Fleetweek

[Capt. Wanabe]

Last weekend I had the good fortune to zip over to San Francisco for Fleetweek. For those of you bay area folks that have not ventured out into the craziness of this military extravaganza you really ought to do it at least once. The first time I went was a couple of years ago. That was especially memorable because I was trying to keep everyone happy and keep my new boat from colliding with a zillion other adjacent boats--and do it in 5 knot currents and twenty knot winds. In spite of the conditions we had a great time so I vowed to go back next chance I got. It looked like it might happen this year but circumstances dealt me a cruel blow and I was not able to actually get out on the water. We went anyway but stayed ashore near the ferry building. We watched from the Pier 39 area of the SF wharf and were able to get some great photos that I couldn't have gotten from the water. I try not to think about the really great shots that you could ONLY get from the water. (Photos posted in gallery: gallery2.php?g2_itemId=29953) An especially nice surprise was catching one of our brothers from Alameda, Lido Deck, mixing it up with the big boys.

I realize this should have been posted two weeks ago so others would have gone but I am fairly lazy about getting things done on time so I guess there is next year.

Frank

 

[caveman88]

Great pic.

 

[RProffer]

Those are great photos Frank. Thanks for sharing.

 

[captain's cat]

Great pictures! Thank you! The weird looking plane in your 8261 shot is an Osprey (V-22) tilt rotor airplane. The Aegis Destroyer DDG 69 in 8068 is the USS Milius. I think the transport in 8531 is the Blue Angels gear transport plane.

Brings back memories of my time in 'frisco in 1966-67!

Charlie

 

[Capt. Wanabe]

Charlie,
Thanks so much for the information on the boats/aircraft. I had no clue what I was looking at besides, "Wow, that is really huge!", or "man, that was really fast", etc. Afterwards I was able to look up the carrier on the internet as well as the F-15 and F-18 which helped but I had no idea on how to get information on the others.

Frank

 

[Bruce Moore]

Wow! Love Fleetweek-8607 on the last page of the album. Nice shot.

Cheers,

Bruce

 

[captain's cat]

Frank, glad to help. Actually it's not a "carrier" although it carries planes (vertical takeoff type, it has no catapults for jets like the F-15/F-16/F-18 but it can carry a Harrier, an AV-8B, a jet that CAN take off/land vertically). It's an amphibious ship, LHA. Roughly the L stands for Landing, as in Amphibious Landing, the H for helicopters, the A for Amphibious. It has a 'well deck' in the stern and can "ballast down", actually sink about 10' into the water to let amphibious small guys in the well deck at the back which is about 50' wide and 400 or so feet long. That includes the Navy Hovercraft, the LCAC Landing Craft Air Cushion. The Navy is famous for abbreviations (as are all the services) but the Navy actually has what they call a DICNAVAB (Dictionary of Naval Abbreviations), which itself is abbreviated. :?

Charlie

 

[Nellie Too]

If you don't mind, I'll brag a little bit. My brother was the director of engineering on the V-22 in Philly in the late 80's early 90's.
Bob

 

[captain's cat]

It's a great aircraft Bob. The Navy and Marines love them! A few problems with some fly-by-wire stuff early on but all that seems to be behind them now. Hope they let them buy enough of them before something new comes along!

Charlie

 

[linedoctor]

Very nice pictures. I was in SF (my home town) visiting family during Fleet Week but had to leave on Saturday. I looked for Rangers but didn't see any. Maybe they were all out on Sunday.

I hate to admit it, and I know I'll take some heat, but the Blue Angels look much more impressive over the SF bay and the city than they do over Lake Washington here in Seattle. But then again I don't have to look so hard for a Ranger up here!