You know what I feel like I haven’t done in a while? Naval aviation. And the F-4 Phantom.
Why not a three-fer, since I also really haven’t given the Blue Angels any love here.
“Diamond in the Sky”, from the early 70s. The team used the F-4J Phantom II from 1969 to December of 1974.
Bonus video: from approximately the mid-1970s, “Portrait The Blue Angels”. It feels like there should be a colon in there, but there isn’t officially. They were flying the A-4F Skyhawk from December of 1974 up to November of 1986: the Skyhawk is what they were flying the one time (so far) I’ve seen them perform.
Woohoo! That was fun. I’ve always liked the F4 Phantom. I am certain they were flying those when I saw my first air show at Bergstrom Air Force Base, because that would have been my first opportunity to see them up close. That would have been Aero Fest, which Bergstrom started doing in conjunction with Aqua Fest starting in 1969. Thank you Wikipedia!
Decades later I would rediscover the fun of being personally on a runway and go get my own pilot’s license.
On a side note, while the music was fitting for both videos I thought the one on the older first video was really great! Very sixties and intrigue-y, then snazzy. The second video’s music was fitting like I said but had the feel at times of, well, a promotional video or 70s TV theme.
Also… this entry was Part 91 in the series.
‘Part 91’ is the part of the FAA Regs that covers General Aviation flying, under which I got my pilot’s license.