planes

The U.S. Navy's Blue Angels were flying this weekend at the Chicago Air & Water Show. I went to the beach on Saturday to watch, along with Tom, Brian, Bradley, and a host of other folks who were in town this weekend. For the uninitiated, here is what a Blue Angel looks like:


Naturally, I didn't take this picture, but you get the idea. The air show itself was pretty awesome. On Saturday morning I went for a run along the lake, and out of the fog rumbled a B-1B strategic bomber on its side, making a banked turn back to the North Ave beach. It's huge, and majestic, and it soared along for a while as I stopped and stared before it disappeared into the fog. To give you the scale of things, here's a B-1B. When it's banked and flying low, it's even more impressive--it's got a 137-foot wingspan when the wings aren't swept. And it's loud.


The airshow was great, but the preceding two days were even better, since the Angels were doing practice runs. I first became aware of this as I was walking back from the El after a meeting, and a solo F/A-18 flew directly overhead at near rooftop level with an absolutely terrific roar. I had no idea it was coming, but when it was gone I was smiling and giggling like a little boy. I used to go to airshows with my dad when I was younger, and during Fleet Week in San Francisco you can walk up the hill from my house and see them flying out of Moffett Field. Like most little boys, I had a thing for planes, and it resurfaces every once in a while. It sounds trite, but they fly so fast and are so impressive that one can't do anything but marvel.

The loft where I work is right near North Avenue, close to the beach, which is the focal point of the airshow. Since my coworker was traveling, I moved operations from the dining table to the desk near the window, where I could see the diamond and the two solos do their passes not far above the taller apartment buildings nearby. According to their website, Blue Angel maneuvers go from 15,000 feet all the way down to the 50-foot "sneak pass," so they were really down on the deck. During the air show, one of the solos did the sneak pass over the lake and flashed by so fast and so low that it was kicking up water--and of course, only when it was gone did you hear the tremendous BOOM! that followed.

Occasionally the flight pattern would take them right over the loft. I had all the windows open so I could hear and feel all of it, and the Angels delivered by shaking the windows, rattling glasses, and generally thrilling me to the core. I was in a happy mood all weekend.