun and amaze the crowd.

Finally, that lead into The Blue Angels show. It all started off with Fat Albert, the C-130 maintenance plane which has apparently started every show since 1970. It’s a C-130 cargo plane that uses JATO, jet assisted take-off. It has 8 jets total, 4 on each side of the plane. It was really neat to watch a C-130 take off in such a short distance and also be able to land in such a short distance. Then the 6 plane Blue Angels took off and put on an amazing show, doing all kinds of acrobatic stunts in their F/A-18 Hornets. Overall, it was an amazing show and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who likes to watch planes, or even has an interest in it.

I took a few pictures, some of which turned out blurry (hey, it’s hard catching a plane going 400 mph in frame and clear at that!). Check out the pictures from the Joint Services Open House!