Great show of course, my third here in 30 years. Highlights were the PACAF F22 demos. Pilot did a vertical tail down fall while spinning and a deliberate flat spin down to about 800' before bugging out. There were 2 up in the air and one on static display with an armed guard, all from my local squadron. 2 F-16 were also up, but they don't live here. They did demo some 6G maneuvers. The wife and I snapped for the Top Brass Chalet at the show centerline adjacent to the DIV tent and it was worth it when all 6 F-18A Super hornets came from behind us in delta formation at 300' and aimed their 12 engine asses at the crowd and accelerated out. We actually felt the heat, never mind the noise that bottomed out our eardrums The new P-8s that were supposed to be in the static display area were a no-show so that's a bummer. The hanger they use was actually open but empty. I wanted to quiz them about RIMPAC 2022, especially the Indian P8 that has a MAD, vs the US P8's that only have sonobuoys, and how the US P8's actually deploy stuff, and if they actually have the glide bomb version of the MK54 torpedo or the rumored A size sonobuoy deployed MAD equipped drone yet. Argument to be continued CapStar362! Got to go on the flight decks of various C-17's C-5M's, MV-22's, C20's, C-37's etc. The Best Old / New static Display Award goes to <pause, open envelope, drum roll> Hawaiian Airlines for parking a flyable 1929 Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker (NC251M) underneath an A330-200! It was one of the original planes that airline owned. I also mentioned the short HNL>NGF flight of the A332 elsewhere here. The Award for the most interesting conversation goes to General Atomics for the display of its MQ9B / N390MC / A483DF /BRDSWD33 (he bitched about the assigned callsign BROADSWORD) who did a lot of work during RIMPAC around the SINKEX's and sub-hunts. This is the SeaGuardian version they are trying to sell. You can see the video he shot on USG DVIDS channels. Moar Fuel, improved sensors, better radars, better EO imaging, upgraded targeting lasers for LGB's, better satcom links using only Iridiium as a failover / backup, and a SIGINT package too. He says he flew it out of PH on a beefy notebook with dual monitors with a latency of less that 6 seconds from command to response no matter link condition. His best comment " RIMPAC was billed as ships from 32 nations, I found the 33'rd and 4th (Russian and Chinese spy ships) before the USN did! Grain of salt of course. Runner up comment was from the pilor of the Marine MV22 squadron when I commented that the cockpit stunk of hydraulic oil when I sat down. His response: "fuel smells worse!". Excellent airshow.
