Say, Tuffy, hope you get a great grade on your paper. Let us all know.

Yesterday I spent all day at the Ft. Lauderdale Beach watching the Air and Sea Show featuring the Blue Angels and the Candian precision air team the Snow Birds.

Over a million people crowded (and I mean crowded) onto to the Ft. Lauderdale Beach to see the airshow which is flown over the ocean. The F-22 fighter (two of them) flew by and that was about it. A month ago at the Sun'N Fun air show at Lakeland, Florida the F-22 was doing all kinds of unbelievable things or manuevers I should say.

It was warm and sunny--a great day for an air show and the Blue Angels and Snow Birds were fantastic.

They usually come here every year, and do a shows over the San Francisco Bay.One year I stood out on the bluff next to the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge, the Blue Angels were flying right over our heads. They were so low and so close you could see their heads through the cockpit.

Anyway, at the end of the show, one of those guys flew right over our heads so fast and so close, it was so loud it just blasted us. The lens popped out of my glasses, and after searching for 1 hour, I never found it again. Yeaahhh.

I worked on the radar circuitry for the F-22 when I was at hughes Aircaraft Company. I always thought that it was going to be a great aircraft. The electronics are state of the art, for the '90s. They are always way behind the real state of the art. The vectoring thrust control was a big factor in the win over the alternative design. It can stand on its tail and roll over to acquire a target. Very handy in a dog fight. I used to have a model of the F-22 on my desk at work, the prototype in two-tone gray. Glad to see it is a successful airplane. I have seen the B-2 stealth bomber over head, but have not yet seen the f-22. Maybe later this year at the Miramar air show in San Diego. I work a mile from there.

Although they only had one in the air at Sun "N Fun, what it was doing was unbelievable. At that time I was not aware of the vectoring capabilities. I had seen the Jump Jet Harrier the year before and it was fantastic in what it could do.

While the F-22 was flying they also had a P-51 and F-15 in the air and I was distracted from seeing all of the antics of the F-22.

It was very disappointing that the two just made a fly-by at the Ft. Lauderdale Air and Sea Show and cut in their afterburners to soar into the sky and out of sight.

The B2 flew over on a slow pass. It is so awesome in its appearance and the Air Force officer announcing said that 7 people could stand up in the cock pit of the B2. Neat that you live so close to the Miramar facility.

I used to go to the Air and Water Show every year when I lived in Chicago. It was always a great time, seeing all those planes fly almost faster than the speed of light. One year I even watched it from the 14th floor of a skyscraper. What fun!! By the way biplane, I just sorted through my spam folder and found a note from you to give you a call. It's probably too late to call you tonight, so I'll call you tomorrow when I get home from work. By the way, my name is Lana, not Lynn. Talk to you soon!

Sorry about lmskipper. I knew that it was an "L" name. I wasn't sure if the email address was good or not. It is too bad that the new board doesn't have that capability to additionally communicate via email, or where the email addresses are posted. Do call me tomorrow.

14th Floor must have been awesome. On the beach there are so many people with so many of them having umbrellas, it was hard to see some of the lower level flying. But still enjoyed it very much.

In ’85 there was an air show over Renchler Field in Connecticut were an F14 attacked a Japanese Zero. That was something to see.