This was my first visit to Nellis AFB and I decided to drive and then take the long way back home to do some sightseeing.

I arrived after a 10.5 hour drive just in time to catch the last hour of light – stopped at the speedway and took some shots and chatted to a couple of Dutch guys on a 3 week trip.

Checked in at the Super 8 and slept like a log – wonder why?

The next day, after picking up Larry from the airport, we went to the Cheyenne area and shot some of the arrivals and the aircraft flying normal operations during the day. This is a really busy airfield with something always going on, so I was one happy camper.

The highlight of the day for me was seeing the C131 land – I didn’t even know that there were any still flying!

The media day on Friday was sunny and very warm – I met up with loads of Fencecheckers, which is always great, as it’s nice to put faces to the names.

The highlight for today was capturing the F15 burner blowout – hundreds of cameras pointing in the same direction, but very few captured the event.

Saturday was so very cold – brrrr! It was also overcast and didn’t make for a very nice day from a photographic standpoint – I was glad that I packed a ski jacket!

In the evening Pierce had kindly organized a meal a few miles away at a casino buffet – nice one Pierce. Roger even pitched up for the day!

Sunday was a mixture of the last two days – sunny but a very cold wind. At the end of the day a couple of the aircraft made for quick departures as the show ended. It was nice to see the Kfir both land on Thursday and depart on Sunday.

I stayed and extra day for the departures and the morning was eerily quiet with local traffic – maybe they all had hangovers? Things got busier in the afternoon where Sagar and I just lounged around in chairs at the speedway.

All in all a very nicely organized show with lots of varied acts put on for our benefit.

Thanks to Captain Justin McVay and all the staff at the PAO and Chuck Ramey from the Aviation Nation Foundation for all their help and support. Roll on next year!