The guys said the water here is pretty yucky. I’ll trust them on that. It looked unpleasant on a particularly cold winter day, but on my end this was a welcome (if short) break in the middle of two weeks at Daytona. Once the sun went down the play between the water streaming off the flippers and the searchlight on the helicopter each time the rescue swimmers lifted from the river was something I could have watched for hours. Thanks HSM-48 for letting me take a look at your hoist training. Crazy job these folk do @vipersleadtheway
It’s a weird thing to be totally distanced from the power of something, yet still feel it in a different way. The scale of the dust clouds these C17s kick up was always intriguing to me, and that’s what I wanted to show. Backing up a few miles was the name of the game. Scale is important. A lot of things had to play out in my favor for this to work. Light and wind direction among the most the important. A gallon of water and a couple apples probably wasn’t the most ideal move but oh well. A chair would have been primo, but the desert can be a bed if you want it to be. It was a LONG wait, but watching the silt cloud expanding in near silence was surreal. #c17 #usaf #airforce
Small town pizza and lemonade made up for some of the yuckiest car camping weather I’ve had. Solitude. The buzz of a million gnat swarm gave way to the SLOWLY approaching whistle of a couple of rear mounted turbofan engines. I won’t argue with the wildfire smoke either. A solid few days last summer. #a10 #a10warthog
I went to school close to here. Maybe an hour. Over four and a bit years I think I came here maybe once to help a friend move some cars, unrelated to the airfield. Most of my free time then was spent at any race track I could myself get to. It’s a bit of a bummer now that I live a million miles away, but those years were directly responsible for what I get to do for work now so I have no regret. I don’t get as much opportunity to return home as I want. If I do, it’s typically in the winter when the weather is straight doodoo. This night, the last of 2025, was something else. Colder and more humid than I bargained for lead to the most incredible ground level fog. The wingtip vapor trails dancing and curling in the mist, all under the watchful eye of Mt. Rainier in the distance, was in a way extremely peaceful…but also not. Seeing others gathered watching too was very meaningful to me. As the last jet left and the lights were shut off, the fog completely enveloped area. I wish it didn’t end. Thank you, WA. #pnw #washington #navy #aviation
You’re gonna do what?? That was my response when @doitforbmoore explained this truly unbelievable day of helicopter and trophy truck stuff earlier this summer with @terribleherbstmotorsports . Thanks for having me along. Check out the video on their YouTube channel. 🚁
