Wings Over Houston

On Halloween I went to my first air show ever and loved it! I probably wasn't as excited as Derek but boy was it a good show. First of all it took us FOREVER to get there. The traffic was insano. It took us an hour to go a quarter of a mile. We could see some planes flying overhead from the air show and I could tell Derek was pretty ancy just sitting in the back seat of the car. Graciously, Justin and Kristen let us out so we could walk while they continued to wait in traffic. We finally arrived and Derek was like a little kid in a candy shop. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about planes. He even worked on the C17 at the Boeing Factory in Long Beach, CA. I think he was the most excited to see the C17.

We walked around a bit and looked at all the neat planes and helicopters. Then we settled down in our seats and watched the show! There were tons of planes flying and doing all sorts of tricks but I'll just highlight my favorites. They had a really neat reinactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor with Japanese planes and fake explosions. The radio broadcast from the attack was played over the loud speakers and it was very touching. It made me so grateful for our country and its resilience. I don't think this is actually the Japanese zeros but you can see the "bombs" going off.

One incredible plane we saw was the Harrier. I've never seen anything like it nor did I know it existed. This was an airplane but it acted just like a helicopter. It could take off straight up and land by coming straight down. The most impressive thing the Harrier did was hover in mid-air. It could just sit there in the air and turn around or go side to side. Incredible! I've attached a video so you can see for yourself. Derek explained to me that the plane has four huge jets that can change directions and is controlled by a highly trained pilot. That's about as technical as I can understand.



The next cool thing we saw was a trick plane. Apparently the pilot won the Red Bull Air Race in Budapest, Hungary. Don't worry, I had no idea what that was until a few weeks ago when Derek was watching it on tv. Pilots take these small planes and go through a series of obstacles and race for the fastest time. Anyways, Michael Goulian performed some way fun tricks for us. He would go up super high and then stall the plane and let it free-fall. Then he's start it up again and zoom back up in the sky. He also did back flips with his plane. He was seriously incredible and very entertaining to watch. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of him.

The last thing I'll write about was the main attraction: THE BLUE ANGELS!!! I'd never even heard of them until I met Derek. Everyone kept telling me how amazing they were and that my life would never be the same after seeing the Blue Angels fly. I have officially been converted to a Blue Angels fan. They did not disappoint! They did all sorts of cool formations and flybys. I couldn't believe how close they were to eachother, seriously inches apart. What precision and concentration! I was so impressed and truly felt proud to be an American.

That's all from me. I was kind of nervous to write my first blog because I'm not the best writer and I didn't want to make it boring. Derek is so talented at writing and capturing a story. Well, I'll leave you with a few more pictures from our exciting day at Ellington Field.

There was a wingwalker and she was marvelous. I can't believe how brave she was to stand on top of the plane while the pilot went upside down and basically all over the place. They were pretty rad to watch.



I thought this plane was really cool looking. It's called a guppy and carries spaceship parts for NASA.


Here's a picture of Derek and Justin by an F-4 Phantom.



And this picture is totally unrelated to the air show but it was taken of us at the mall while we waited for 3 hours to meet Chuck Norris. He was totally worth the wait! I'm sure Derek will write a blog about it sometime.