It’s been a while since we updated the website (and we still have a couple items “in the works”), but wanted to quick put up a few images from this weekends USAF Thunderbird flyover of Las Vegas in support of all the essential personnel fighting COVID-19 right now. We had a decent spot to view the whole thing – except the portion where they flew overhead because they were just north of our apartment and we only have a south-facing view! Oh well. We still managed some good shots below. Thanks for checking them out and be safe all.
The plan was for a 6-ship diamond formation, but shortly after takeoff Thunderbird 4 had a bird strike on his canopy and had to return to base. He landed safely without incident. The rest of the gang decided they should keep going so modified their formation to accommodate for the missing man.
The Thunderbirds turning back East as they’ve finished their flyover of Summerlin and are heading towards the strip. If you look closely you’ll see two additional F-16s flying along side the formation. I am not sure their exact role but if I were to guess, I’d say one of them was likely filming the action and the other was a “shot-caller” of sorts, passing critical information to the formation to keep everyone safe in this unprecedented flyover.
Here’s them passing beneath the precipice of The Strat, which according to Wikipedia is 1,149′ tall. It’s hard to describe how low that is to be flying! The only thing I can think of is imagine there’s a tunnel that’s 6 feet wide and 5 feet tall, and you’re supposed to drive a car that’s 5 feet wide and 4 feet tall through it, at 150 miles per hour! Haha no thanks but very impressive to see!
Thanks for reading.